Perhaps if They Think of Their Win Mobile Devices as Broken iPhones…
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 5, 2009 at 7:25 AM PT
What an uncomfortable moment for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the CIO Summit Wednesday. Fielding questions at Microsoft’s annual event for government and education sector IT workers, Ballmer was asked how best to handle workers who prefer consumer handsets like the iPhone to Windows Mobile devices, which are more apt to meet the security requirements of large organizations. “With platforms like the Google phone and iPhone coming out, it’s really tough to continue to stand behind Windows Mobile when our employees are bringing these consumer devices into our environments,” the questioner explained. “And in your presentation you put Windows Mobile right in the center there, but it was a phone that doesn’t work in America and an operating system that you haven’t released. I’m wondering what your commitment is to continuing to get newer versions of the operating system in our hands so that we don’t have to fight this battle on the ground.”
A difficult question. It’s clear that Microsoft (MSFT) has so far failed to improve Windows Mobile to better compete with the iPhone, and with handsets using Google’s (GOOG) Android, which are slowly beginning to arrive at market. When will it close the gap?
Ballmer’s answer? We’re getting around to it.
“We have a significant release coming this year,” he said. “Not the full release we wanted to have this year but we have a significant release coming this year with Windows Mobile 6.5….We still don’t get some of the things that people want on the highest-end phones. Those will come on Windows Mobile 7 next year. Certainly I’m not, um–there’s opportunities for us to accelerate our execution in this area, and we’ve done a lot of work to really make sure we have a team that’s going to be able to accelerate. With that said, we did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones–just an important factoid to have. Blackberry was a little bit ahead, and Google was nowhere to be seen, except in Silicon Valley, I’m sure. But we’ll do our best to help you with that challenge.”
We’re doing our best? Not the answer the questioner was looking for, I’m sure. And noting that there were more Windows Mobile devices sold last year than Apple (AAPL) iPhones doesn’t make the disparity between the two any less vast. Finally, it’s all well and good that Microsoft is accelerating Windows Mobile development to better meet its competition. But that competition isn’t exactly standing still waiting for Microsoft to bring itself to parity. It lapped Microsoft two years ago, and if the software behemoth continues at its present pace, the competition will lap it again. Perhaps it already has.
Comments
Perhaps the reason Ballmer said “soon” is because he has no flippin idea when they will really be able to compete with the likes of iPhone. I’m not going to include Android in that sentence because there’s nothing there for MS to compete with yet.
As a Mid-Westerner I’m not even sure why Android is a part of this discussion. No where do I see users using Android. I think this is another case-in-point of Silicon Valley being too preoccupied with what Silicon Valley is doing and not the rest of the mainstream market.
Posted by Scott Stephens at March 5th, 2009 at 8:15 amBallmer’s remarks as quoted are nothing short of hysterical. It’s like listening to Michael Scott explaining something on The Office. That degree of awkward makes me cringe!
Posted by Brendan Walsh at March 5th, 2009 at 10:57 amBallmer said…
“With that said, we did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones — just an important factoid to have. Blackberry was a little bit ahead, and Google was nowhere to be seen, except in Silicon Valley, I’m sure. But we’ll do our best to help you with that challenge.”
Posted by jack deed at March 5th, 2009 at 11:02 amBalmer, understandably, has to shore up his products with BS.
It’s the IT lemmings that put up with Microsoft’s inferior products that galls me the most. First, by accepting for over a decade Microsoft’s insecure operating system, and now by accepting Microsoft’s inferior phone technology.
The masses are speaking by choosing technologies that just work from companies other than Microsoft, and now the IT lemmings have no cover or comfort from Microsoft. This is as it should be.
The sooner the IT culture changes the better it will be for consumers here and abroad.
Posted by Jose Hales-Garcia at March 5th, 2009 at 11:11 amIndeed, Ballmer’s drivel is par for the course, but what are the IT people doing continuing to obstruct the iPhone? Looking to Microsoft products as “more secure” is just comical.
They should be busy instead creating custom iPhone Apps for their particular business needs and making them as secure as they need to be.
Posted by Ted Todorov at March 5th, 2009 at 11:48 amIt seems to me that Microsoft is somewhat unwilling to do what they need to do to compete. Essentially this means validating Apple’s design by copying a good bit of it and then innovating from there. (I’ll never understand why a “close box” from a desktop windowing system has a place on a hand held.) Palm and in some respects Android have already validated many of Apple’s design decisions.
Microsoft’s approach has always been “top-down”. Make something the IT department loves and the users will deal with it. If this is indicative of Microsoft’s response to a “bottom-up” strategy, (give customers what they want and IT departments will eventually follow suit) I fear it will take quite some time (and dare I say much more than “Windows 7″) to get there.
Posted by Anders Brownworth at March 5th, 2009 at 2:38 pmI love my iPhone and MacBook, but I wouldn’t count out Microsoft yet. Inertia is a powerful force in corporate IT departments, and it offers Microsoft more time than it would otherwise warrant to rise to “bottom-up” challenge. Tellme’s voice recognition software may offer Microsoft an alternative path to closing the gap with Apple’s superior user experience.
Posted by Kawika Holbrook at March 5th, 2009 at 2:50 pmBallmer just after the iPhone introduction:
“There’s no way the iPhone will get any significant market share. No way.”
Wrong.
“It’s no good for email because it (the iPhone) doesn’t have a keyboard.”
I don’t see a keyboard on the phone projected behind him in the image above. The irony is too much sometimes.
The games have changed…in wireless/phones, search, music, operating systems, productivity software, cloud computing, etc…and I think Microsoft has stuck with somebody who only knows how to play the old game for far too long.
Posted by Murray Stevens at March 5th, 2009 at 3:04 pmI can never pass by a chance to ridicule Ballmer/Windows. First of all, he, Microsoft, did not sell Windows Mobile. Second rate, struggling phone companies did.
It is beyond obvious to everybody who does not wear a suit that Windows is not going to work on a phone and those that offer it are doomed.
How does this buffoon keep his job?
Posted by David Owens at March 5th, 2009 at 3:32 pmSimply put, Ballmer has no vision. He didn’t grow Microsoft, he inherited it from Bill. His background is operations so the best he can do is try to motivate his employees to innovate. But there’s a big difference between a visionary leader who can chart the course of a leading-edge technology company like Jobs and someone who simply keeps the wheels turning like Ballmer. That’s why Ballmer can only respond in terms of release dates and sales figures – the past and current. And that’s why Gates brought in Ray Ozzie to hopefully bring to Microsoft what Ballmer couldn’t provide – a way forward to compete.
Posted by Patrick Wang at March 5th, 2009 at 5:05 pmThis is just too rich. I have yet to hear one thing Steve Ballmer has said about the iPhone that has a shred of credibility. It’s like all those Wall Street people last year saying Bear Stearns was strong and doing well, or Merril Lynch is financially stable. Or that housing prices will continue up forever, and that it’s a good idea to get a reverse amortization mortgage on a house you can’t afford.
It’s all smoke and mirrors. Like Roger McNamee saying about the Palm Pre that not one iPhone user who got an iPhone in June of 2007 will be using iPhones a month after their contracts expire and the Pre is on sale.
Really?
Posted by Eric Welch at March 6th, 2009 at 7:11 amLove it. Ballmer can’t mention a new product without immediately rationalizing delay and at the same time lowering expectations. Keep the vaporware coming, big Steve! You can still fool all the people SOME of the time.
Posted by Steve Nagel at March 6th, 2009 at 11:45 am