Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, is known for pulling some pretty interesting stunts and making direct comments putting down competitors of Microsoft. For example his comment back in July stating that Apple's Mac growth is a "rounding error". The war between the two companies have been going on for years now, and yesterday Ballmer pulled yet another stunt at a private company meeting at Seattle's Safeco Field.According to Todd Bishop over at TechFlash, Ballmer was taking the stage for the event and "he spotted someone at field level, allegedly a member of the Windows group, using an iPhone to take his picture. Ballmer grabbed the Apple device from the employee and made some funny remarks as everyone booed. Then he put it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it, before walking away."
After Ballmer was finished up his stunt, important details were announced at the event. Bing 2.0 was the main highlight of the meeting, and according to some tweets from employees of Microsoft, it will be powered by Silverlight.
Update: Engadget claim to have the picture taken from the iPhone above Ballmer's head:
Any other company's products probably wouldn't had rang a bell with Ballmer.
He just ended up doing a free publicity stunt for Apple.
Would had been wiser to just ignored it, at least in public.
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I'm sure you'd get the same reaction if you were running around the Verizon Wireless Headquarters as an employee with an AT&T phone on your side...
Also, the fact that the iPhone has good MS Exchange Server support is a good thing for Microsoft.
Heckled?
You'd probably get killed if you did that in Britain, depending on the team.
Do people 'really' believe this? The iPhone since it was released has been behind on almost every aspect of telephone technology and convergence devices.
The only feature it brought to a Phone that was not common was the multi-touch display.
It lacked basic features, including Bluetooth and other major features that some people had just expected out of their phone for YEARS.
Hitting a button on a bluetooth headset or from your car and saying 'Dial 555-1111' is still a better interface than having to take your phone out of your pocket and tap the screen.
Even in Video and Music playing, it was behind the current technology, as on even free models from carriers you could use SD cards, and also use the voice technology to say 'Play All Music' without having to touch the phone.
Even the 3G technology was behind, as my first 3G phone was from 2004 with a full web browser.
I know that more advanced features may have not been 'common' knowledge or the fact that a lot phones were multimedia devices in addition to phones, but that doesn't mean Apple did anything.
Heck go look up the old Motorola Razr V3m or v715, they were equal in audio video features to an iPhone and were out in 2004-2005, and had real 3G with TV streaming and real STEREO bluetooth with voice activated dialing, and they were 'cheap' phones...
Understand?
what did apple give to microsoft ? they certainly didnt give them any iphones...
Good? Not by a long shot. I know they licensed ActiveSync from MS but the implementation sucks. I've now got several clients that have employees using iPhones at the work place and they absolutely are not reliable. Some connect instantly and without problems. Others don't work at all or require messing around with them for long periods of time. And with users that are on the same mail server! I've had other iPhones that wouldn't connect at all and needed to be replaced.
No, it's not "good" Exchange support. It's "okay" at best.
No, it's not "good" Exchange support. It's "okay" at best.
Yeah, in no way could this be due to Exchange being a complete POS. When it makes gmail look good, a server that is hosted a long way away, compares to the one in my company office, you know there is a problem.
Maybe you just don't know how to set it up properly?
Your analogy does not parallel the situation. Apple isn't giving new technology to Microsoft. It's more akin to wearing another team's jersey to practice than it is to sharing technologies.
Nah, that would make too much sense!
Finished? Didn't the code go RTM?
Not even close, it hasn't even gone out to testers yet...
Windows Mobile 7 not Windows 7. WM 7 is still in pre-beta stages (most probably) and right now the world is waiting for WM 6.5 very soon.
I agree with getting WinMo7 out with a better touch interface.
However, technically WinMo 5.x is more advanced than the iPhone's OS. It is just the 'interface' that seems dated. And 6.0 and 6.5 are even MORE 'technically' advanced than the iPhone, and they add a good touch interface. (Especially 6.5)
I think MS should just ditch the WinCE platform, go with the embedded Win7 architecture and let phones run a full version of Win7 and even add in x86 emulation for applications on ARM and other CPUs.
They could get Win7 into a 1GB ROM, and that is cheap today and not un-reasonable for phone anymore.
However, technically WinMo 5.x is more advanced than the iPhone's OS. It is just the 'interface' that seems dated. And 6.0 and 6.5 are even MORE 'technically' advanced than the iPhone, and they add a good touch interface. (Especially 6.5)
I think MS should just ditch the WinCE platform, go with the embedded Win7 architecture and let phones run a full version of Win7 and even add in x86 emulation for applications on ARM and other CPUs.
They could get Win7 into a 1GB ROM, and that is cheap today and not un-reasonable for phone anymore.
Ha, that is funny. Yeah, Winmo is more advanced! That is for sure. As someone who has actually used that horrible excuse for an OS (sure, it was good 4 years ago, before we expected more), it is in no way more advanced.
Yeah, agree. Not a big deal.
This would be like offering the CEO of Coke a Pepsi to refresh himself before a presentation.
I take it he gets mad to when he walks into people's offices and sees MacBooks. lol
Wow, you'd lose your job and be arrested for assault over a crappy iPhone (which was not harmed in any way incidentally).
Uh huh, sure you would. I highly doubt you're gonna punch out the CEO of Microsoft.
theres a saying around where i live which says that he would actually enjoy that Pepsi, one because he's probably sick of drinking his own drink , and two because he's trying to find an inspiration to make Coke better!
but this is Ballmer, and he would never do anything like that...
Yeah - always preferred a CEO who acts like a d**k to one who competes by showing a better product myself
Most CEOs are dicks, just some of them sit there are pretend not to be. Others just act like themselves. I prefer Steve to some guy who is just a PR puppet, and behind the scenes is just as big a ******. For some reason, you get this with IT CEOs, Steve, Steve, Larry, they are all big characters.
For someone who has been doing and acting weird for years, it is pretty much considered normal. If Ballmer was a joke, he wouldn't be the head of MS.
If someone took a laptop with Windows to a private Apple meeting you can bet Stevie would be praised all around for doing much worse. That's just the double-standard that we live in.
Bahahaha best phone on the market, please, you gotta stop kidding yourself
Actually you need to stop kidding yourself, nothing from the Android camp, Palm or Windows Mobile comes close.
Your right, their miles ahead. The iPhone just recently got copy and paste and mms, something which has been around for quite a few years. The iPhone may look nice but it lacks some serious features *cough* multitasking
I'd say Android comes close, but it seriously irritates me to see people so blindly negative towards the iPhone. I guess it's their loss at the end of the day, if they prefer inferior products because of a brand, so be it.
well as long as its a macbook running windows...they do beat alot of other laptops at things like Vista boot times, after all...
Yeah, so even without those aspects, it was clearly superior to any phone on the market. You can pretend that it isn't, but the facts don't lie. Unlike Windows, people don't have to get an iphone, but they still do. 50 million iphone and touches to date, an amazing success. They did it by having the best hardware and software. Sure, blackberry are up there as well. Microsoft has nothing even close.
I certainly don't mean everyone fits to the same description. My post only concerns that do fit to the description ;-)
However I agree about the rest of your comment. But then, maybe I agree because I do have some form of a life, and don't spill pizza sauce down me, and use a half-decent monitor.
Oh dear.
I think he's desperately trying to "break the mould" of how to be a CEO [E.g. Richard Branson] but in a bad way.
Of course it's a big deal. Ballmer should have brought his *own* iPhone rather than illegally snatching & toying around with someone else's.
Anyway, who uses Silverlight? Probably nobody, Except the M$ fans and Windows 7 adoptors.
Of course it's a big deal. Ballmer should have brought his *own* iPhone rather than illegally snatching & toying around with someone else's.
Anyway, who uses Silverlight? Probably nobody, Except the M$ fans and Windows 7 adoptors.
are you living under a rock? Even netflix will be implementing silverlight by the end of this year.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/netflix-updates/
Of course it's a big deal. Ballmer should have brought his *own* iPhone rather than illegally snatching & toying around with someone else's.
Anyway, who uses Silverlight? Probably nobody, Except the M$ fans and Windows 7 adoptors.
are you living under a rock? Even netflix will be implementing silverlight by the end of this year.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/netflix-updates/
Ok, so one person besides Microsoft
I'm not surprised Ballmer went off tap and grabbed a guys iPhone from the crowd every Windows Mobile meeting he ever sits in on has the iPhone mentioned guaranteed.
Why neowin did not mention the newest apple ad ?!
because it has no way of approaching it to be criticized?
or it does not have the potential to start a flame war?
Why neowin did not mention the newest apple ad ?!
because it has no way of approaching it to be criticized?
or it does not have the potential to start a flame war?
Hm... I actually hadn't seen the latest ad... But I am going to check that out now...
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