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Michael Goff

Suspended
Jul 5, 2012
13,329
7,421
Since everybody seems to think it's "good for him to go", I'm sure everyone here has a choice for the next CEO in mind (a real one).
 

Ryth

macrumors 68000
Apr 21, 2011
1,591
157
What I took away from that interview was that, he expected the iPhone to be a flop due to the lack of keyboard, and in his opinion, not designed with business in mind as well as the high price. As we saw, Apple did adjust the price within 6 months or so and it became a hit.

Ballmer, IMO, though it's not his style, should have taken a more conservative, humble approach to the new product and go for a wait and see approach in his commentary and talk about more about what Microsoft was doing and going to do.

I don't care a lot for companies bashing the other guy's stuff in order to make theirs look better. I prefer a company to tell me what their stuff does and why they think it's the best.

Ballmer just doesn't understand the user base, which is average people. His company was built around engineer/nerd types why Apple combined those types with designers/usability people. I see it all the time with engineers I work with. Their brains do not work like others (obviously). They don't understand usability at all.

In fact, the Sony CEO years ago actually said something at a press conference about this and their decline in products. He said that Sony had to stop listening to their engineers and going with their views on what is 'cool' or 'game changing' because their views are not the rest of the general publics views on things. What is 'cool' to an engineer is not cool to 90% out there.

He bashed the iPhone and then the iPad...saying both would never get market share. He's still stuck in a past PC world where he doesn't understand any device that can do what you need it to do that is a computer IS a PC. The iPhone is a PC, the iPad is a PC and so on.

He also doesn't understand that MS is a software company. Office should have been made for the iPad and should have been out ages ago. They lost a huge chance to make hundreds of millions there.

He also doesn't understand that they needed to make the hardware move ages ago. With all their treasure troves of cash, they should have become a hardware company and built their own PCs and Laptops and CONTROLLED the user experience and made 1 line of sleek desktops, 1 line of laptops and 1 line of power desktops. It worked for another company. They missed the boat on that also.

He's just clueless and many, including myself as a stock holder are really happy.

Now, can we get OFFICE on iOS please?!?!?!

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Since everybody seems to think it's "good for him to go", I'm sure everyone here has a choice for the next CEO in mind (a real one).

Maybe they'll hire Scott Forstall. ;)
 

Technarchy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2012
6,753
4,927
Microsoft has been operating in a very confused and disjointed fashion for awhile now.

They are a software company, yet have no real software push on the two largest mobile platforms. That's a massive failure of leveraging brand and resources.

There is no synergy between software, desktop, gaming and mobile ambitions so there is no ecosystem to the extent of Apple with iOS and OSX.

No real answer to the post PC era has materialized while PC sales have plummeted

Why too comfy and reliant on enterprise.

Allowing Google to basically control the cloud services sector with no answer our real challenge even.
 

Ryth

macrumors 68000
Apr 21, 2011
1,591
157
Microsoft has been operating in a very confused and disjointed fashion for awhile now.

They are a software company, yet have no real software push on the two largest mobile platforms. That's a massive failure of leveraging brand and resources.

There is no synergy between software, desktop, gaming and mobile ambitions so there is no ecosystem to the extent of Apple with iOS and OSX.

No real answer to the post PC era has materialized while PC sales have plummeted

Why too comfy and reliant on enterprise.

Allowing Google to basically control the cloud services sector with no answer our real challenge even.

The key thing you pointed out, and I've been saying forever, is that they are a SOFTWARE company and yet have completely missed the boat on the post PC desktop era. They could have gotten Office on iOS and made hundreds of millions on it.

They also back in the mid 2000s had the opportunity to make their own hardware and make a unique line of Windows machines that were MS machines and optimized and keep the clutter down. They didn't.

They've been adrift for ages and relying on enterprise and enterprise is moving to iOS.
 

hindmost

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2009
190
68
Ballmer had 'the Magic Touch'! Everything he touched turned to crap for Microsoft. He was Apple's greatest ally and supporter....unbeknownst to him. The Apple Community will miss him. Ironic, isn't it?
 
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Ryth

macrumors 68000
Apr 21, 2011
1,591
157
If the stock is any indication, Ballmer's incompetence was costing the company $20Bn

Oh...totally. Many said that the stock would go up 10%-20% if Ballmer retired. No one had any confidence in him ever. Gates basically handed over the keys to an incompetent individual. This guy just happened to be in the right place at the right time when he met Gates ages ago.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
It's really sad that they're up 8% today on this news. The fact that they're up so much means that a lot of people think that the next CEO will do better.

Normally when the stock market reacts to CEO changes, they react when a new CEO is named, because they can compare the old CEO vs the new CEO and decide which is better.

Microsoft hasn't named a new CEO though, meaning most people thought he was so bad that the stock market thinks that Microsoft could pick literally anyone to be CEO and they would probably do better than Ballmer did.

I'm not saying I wouldn't make the same choice if I had money to invest instead of debt to pay off. I'm just saying that I would feel like rubbish if I were Ballmer. Although I guess the stock market is an expectations game - he can feel vindicated if the new CEO does worse than him.

Exactly this.

It's rare when investors signal so strongly that anyone would be better than the current CEO, and especially when that CEO is one of the company's founders, and nobody can know if his successor will be able to perform any better. The culture at Microsoft is baked in. No one person can change it, but it looks like the consensus is that nobody could be any worse than Ballmer. Remarkable!
 

E.Lizardo

macrumors 68000
May 28, 2008
1,776
305
Since everybody seems to think it's "good for him to go", I'm sure everyone here has a choice for the next CEO in mind (a real one).

Why?We know he is horrible.We don't need to name a successor,that's the board's job.They have a pretty good chance of hiring someone better.
 

vrDrew

macrumors 65816
Jan 31, 2010
1,376
13,412
Midlife, Midwest
Strange, and a little sad, to see so much hate.

Microsoft isn't the "enemy" and Ballmer wasn't a bad guy. He had the difficult task of following in Bill Gates footsteps. Its easy to criticize Ballmer. But the PC business was eventually going to run out of steam no matter who was in charge. Thinking that back in 1996 if someone at Microsoft should have said "we'll stop selling software and become an internet advertising company" would have somehow prevented the rise of Google is nuts.

Microsoft is still a very profitable company, one that has put billions of dollars into the hands of its shareholders, employees, and partners.

I'm sure that whoever is picked to succeed Ballmer will have some serious challenges. Running a company that big and complex is not an easy job.
 

Popeye206

macrumors 68040
Sep 6, 2007
3,148
836
NE PA USA
Darn... now MS might actually do something significant again! :D

Long overdue... surprised he wasn't asked to leave years ago.
 

dyrer

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2010
89
8
Greece
Strange, and a little sad, to see so much hate.

Microsoft isn't the "enemy" and Ballmer wasn't a bad guy. He had the difficult task of following in Bill Gates footsteps. Its easy to criticize Ballmer. But the PC business was eventually going to run out of steam no matter who was in charge. Thinking that back in 1996 if someone at Microsoft should have said "we'll stop selling software and become an internet advertising company" would have somehow prevented the rise of Google is nuts.

Microsoft is still a very profitable company, one that has put billions of dollars into the hands of its shareholders, employees, and partners.

I'm sure that whoever is picked to succeed Ballmer will have some serious challenges. Running a company that big and complex is not an easy job.


Balmer tried to copy Steve Jobs on stage, given his loud tone. This is his blame.
I also believe Balmer isn't the bad or microsoft the enemy of apple, there are companies who want to earn more money and we are the clients who choose to buy
 

phillipduran

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,055
607
Image

But seriously, I think he gets a lot of bad wrap, despite having diversified Microsoft so that they're not reliant upon any one area. Even if the consumer side tanks they're still in a strong position. That said, he has not helped with his constant 'predictions' regarding pretty much every new piece of tech.

Diversified and lost focus on what desktop users need, on what tablet users want. Diversified into markets people don't care much about.

Does diversification = win or can you screw up diversifying?

They have tanked nearly everything in all directions they are heading.

I don't see how he doesn't deserve the rap that earned.
 
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