Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has poked fun at Google's Android platform during a Telstra Investor Day conference in Sydney today.Google Android is Google's first entry into the smartphone operating system market. Open sourced, it aims to gather the best developers to create a wide range of applications for its platform. Apple, Research In Motion, Symbian and Microsoft are the current market leaders.
Starting off nicely, ballmer said "This is their first phone, they're not easy," and "Let's see how they do."
"They (Google) can hire smart guys, hire smart people, blah-de-blah-de-blah," Mr Ballmer said. "I don't really understand their strategy, maybe somebody else does."
"Turning up to an investor meeting saying, 'we've just launched a mobile operating system with no revenue model, yay!' – I wouldn't do that," he said. "I don't get the business model."
Along with Ballmer, many employees seem more willing (or able) to answer questions based on competitors in an open and candid manner. The "I'm a PC" campaign seems to be a broader effort for Microsoft to "fight back" at competitors who regularly bash Microsoft. Last week at Microsoft's PDC there were several references in sessions to Google and Apple's efforts in devices and web services respectively.
Microsoft also seems more willing to adopt competitor products by introducing the DivX and XviD playback codecs for WMP natively and demonstrating competitors web services like Flickr in major keynotes. Perhaps this is a shift of tactic for the company where it is aligning itself with customers in the real world where people use many different services today and not just those of Microsoft.
Other more level headed Microsofties have said that Android is a cool platform, it is a shame that Ballmer is in charge of Microsoft as he doesn't do the company that good.
The one comment i will always remember from Microsoft is when Steve Jobs and Bill Gates done a Q&A at the D5, and it simply boiled down to the fact that the computing market is big enough for all of the players and that for Mac OS to succeed Windows doesn't have to lose, to which i apply to all computing markets from phones to operating systems. There is a place for a great many players.
Seriously now, you think Ballmer gives a damn about Google? Or is it possible that he's just looking for some dirt to sling at Google at every opportunity? I don't know about you, but I'll go with the latter.
Still waiting to hear more about how Ballmer is the only guy who knows about Google's magical workshop of millions that live underground reading your emails and pasting an advertisement that is generally only of your interest less than 50% of the time...
I'm sure Google are extremely confident in what they are doing. I suspect it's all about the usual - brand building.
Here he is talking about the iPhone when it was announced by Steve Jobs:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=C5oGaZIKYvo
Ironic that a basement-dwelling nerd commented on what I said? If that's how you choose to refer to yourself, then...sure. Irony, or self-fulfilling prophecy. You decide.
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