Posted on 10/12/2010 6:00:38 PM PDT by dayglored
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer insinuated this week that his company's ailing brand holds value for users, unlike Apple's, while at the same time conceding that he's seeing a lot more of his adversary's iPads deployed in the real world than he'd like to....
"I think you clearly have a lot more variety than Apple has. There's really only one choice in the Apple world," he said. " I think the problem, if you don't have a minimum kind of standard […] the brand means nothing to the user. Our brand means something to the user...
[Regarding Macs and iPads:] "You certainly see more," said Ballmer. "You certainly see more than I would like. One is more than I would like."
(Excerpt) Read more at appleinsider.com ...
Although my head still hurts from late nights repairing windows installs, patches, etc. I read your post and realized....
I made a hell of a lot of cash fixing Microsoft products, hehehe
btt
And mice. In fact, I understand they have been able to make a profit on their keyboards and mice. The Xbox did pretty well, though it was heavily subsidized (loss-leader) so it's hard to tell for sure if it was net profitable.
I've had a few MS keyboards and mice over the years. Good products that suited users' needs and deservedly did well in the marketplace.
Zune, Kin, not so much. :)
Other than Xbox, it appears like Microsoft doesn't know how to do -- or at least, market and sell -- complex hardware.
Yeah, isn't it interesting that a supposedly ergonomic keyboard is the ONLY hardware Microsoft makes?
Personally, I find that fact utterly fascinating.
Out of all the computer hardware possibilities, what does Microsoft know about the ergonomic keyboard market that they aren't talking about, but that compels them - a software company - to keep their hands in it?
Enquiring minds want to know.
So, there’s one against the 100%. :)
LoL!
1% at a time! ;^)
Hi, I'm Egon.
You can now revise your number downward a bit.
(disclaimer: I use Windows, Mac, and Linux (and love all three for different reasons)-- so you'll likely have to use fractions!)
Let’s go for 3...
48 year old tech head who took the Mac plunge 3 years ago. I use a combination of Mac and Windows, but as my PC hardware dies it is being replaced by Mac hardware. It just works better.
BTW, ever heard of a guy named Rush? I hear he uses a Mac too...that would be 4...
and then there is this MSFT feature or features... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2606576/posts
That's easy.
Looking only at how well Apple has been doing, both in the stock market and in terms of the wild acceptance of its products over the past few years; and at how MSFT is constantly derided over its operating system mis-steps (Vista, ME), and how it has failed in many of its side ventures, this statement is absurd. I’m thinking of this in marketing terms, not technical terms, because Ballmer was speaking of brand identification and brand enthusiasm.
Yeah, you know, that's a good point. The various BSODs are certainly part of the Microsoft brand for the past 15 years. I'll bet if you showed a random bunch of people:
And everyone associates BSODs with MS/Windows, so there's the definition of the brand... :)
The XBox 360 turned profitable a year or so ago, but I doubt it's yet made up enough profit to cover its own loss and the total loss Microsoft took to get into the console market with the original XBox. It probably still has a few billion dollars to make up.
Microsoft did make the first mouse I actually liked, the original Intellimouse.
There are BSOD tees ...
And there's even a BSOD screen saver. Written by Mark Russinovich, founder of Sysinternals (later sold to MS), it shows a blue screen tailored to the details of the machine at hand, followed by realistic reboot screens.
The message is so compelling, I find myself reading it over and over and over.... :)
As does GM & Chrysler.
Balmer has all the bigotry and arrogance of the average liberal.
He probably is one. That's just a guess, tho'.
He certainly doesn't have much in the way of capitalist business chops. Just meanness.
My biggest issue... I can buy and have crash/step on my laptop 4 times with windows computers before I hit the price of one Apple computer.
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