He may be the top dog at Microsoft, but Steve Ballmer has never held back when asked about the competition. Today he must’ve been feeling even more relaxed, shooting bullets at both iPhone and Android.
Ballmer firmly believes that Windows Phone can sit somewhere in between the “highly controlled” iPhone experience and the “wild, uncontrolled” Android experience. He even stated today that Android was suceptible to malware…. we’re guessing he’s never used Windows on a desktop PC.
Personally I’m a little confused. I appreciate that he’s eager to sell Windows Phone and wants to point out weaknesses in the competition, but is it wise to call the iPhone “highly priced” when handsets like the Nokia 920 are strapped to exclusivity deals?
This from a man who laughed at the iPhone and doubted that it would ever sell in great numbers.
Microsoft have a huge hill to climb with Windows Phone, a hill they drove past several times many years ago before eventually finding. It’s still early days and Microsoft are still slipping around in the mud at the very bottom.
Link – Techcrunch
I’m also personally a little confused…….. and saddened as well by the tone of this article by Leigh Geary himself. I’ve read anti-MS articles on this site written by other contributors but the fact that this one comes directly from Leigh Geary is frankly quite shocking.
When MS was initially (as Leigh Geary puts it) driving around the bottom of the hill with the likes of Windows Mobile and the SPV phones it was the enabler that Leigh Geary leveraged to set this site up and gain followers. In 2004 I was one of those followers and would eagerly check this site for downloads, reviews and unboxings. Let me tell you, this site was superb. Truly top notch and streets ahead of any other mobile related websites around.
However, articles like the above leave a bad taste in my mouth. It’s not because I’m some sort of staunch loyalist to MS but because this article takes the site on a turn to trashy tabloidism and I’d never before felt that particular vibe coming from the founder himself. I’m sad to say this but Leigh you’ve disappointed me. That comes from me as a fan who has been following your posts and website on and off for the better part of 9 years.
Well what more can I say. I’m not going to make ridiculous threats of leaving the site and never coming back but I suppose I should try to help out any newbies to the site who have just bought a Windows Phone and have been a little bemused by Leigh’s article (may I call it a rant?). For you guys you might want to check out the All About Windows Phone site as I’ve been quite impressed with Rafe Blandford and his cool, balanced and informative approach. In fact that site is fast becoming everything that this site used to be.
Leigh Geary, I really really really hope that you were just having an off-day when you wrote this article. My fingers and toes will be crossed whenever I read your articles in future. Mind you perhaps your strategy now is to curry favour with users of Android and Apple – if so then fair enough.