Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

[Jodell88]

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

You can use the same Operating systems Apple, Google and Sony base their products off of.

 

[disappoint]

Who will/can take over?

Developers Developers Developers Developers
Developers Developers Developers Developers
Developers Developers Developers Developers
Developers Developers Developers Developers
WOO WOOOOO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8M6S8EKbnU

 

[dainthomas]

I can't imagine why the guy would even want to stay when no one wants him there. You have 15 billion, bro. Use your imagination.

 

[Fritzo]

You can use the same Operating systems Apple, Google and Sony base their products off of.

Actually, if you look at Microsoft's history, their successes have always been "Take someone else's product and outmarket them." They bought the components for MS Office from other developers, they took the idea for Windows from other developers, and they took the Win95 interface from their "partnership" with IBM. When competition with established platforms and equal resources came around, MS was clueless on what to do.

Around 2000-2001 or so, Apple came on the scene with the iPod, and MS didn't know what to make of it, so it was dismissed. Digital music players were around before then, but they were more "geek oddities". Then Apple came up with a cloud based music service full of highly desirable content, and the iPod was the tool to access it. Again, Microsoft went "Huh. Oh well."

Apple's success with the iPod led to ideas about combining a phone with music players (leading to the disastrous Motorola ROKR). Microsoft began to notice the cloud/device potential around this time, but still didn't sink too much thought into it.

Jobs got pissed at Moto's pathetic ROKR phone (it held 100 songs and had an interface designed by Satan to torture souls), so he had Apple begin development of a mini computer phone. Microsoft said "We've had Windows CE phones out for years. Only business men use them."

The iPhone was a runaway success, and it interfaced with iTunes service that had already been established, leading to expansion opportunities with the iPad, PC's, movie content, app development, and more.

Google saw the potential of cloud content tied to consumption devices right around the time the iPhone was introduced, so they purchased a promising developer's OS (Android), build a similar cloud based store around it, and changed it up from Apple by making the OS available to any manufacturer that wanted it. This was attractive to phone manufacturers because 1) Custom phone OSs are expensive to create and often buggy, and 2) It gave everyone a way to compete with Apple.

Microsoft CE products died a quick death shortly after this happened. MS tried to jazz CE up with CE 6.1, custom skins, and so on, but it was still a complicated mess. They wanted to change their image, so the whole OS was renamed to "Windows Mobile" with version 7. A huge push to recreate the environment of ITunes and the Google Store was underway---but by then it was too late. Two big fish ate all the customers, and MS was left with the scraps. They put a lot of development into their Zune and Windows Phone line, and they were very nice, but one bad decision after another and the fact they weren't able to buy any pre-existing technology to outmarket the competition left MS out in the cold.

To this day, MS has no idea how to handle not being number one. That's why you see all of the floundering and desperate ideas coming out of Redmond. the new Windows phones are fantastic, but owning one is like owning a Zune- uncool. Windows tablets are really nice, but for the same price you can get a tablet that does a lot more. Windows OS is a great desktop OS, but desktop PCs are dying due to tablets and microdevices.

Honestly, I'm not sure MS can be saved at this point. They may become like IBM someday: specialized solutions for businesses, but pull out of the residential market. It's sad too, because they had every advantage, but didn't have the vision to use it.

Sorry for the rambling

 

[BladeVenom]

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

Windows Phone has been awful for Nokia. It's inferior software that's been holding back their hardware.

 

[Dulanic]

Can't happen soon enough. Windows 8 was the first windows I haven't upgraded to within a few months. Skype has gotten worse since ms bought them.

 

[lupi]

Surface rt sucked, regular surface overpriced, windows phone looks mostly fixed as a concept but way too much dead money to get there, windows 8 getting more backlash since me, allowing xbox team to detract from the pc gaming market and dropping major turds with the previous and future xbox releases. Not much good. Although I actually wish the zune was still around, and may even say killing that when he did was the worst thing about the zune.

 

[ultimatebob]

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.

Apple has a ton of cash in the bank as well, but they don't seem to be doing much with it.

Seriously... if the rumors are true, the next "big" Apple innovations in the iPhone world are a gold case design and a cheaper version made of plastic. WTF? This isn't the same company that Steve Jobs rescued.

I think that Tim Cook is the next big tech CEO to go.

 

[KeithTalent]

Apple has a ton of cash in the bank as well, but they don't seem to be doing much with it.

Seriously... if the rumors are true, the next "big" Apple innovations in the iPhone world are a gold case design and a cheaper version made of plastic. WTF? This isn't the same company that Steve Jobs rescued.

I think that Tim Cook is the next big tech CEO to go.

Thumbprint scanner too.

KT

 

[BladeVenom]

I think that Tim Cook is the next big tech CEO to go.

Sure he's no Steve Jobs, but I think he's better at listening to what consumers want. The iPad Mini was a success, and Jobs was against a 7" tablet. A cheaper iPhone will probably also be success, which is another product that Jobs might have been against. So at least in the short term, Cook is a success.

 

[bearxor]

Windows Phone has been awful for Nokia. It's inferior software that's been holding back their hardware.

I don't think it's been AWFUL. But it's not all sunshine and roses, too. And it's very inferior software.

If the Lumia 1020 used Android, I would have switched from iOS permanently.

 

[5150Joker]

:\

Because it's unpossible to do real work on Android (or iOS)?

I didn't recently write up an entire resume from scratch, format it properly, save it to both PDF and .doc format, and email it to several companies while I was on vacation visiting some friends after I was browsing some local job listings on my Nexus 7. Not did I remotely manage and do system admin crap for my two VPS's while I was on the same vacation from the same tablet. (fwiw, I don't even have facebook or twitter installed on my tablet)

And all that could have been done faster and more efficiently on a low budget notebook. Tablets are completely useless.

 

[MontyAC]

If China Mobile and Apple comes to an agreement and the cheap iPhone is made, Apple's stock might reach an all time high.

 

[Jodell88]

And all that could have been done faster and more efficiently on a low budget notebook. Tablets are completely useless.

Tablets aren't useless. They are meant for media consumption, not creation. They are good for what they're meant for. I won't spend more than $300 for one though.

 

[hemi79]

If he is getting fired, per say, why the heck would they put up with a 12 month departure time frame. He is leaving on his own. And apparently being nice by sticking around a year and helping the replacement or giving them time to find the adequAte replacement. IF he is resigning on his own there is no reason to believe that MS will be changing for the better any time soon.

I happen to really like Surface Pro, RT was just lame IMO. But it was there first approach and id like to thing they kept the option out there while their inventory ran out. I believe the Surface Pro is the perfect laptop replacement, with the appropriate keyboard And not the cardboard option. Ive never been able to get any production out any OS or tablet that isn't Windows based (just sold my iPad mini).

I agree windows 8 is bad. It takes more for me to get the usual done as in windows 7, but while theres a lot of room for us to be wrong, it really the new young bloods that call the shots and they are not the least interested in a windows tablet. I just think Gates stopped caring a while back. I am extremely grateful for microsoft Office however, in the selling of apple products, at first, i believe it was their touch screen that won everyone over. Nobody was able to create that kind of touch sensitivity besides apple and then they began replicating them. I clearly remember windows phone needed a stylus and even then it was uncomfortable. I am not expecting anything overwhelming from Microsoft. I am happy with them just upgrading their products the way they have. Microsoft 2013 is sweet. Im getting a Surface Pro while i can. Before they stop production.

 

[Arkaign]

Actually, if you look at Microsoft's history, their successes have always been "Take someone else's product and outmarket them." They bought the components for MS Office from other developers, they took the idea for Windows from other developers, and they took the Win95 interface from their "partnership" with IBM. When competition with established platforms and equal resources came around, MS was clueless on what to do.

Around 2000-2001 or so, Apple came on the scene with the iPod, and MS didn't know what to make of it, so it was dismissed. Digital music players were around before then, but they were more "geek oddities". Then Apple came up with a cloud based music service full of highly desirable content, and the iPod was the tool to access it. Again, Microsoft went "Huh. Oh well."

Apple's success with the iPod led to ideas about combining a phone with music players (leading to the disastrous Motorola ROKR). Microsoft began to notice the cloud/device potential around this time, but still didn't sink too much thought into it.

Jobs got pissed at Moto's pathetic ROKR phone (it held 100 songs and had an interface designed by Satan to torture souls), so he had Apple begin development of a mini computer phone. Microsoft said "We've had Windows CE phones out for years. Only business men use them."

The iPhone was a runaway success, and it interfaced with iTunes service that had already been established, leading to expansion opportunities with the iPad, PC's, movie content, app development, and more.

Google saw the potential of cloud content tied to consumption devices right around the time the iPhone was introduced, so they purchased a promising developer's OS (Android), build a similar cloud based store around it, and changed it up from Apple by making the OS available to any manufacturer that wanted it. This was attractive to phone manufacturers because 1) Custom phone OSs are expensive to create and often buggy, and 2) It gave everyone a way to compete with Apple.

Microsoft CE products died a quick death shortly after this happened. MS tried to jazz CE up with CE 6.1, custom skins, and so on, but it was still a complicated mess. They wanted to change their image, so the whole OS was renamed to "Windows Mobile" with version 7. A huge push to recreate the environment of ITunes and the Google Store was underway---but by then it was too late. Two big fish ate all the customers, and MS was left with the scraps. They put a lot of development into their Zune and Windows Phone line, and they were very nice, but one bad decision after another and the fact they weren't able to buy any pre-existing technology to outmarket the competition left MS out in the cold.

To this day, MS has no idea how to handle not being number one. That's why you see all of the floundering and desperate ideas coming out of Redmond. the new Windows phones are fantastic, but owning one is like owning a Zune- uncool. Windows tablets are really nice, but for the same price you can get a tablet that does a lot more. Windows OS is a great desktop OS, but desktop PCs are dying due to tablets and microdevices.

Honestly, I'm not sure MS can be saved at this point. They may become like IBM someday: specialized solutions for businesses, but pull out of the residential market. It's sad too, because they had every advantage, but didn't have the vision to use it.

Sorry for the rambling

this is a brilliant summary, and I've said similar things.

To add to that, Windows 8 *IS* a staggering failure, along with Surface, and it's hilarious to see all the defenders of that crap. Instead of an organic creation of a product that was matched to customers desires, it was a forced effort to drive people into their tile/app attempt to copy Apple/Google. Worse still, instead of having that be a free choice that they could built properly and show the advantages of, it was just a hindrance at best to their cream of the crop corporate customers. Zero benefits, tons of downsides, and all for something they should have attempted in 2006-2007, not 2012-2013.

Major industry analysts have pegged much of the massive downswing in PC sales to Windows 8's launch. It's threatened the revenue of major partners so severely that they are looking for their own way out : Lenovo is the latest major example, and Lenovo would be dead if corps stopped buying Lenovo products. There are no margins on $299 WalMart craptops, there ARE margins on the $600-$1200 units that corporations regularly buy. And currently those customers are more and more likely to switch to Apple, or to refurbish/upgrade existing units, or to extend leases on existing units, or simply use them off lease, ANY option but bringing that debacle under their roof.

 

[poofyhairguy]

And all that could have been done faster and more efficiently on a low budget notebook. Tablets are completely useless.

And yet tablets/smartphones are eating the consumer PC market alive.

 

[BoberFett]

A large part of Microsoft's problem is abandoning their customers at every turn. Services, products, everything. Other than Windows, they leave their customers behind and don't give a damn whether they come along to their next product or not. And even Windows 8 abandoned customers to an extent. Sure old Windows is under there somewhere, but they did their best to try to convince people not to use it.

Contrast that with Apple. Sure, their old product eventually lose support, but not the customer. There's an upgrade path, and it's painless. I personally don't care for Apple products, but I'll be damned if their customer experience isn't silky smooth. Want to upgrade your iPhone? Click a couple a buttons. Boom. Done.

But Microsoft? Sorry, we've discontinued that one year old service. Everything you bought or built on that platform is useless. Your data is locked there. Sucks to be you. Kin. Plays for Sure. Games for Windows Live. It's like Microsoft enjoys kicking their customers in the nuts.

 

[lupi]

Just because there is a fad to buy something, doesn't mean it is or isn't a better option.

And who the hell thinks that large corporations are suddenly going to start dropping Macs on everyone's desk is kidding themselves.

 

[baydude]

I can't imagine why the guy would even want to stay when no one wants him there. You have 15 billion, bro. Use your imagination.

Ego.

 

[TridenT]

Ego.

This. I'm also pretty sure he thought that he was the best thing for the company too.

 

[Schmide]

I was on the fence about renewing my MSDN. With Ballmer gone, i decided to.

 

[BladeVenom]

And who the hell thinks that large corporations are suddenly going to start dropping Macs on everyone's desk is kidding themselves.

Just like they would never adopt phones without keyboards.

So it might be Linux not Macs. Either way, they can't take for granted that businesses will never switch.

 

[Kadarin]

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/

The NSA probably gave him a pile of cash for re-architecting Skype so that they could spy on all of us.

 

[Gibsons]

Just like they would never adopt phones without keyboards.

So it might be Linux not Macs. Either way, they can't take for granite that businesses will never switch.

Yeah, I don't know why they would take anything for granite.