Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

[StrangerGuy]

I bet Intel is pay billions to MS to get Ballmer removed so the software side of wintel would stop undermining the hardware side of the equation

 

[Fritzo]

Surprised this didnt happen earlier.

Zune
Windows Phone
Windows 8
Windows Tablets

Windows Vista, buying Skype and doing nothing with it, killing off the XBox's best development team, not getting into consumer smartphones until a couple of years ago......

I have no idea how this guy still has a job.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhar...een-fired-cisco-ge-walmart-sears-microsoft/3/

 

[KeithTalent]

Good. Hopefully now he can focus full time on bringing the Sonics back to Seattle.

KT

 

[ultimatebob]

Wow, Surface flopped THAT bad.

Yeah... I'm wondering how much the failure of Windows 8 and Windows RT/Surface had to do with Ballmer's "Retirement". Something tells me that he's being forced out.

Why it took this long is beyond me. You would have thought that the failures of Windows Vista and the Zune years ago would have been enough to get the board's attention.

 

[Genx87]

windows phone is actually pretty good, just too late to the game.

I played around with a surface last week and I want one so badly now, it's what a tablet is supposed to be if you ask me. it's an actual computer that can do actual work and isn't just a facebook/twitter toy for swaggots and people that say yolo.

I happen to agree with you. I played with a windows phone a couple weeks back and was impressed. For a phone the tile system works really well. But the market isnt latching onto it. So eventhough we agree it is a solid product. It has been a financial and marketing disaster.

 

[T9D]

Ballmer was a hero

 

[Jodell88]

Surprised this didnt happen earlier.

Zune
Windows Phone
Windows 8
Windows Tablets

Zune was a good product. Windows Phone isn't a bad product either.

 

[Fritzo]

Zune was a good product. Windows Phone isn't a bad product either.

They actually were examples of great hardware, but that hardware depends on developer attention and "cool" factors. Those products had none of the above.

 

[Fritzo]

windows phone is actually pretty good, just too late to the game.

I played around with a surface last week and I want one so badly now, it's what a tablet is supposed to be if you ask me. it's an actual computer that can do actual work and isn't just a facebook/twitter toy for swaggots and people that say yolo.

The Surface Pro is a solid piece of hardware (the keyboard is a little meh though). It's just too damned expensive to get any marketshare. I always said MS needed to give these things away and make money on content/accessories (like the XBox). They tried to be like Apple instead, and there's only room for one Apple on the market.

 

[uhohs]

zune hardware-wise was a good product with potential to be a contender to the ipod/itouch, but they screwed up badly with other aspects of it.

for example, to this day the original zune never got support for unicode or foreign languages that they said would be added. there was a workaround/hack, but a later software update that brought much needed improvements and usability broke that. this one factor alone made me toss the zune into my drawer to be forgotten.

 

[dr150]

Ballmer can't leave soon enough.

MS has more than enough money to come out with great nicely designed stuff that can stand up to Apple or anyone else.

Ballmer has set up a culture of stagnation that has infested the organization to its core, like an old school auto manufacturer.

Microsoft has tremendous talent/resources and with the right CEO can be a juggernaut again.

 

[PottedMeat]

Friend of mine just asked whether I thought he was asked to go. My response was "maybe, but I think there is only one person who could ask him."

wonder what that conversation was like

maybe it went everyone else on the board->bill->ballmer

 

[preslove]

How are you guys forgetting the Microsoft Kin debacle? That was a good $1 or $2 billion down the drain.

 

[PottedMeat]

How are you guys forgetting the Microsoft Kin debacle? That was a good $1 or $2 billion down the drain.

damn never heard of that.


i guess MS spends billions teaching employees and partners what not to do so they're ready for other jobs :awe:

 

[Jodell88]

How are you guys forgetting the Microsoft Kin debacle? That was a good $1 or $2 billion down the drain.

I only heard of it after Microsoft canned it. I read about it on Anandtech as well.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Why 12 mos? MS should just give him severance to expedite his departure. 1 yr is plenty of time to do more damage!

Edit: I haven't read anything about his retirement yet, just going off the thread.

 

[Albatross]

This guy would have been a nobody without Bill and now he makes a beeelion dollars extra.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/0..._wealth_rocket_after_retirement_announcement/ 7% up on the news... LMAO.

 

[cbrunny]

Even he seems pretty excited about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc

 

[OlafSicky]

Was he the one responsible for MS being in business with the NSA

 

[TridenT]

How are you guys forgetting the Microsoft Kin debacle? That was a good $1 or $2 billion down the drain.

Man, I barely remember that thing.

 

[darkewaffle]

They actually were examples of great hardware, but that hardware depends on developer attention and "cool" factors. Those products had none of the above.

That's because it has "Microsoft" on the back. MS makes plenty of good products and their fair share of bad products, but they've never had a 'cool' product (possibly the Xbox line). It's just not how they've ever been perceived, and changing that is something that just takes a lot of time. Further in a market where 'cool' is a massive influence on buying decisions it puts them a inherent disadvantage.

 

[PingSpike]

I'm torn.

On the one hand this is the first move towards actually unscrewing-up the company. We're all victims of Microsoft's whims because they are so pervasive. Even if you want to avoid them you'll still have to endure their products regardless, so in that respect it would be better if they actually were coherent and consistent. I have my doubts that the rot that is infused in the management can be fixed by simply removing one person at this point though. Its quite likely whoever they replace him with will be just as ineffective only they will saturate fewer dress shirts in the process of their failure.

On the other hand I'm so sick of their shit at this point I kind of want to watch them fuck up again and again and become an also ran, and Ballmar was definitely the man for that job. His strategy of repeatedly entering markets only after they were saturated and then offering products that ranged from unremarkable against competitors to intentionally crippled has never ceased to amuse me. There is this air of genuine disbelief at the failure of these flaccid thrusts to cause already preoccupied consumers abandon competitor products they already purchased that cannot be faked. I do not know what sort of echo chamber or powerful doublethink that is employed to allow this same event to repeat but with each sequel the hilarity ratcheted up a notch.

 

[Gibsons]

On the other hand I'm so sick of their shit at this point I kind of want to watch them fuck up again and again and become an also ran, and Ballmar was definitely the man for that job. His strategy of repeatedly entering markets only after they were saturated and then offering products that ranged from unremarkable against competitors to intentionally crippled has never ceased to amuse me.

Again, the Xbox One.

 

[Smoblikat]

Maybe M$ will finally crumble.

 

[T9D]

Maybe M$ will finally crumble.

Having google or apple take over the OS scares the crap out of me. Until something better comes along I'll gladly take M$.