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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Retire 'Within 12 Months'
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You're going to need to drop this little crusade buddy, we're all tired of it.
I get it, but I don't get it
While everyone is having a party...it isn't like Ballmer is a supply chain expert that stalled innovation. Hmmm
I am in deep with Apple and I am worried about what is going on. It seems like the industry continues to move faster than Apple and iOS7 isn't going to pull Apple ahead.
I imagine this business is 1000% harder than what we think it is. One feature out of the blue would somewhat solve things. Adding a "one more thing" would drive Apple loyalists bonkers.
While everyone is having a party...it isn't like Ballmer is a supply chain expert that stalled innovation. Hmmm
I am in deep with Apple and I am worried about what is going on. It seems like the industry continues to move faster than Apple and iOS7 isn't going to pull Apple ahead.
I imagine this business is 1000% harder than what we think it is. One feature out of the blue would somewhat solve things. Adding a "one more thing" would drive Apple loyalists bonkers.
He could be, sometimes….. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc
That is a lot easier, if you have market dominance from the get-go.
Am I the only one thinking that he's being nudged out the door, pending finding a suitable replacement. Perhaps Microsoft's board finally just said, "this CEO needs to be replaced, if we're ever going to get out of this slump, and be a market leader with vision and a future, once again?"
Must have been a slow and agonizing decision by Gates and the board. Maybe that $900 Million Surface write-off was the last straw.
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funny to see that investors are happy to see Ballmer going, i wonder who's coming next, i hope the next CEO pays a bit extra attention to windows.
I spent the last 14 years as a Windows admin and what great products does Microsoft make? Sure wasn't Windows as OS/2 was a better OS (with botched marketing from IBM), NetWare was a better NOS, etc. Word took a long time to get better (Ami Pro was much better back in the day), etc.
Their products are overly complex, hard to manage and tend to suck you into their ecosystem with no way out.
It wasn't until I got involved in Linux (and OS X) that I realized how poor Microsoft's offerings were. And how cumbersome they are when they didn't need to be.
You could say Xbox is a great product but that's about it.
As for BallSack - good riddance. I just hope Microsoft can find someone to continue your record of running the company into the ground. Technology is past due for a changing of the guard.
How about software in general? I'd like to see a Microsoft that makes great software again, like the early days of Office.
Software is the heart and origin of MicroSoft .... it's the one thing they know more about than anyone else. Start making great new software again, but make it available for all platforms.... Mac/Linux/iOS/Android not just Windows. Don't just make business programs. Start making games again, for all platforms. Make something that will give Google+ a run for its money. Retire Internet Explorer and create a new browser that people will actually prefer over Chrome or Safari.
He retires with a personal worth of over $15 billion. He's only 57. Nice long retirement 
I'm sure he's a smart guy and would have been successful on his own, though not that successful. He is one of the luckiest people around to have been associated with Bill Gates.
I wonder what was the straw that broke the camel's back though? He presided over so many failures, even in the past couple of years. I think the reorganization he planned was what sealed his fate.
I'm sure he's a smart guy and would have been successful on his own, though not that successful. He is one of the luckiest people around to have been associated with Bill Gates.
I wonder what was the straw that broke the camel's back though? He presided over so many failures, even in the past couple of years. I think the reorganization he planned was what sealed his fate.
Whoever comes next will have some big shoes to fill.
Everyone here who questions his competence knew very little about what Ballmer did.
Everyone here who questions his competence knew very little about what Ballmer did.
Forstall To Take Over Microsoft, Needs 12 Months to Put Stitched Leather on Everything.
Stitched leather aside, I'd LOVE to see that.
What WOULD Scott Forstall do as head of Microsoft? It would be interesting as hell to see what happens there!
Although I've met a few Windows fans, I believe most people don't choose to buy Windows.
Their purchase is based on PC hardware price; the hardware comes with Windows "for free". With the advent of tablets, phablets and smartphones, the (more popular, consumer) hardware doesn't come with Windows; it comes with iOS and Android. This can account for Microsoft's moves to unify their mobile and PC OSes, as well as for the decline in Windows "purchases".
Microsoft deluded themselves into thinking they had a superior product with Windows. They didn't. They forgot their smartest move was to not restrict the software to specific hardware (that is how they won the "Apple-Microsoft war"). Unfortunately, Google learned from "the war" and when the changing of the guard for popular computing device occured (with the advent of the iPhone and iPad), Google implemented Microsoft's old plan, to great success. Now Microsoft is trying to catch up, but I believe they never will.
If Google were to release a desktop version of Android (not that Chrome crap), and do the same moves they're doing in the mobile space, Windows would be relegated to the (slow-to-change and upgrade) Enterprise. People like what's familiar, and people are familiar with their smart phones. iOs and OSX are already integrated and continue to integrate (in a better way than Windows). Android is the one to watch, and it may become Windows'd death knell in the consumer space.
Why do people keep throwing out the bad idea of Android on the desktop? I keep reading that, but nobody seems to get that it is a HORRIBLE idea.
Okay, why is it a horrible idea?
Enlighten us.
Android is Linux-based (from what i understand). Google could make a flavor of Linux optimized to interface with its Android devices, much the way Apple did in reverse. (iOS is OSX-based). Why is that so bad?
Fine, I'll point out the flaw.
Let's look at Windows 8. What are people saying Windows 8's biggest flaw is? It's trying to shove mobile at the desktop, which is only partially true. A person could work their entire day with a mouse and keyboard rather well, but that is a topic for another day.
Android is all mobile all the time.
So we'd have to make an entirely new way of interacting with Android. Then we'd have to start remaking all of the applications on Android to work on a desktop paradigm. In the end, we'd basically have to remake Android to where it actually works with the desktop.
We'd have a product called Android that is nothing like Android.
It's why, to use your Apple analogy, Apple didn't put OS X on the iPhone. They took some parts of it, but overall it isn't the same.
Edit: Also, Android is more Java-based than anything /snark
He is definitely being shown the door. Companies don't announce CEO retirements before having a successor identified unless the situation forces it. Normally investors hate the uncertainty. The personal dynamics in the boardroom must have been pretty strange, seeing as Steve's old buddy Bill is still the company's largest stockholder (I believe), and Ballmer is also a huge stockholder.
Okay, I knew you'd go the Windows 8 direction. Windows 8 doesn't suck because it attempts integration. It sucks because it attempts integration badly. And Windows (and their tactics) sucked as it is to begin with.
Now, when I referred to Android on the desktop, I was referring to a flavor of Linux that would maintain many design elements of Android, much like what Apple has done with the "iOSification" of OSX. It doesn't have to be called Android. It'd be a free desktop OS (well, what Linux already is) that has Google behind it, to control and implement the integration of the two OSes in a good way. Keep desktop control elements where necessary (keyboard and mouse), but implement many of the look, feel, and design elements from Android.
I'm not saying this would be better than the OSX/iOS combination (although, if done well, could be a SERIOUS threat). My point is, if Google did what I'm saying, and PC OEMs started shipping with a (free) Google flavor of Linux, I think Windows could die very quickly in the consumer space.
Microsoft needs to do what people have been mentioning to death here:
Platform-agnostic Office. Let go of hardware.
You don't have to get Office... it doesn't even come with Windows. With the XBox, you are limited to whatever game publishers publish for the Xbox. With the PS 3 or 4 or whatever you are limited to whatever game publishers publish for that console. There is no monopoly here.
Bro the board ousted him themselves and the stock went up 8% that tells me plenty about his competence. He's screwed up on two oses, completely failed on the zune, RT, and some of his opinions that were made public were extremely short-sighted and just plain laughable. Face it, the only reason he even got the job was thanks to Bill Gates.
Okay, I knew you'd go the Windows 8 direction. Windows 8 doesn't suck because it attempts integration. It sucks because it attempts integration badly. And Windows (and their tactics) sucked as it is to begin with.
Now, when I referred to Android on the desktop, I was referring to a flavor of Linux that would maintain many design elements of Android, much like what Apple has done with the "iOSification" of OSX. It doesn't have to be called Android. It'd be a free desktop OS (well, what Linux already is) that has Google behind it, to control and implement the integration of the two OSes in a good way. Keep desktop control elements where necessary (keyboard and mouse), but implement many of the look, feel, and design elements from Android.
I'm not saying this would be better than the OSX/iOS combination (although, if done well, could be a SERIOUS threat). My point is, if Google did what I'm saying, and PC OEMs started shipping with a (free) Google flavor of Linux, I think Windows could die very quickly in the consumer space.
Microsoft needs to do what people have been mentioning to death here:
Platform-agnostic Office. Let go of hardware.
But the look and feel of Android is meant for mobile arena.
And the reality that you don't know anything about the stock market shines through brilliantly.