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Ballmer hearts iPhone, at least a little bit

by Aron Trimble Jan 13th 2009 at 11:00AM

Our friend & former colleague David Chartier has a piece up over at Ars Technica with the sordid details of one Steve Ballmer's new-found love affair (well, more of a like affair) with Apple's iPhone. Prior to the iPhone's triumphant launch, his Steve-ness (Ballmer, that is) proclaimed the iPhone had "no chance" at success in the marketplace.

According to Ars, in a recent interview, Ballmer was quoted saying the iPhone has "clear market momentum." Now if that isn't the definition of understatement, then I don't know what is. With the recent release of multiple apps for the iPhone, it is clear that Microsoft is willing to acknowledge, and promote, iPhone's presence in the mobile space.

While we at TUAW may not be the biggest supporters of Microsoft [except for the MacBU, love you, don't change --Ed.] it is definitely nice to hear a bit of praise from another mobile platform vendor. What say you, dear commenters, is Microsoft really drinking the Apple Kool-Aid, or are they merely biding their time until the release of their own Zune-phone of sorts, with the next-est-gen version of Windows Mobile?

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Our friend & former colleague David Chartier has a piece up over at Ars Technica with the sordid details of one Steve Ballmer's...
 

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Elias

Nokias have always been great, but the iPhone really brought about a big change in how we use our phones. It simplified things like Settings.

I was setting-up a brand new S60 Nokia for my father-in-law and in order to change settings you need to go about 3-4 levels deep in to menus just to get to "Personalizations." To change the home screen shortcuts, you have to go 2-3 more levels deep. Lots of things in the phone's OS make use of contextual menus, which is pretty annoying.

Windows Mobile is a little bit of the same when it comes to some of these things, and it seems like all the phones making noise in the mobile space are going for simple instead of complex.

January 14 2009 at 8:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan Woods

Looking at Windows7, the iPhone isn't the only Apple Product Balmer likes.

The new Taskbar/Launcher is so much like the MacOSX Dock, without the eye-candy.

January 13 2009 at 2:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Dan Woods's comment
balls

Hehe yeah. That Steve Balmer, totally designed and implemented all the UI elements in Win7.

January 14 2009 at 1:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Flanagan

Well, Mr. Ballmer, there was one group of people you didn't realize would switch from WinMo to the iPhone:

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS

January 13 2009 at 1:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Howmanoid

With iPhone, Android and now Palm's sweet WebOS, WinMob is looking less and less like a contender. We've seen how quickly tech trends change in the mobile space (anyone even remember phone.com?). M$FT needs a serious injection of new, more relevant technology if they stand any chance of even holding their current mobile market share.

January 13 2009 at 12:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Howmanoid's comment
Andrew

Actually the world market is dominated by Nokia, the American market is an oddity in terms of phones, phone OS' and operators.

I have an iPhone, it's nice and all, but I use a professional Nokia phone for my work. It really works when I need it, but it's not as pretty.

And who likes WinMo? My colleagues all use WinMo phones, because we work with Microsoft systems, but boy are they frustrated!

January 13 2009 at 2:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alfriede

why is that ugly bald fuck ALWAYS sticking his nasty ass tongue out??? he's such a disgusting 'thing' [can't even refer to it as a person], and it makes me sick that he's that rich too! can you smell my disdain?

January 13 2009 at 12:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to alfriede's comment
Johnny

I not only smell it, I'm covered in it myself. He truly disgusts me as a sub-human creature. To be honest, I'm mostly just jealous about the money though.

January 13 2009 at 4:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
balls

Wow dude, you got issues.

January 14 2009 at 1:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jon honeyball

"While we at TUAW may not be the biggest supporters of Microsoft [except for the MacBU, love you, don't change --Ed.]"

What are you smoking? Office 2008 is an embarrasment to microsoft and the whole mac community. It is riddled with bugs, there are very important features in Windows Office 2007 that are not there:

1) VBA,
2) try doing more than 3 way sorting in Excel -- ooops, nope
3) try doing incell conditional formatting using that new in-cell bar chart thing that is in WinOffice2007 -- ooops, nope

I could go on for hours and hours.

Office 2008 for mac sucks donkeys through a straw. It is arguably Microsoft's greatest failure. And MacBU should be ashamed of itself.

jon

January 13 2009 at 12:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
6 replies to jon honeyball's comment
A A

Yaw, so who cares if MS brings out the Zune phone. It will take three versions before it can make a call and another 3 versions to sync with Exchange.

Plus as someone said we have not had a good laugh in a while.

Arvi

January 13 2009 at 12:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jash Sayani

Who made him the CEO of M$ ?!!?!

I would have done a much better job. Releasing Microsoft netbooks that look like MacBooks and having half the price....

January 13 2009 at 12:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jash Sayani's comment
balls

His college buddy, you may have heard of him...Bill Gates.

January 14 2009 at 1:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Paul

Yay, a ZunePhone sounds great. We haven't had something to laugh at from Microsoft in a while. Maybe it too will come in Brown...

January 13 2009 at 12:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
grifmusic

that guy is scary. he's like the crazy neighbor nobody wishes to live next door to.

January 13 2009 at 12:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to grifmusic's comment
Jon

Yeah, but he's rich so I'd imagine he has a huge estate. "Next door" is probably half a mile away.

January 13 2009 at 1:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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