Friday, January 16, 2009
No One Questioned Microsoft’s Viability When Gates Left…
What Apple might do if CEO Steve Jobs does not return from his medical leave of absence and how the company would fare without him have been the subject of much jawing this past week. And not without good reason. Wednesday’s announcement was certainly a stunner–one that shook Apple investors to the core of their timid little hearts. But analysts seem to think the company will continue to do just fine–with, or without, Jobs.
Not quite sure what to make of Microsoft’s new ad campaign? Here’s how Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services & Windows Business Group, explained it to the company’s employees Thursday evening in an all-hands memo: It’s an “icebreaker.”
In Sept. 1991, Microsoft exec Jim Allchin emailed CEO Bill Gates: “We must slow down Novell. As you said Bill, it has to be dramatic. We need to slaughter Novell before they get stronger.” And in 2001 Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer likened Linux to “cancer.” Later that year, Gates derided open-source licensing models like the one used by Linux as “Pacman-like.”
Windows Vista may end up being the least-desired best-selling OS in the history of operating systems. New research suggests that more than one in three new Vista PCs is downgraded to Windows XP. Performance and metrics researcher Devil Mountain Software reports that its survey of over 3,000 Vista PCs revealed nearly 35 percent to be running XP
I’m not sure which is more humiliating, the fact that the opening ceremony for this year’s Olympics in China culminated with the unwitting projection of the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) onto the roof of the National Stadium, presumably in full view of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who was in the audience. Or that the organizers of the event decided to run Windows XP and not Vista.
“Because they’re the super-small-market share guy, they get all these statements about them.” Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that of Apple back in 2005. And while it’s essentially still true today, it’s less so than it has been in years past. In separate reports today, research houses Gartner and IDC both note that Apple has climbed to third place in the desktop market in the states.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivered his last scheduled speech as the full-time chairman of Microsoft this morning. He spoke at length about Microsoft’s application development plan, the August debut of Internet Explorer 8, and the company’s efforts to compete with Google. And then the ‘Ballmer-Bot’ showed up …
