There’s an interesting interview with Steve Ballmer over at TechCrunch today. He did touch on mobility, discussing the “Microsoft Phone” that kinda got revealed yesterday with two phones appearing based on Sharp hardware. Although they’re not “built by Microsoft”, they may have Microsoft branding on, so it’s interesting to see Steve once again state..
“We don’t wan’t to cross the chasm in the short run and lose the war in the long run and that’s why we think the software play is the right play for us for high volume, even though some of the guys in the market today with vertically oriented solutions may do just fine.”
So – Microsoft will only be dealing with the software and there’ll be “multiple points of manufacture” with others will be doing the hardware. Period. Get the full video here, below or get the full transcript. Steve also talks about the Zune HD, search competition and the notion of “three screens and a cloud”. He also pronounced “niche” in a very strange way. (Sorry, just had to say that Steve)
Link – TechCrunch.com