Filed under: iPhone
Ballmer hearts iPhone, at least a little bit
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?
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
GSP said 11:36AM on 1-13-2009
When you consider the sheer volume of drivel that comes out of this guys mouth WHY pay any attention to him ?!?!
Reply
Fahad said 11:56AM on 1-13-2009
hehe.... dont u mean dribble?
poor baby :-p
Simon Arch said 12:48PM on 1-13-2009
No, he means drivel. There's no evidence to suggest that Mr Ballmer drools.
Jon said 1:36PM on 1-13-2009
He probably does though. I really wouldn't be surprised.
grifmx said 12:02PM on 1-13-2009
that guy is scary. he's like the crazy neighbor nobody wishes to live next door to.
Reply
Jon said 1:38PM on 1-13-2009
Yeah, but he's rich so I'd imagine he has a huge estate. "Next door" is probably half a mile away.
Paul said 12:10PM on 1-13-2009
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...
Reply
Jash Sayani said 12:16PM on 1-13-2009
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....
Reply
balls said 1:11AM on 1-14-2009
His college buddy, you may have heard of him...Bill Gates.
A A said 12:25PM on 1-13-2009
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
Reply
jon honeyball said 12:33PM on 1-13-2009
"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
Reply
ben said 12:43PM on 1-13-2009
I agree...Excel for Mac 2008 is ridiculous. Unfortunately it's much better than Numbers. This is a major problem for Apple and basically requires that people have a copy of Windows lying around.
alf said 12:48PM on 1-13-2009
open office anyone? wheee!!!
Howmanoid said 12:54PM on 1-13-2009
Numbers '09 does a good job of closing the feature gap. Don't suppose it'll ever have every Excel bell & whistle but how many people ever use even 10% of that stuff? I've yet to find someone who really knows how to use a pivot table..
Michael Rose said 1:29PM on 1-13-2009
The story behind VBA is well explored and it is coming back to the suite in the next version. It's unfortunate that it dropped out for 2008 but Microsoft made a priority call and that's how it shook out.
I'm not suggesting in any way that Office 2008 is a worldshaking product, or that everything the MacBU does is a good idea. I will say that without their efforts over the past 20 years, the Mac marketshare in the enterprise and SOHO markets would be negligible. OpenOffice.org is a great tool but it's also one of the big reasons that the Linux desktop hasn't made bigger inroads.
KarlW said 1:43PM on 1-13-2009
Don't forget the lack of video support (still!) in MSN Messenger!
balls said 1:16AM on 1-14-2009
@Michael Rose: Mac marketshare umongst enterprise customers is still negligible.
That said, RDP for OSX is smooth as silk.
alf said 12:46PM on 1-13-2009
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?
Reply
Johnny said 4:48PM on 1-13-2009
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.
balls said 1:18AM on 1-14-2009
Wow dude, you got issues.