Ballmer to Retire

[Dysphoria]

Way overdue... the only reason he stayed for so long is because of his relationship with Gates.

 

He drove the company into the ground.... Mistake after mistake... Millions of dollars wasted...

 

Glad to see him go

[HawkMan]

Im glad hes gone.

Now Windows 9 looks promising again.

Sinofsky is the one you want to blame, Ballmer is the one who forced he out and forced the to add back in the start button and such in 8.1.

I any case, Win9 isn't going to return windows to the 90, times are moving forward,going back to the old pure desktop and star menu would be the sure death of both windows and MS

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

WUT? O.O

Your father is Jesus?

 

Eh??? LOL

 

How do you know? Windows 9 has even started yet...

 

Windows 9 started the second windows 8 was started, was started the second windows 7 was started.

 

It's not like they start a whole new code base.  Moreover, the planning for Win9 will be on the roadmap for the development of Win8.

 

MS has never beenasbig, successfull, sold as much or had as much innovation as under Ballmer, so a replacement will have some pretty big and impressive shoes to fill.

 

Spot on!

 

I don't think sinofsk could do it, he was let go because he doesn't listen to anyone else, doesn't want to cooperate and wanted his department to be everything. Not good for a leader.

 

Again, spot on!

 

And I have yet to see anyone who wanted Ballmer gone provide an actual good and valid reason for it. Is always he's anti FOSS or he's a idiot on stage. None of it has anything to do with with actual ability to run MS of course.

 

3rd time's a charm!

 

While they're looking inside and out, I suspect the next leader will have to come from inside

 

That 4 for 4!

[AJerman]

Can't say I'm too surprised. I was a big defender of Ballmer for a long time. As much as people complained, MS was doing well. The software they were producing was great. Windows 7 is probably one of the best OSes ever built. He  really helped do a lot of great work with MS and helped them grow considerably. Then came the recent change in direction. Don't tell Neowin, but there's a lot of negative feeling towards MS recently. Sales have been poor less than stellar, they've shot themselves in the foot multiple times with Windows, Xbox, and mobile, three of their biggest products, and all around they've just lost their spark. I can't think of a time in as long as I've used computers that the overall feel for MS that I've seen from people around me is so low. It's time to change it up. Ballmer is old enough and far rich enough to retire and do something different. MS is ready for a new perspective.

[fusi0n]

Awesome.. Maybe I will start liking MS again if they hire someone to make better consumer products that I like... 

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Way overdue... the only reason he stayed for so long is because of his relationship with Gates.

 

Utter crap!  You may believe that massive corporations work this way, but in this case, nope!

 

He drove the company into the ground.... Mistake after mistake... Millions of dollars wasted..

 

And yet they are still having outstandingly good results...  Right...

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

Can't say I'm too surprised. I was a big defender of Ballmer for a long time. As much as people complained, MS was doing well. The software they were producing was great. Windows 7 is probably one of the best OSes ever built. He  really helped do a lot of great work with MS and helped them grow considerably. Then came the recent change in direction. Don't tell Neowin, but there's a lot of negative feeling towards MS recently. Sales have been poor, they've shot themselves in the foot multiple times with Windows, Xbox, and mobile, three of their biggest products, and all around they've just lost their spark. I can't think of a time in as long as I've used computers that the overall feel for MS that I've seen from people around me is so low. It's time to change it up. Ballmer is old enough and far rich enough to retire and do something different. MS is ready for a new perspective.

 

This times a million.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

And yet they are still having outstandingly good results...  Right...

Show me where Windows 8 is outselling Windows 7?

Show me where Windows Phone is selling anything?

If they cant sell better than a previous product they have released, its a failure, even if they are making money.

[fusi0n]

Utter crap!  You may believe that massive corporations work this way, but in this case, nope!

 

And yet they are still having outstandingly good results...  Right...

They did make a lot of bad decisions.. 

[fusi0n]

Show me where Windows 8 is outselling Windows 7?

Show me where Windows Phone is selling anything?

If they cant sell better than a previous product they have released, its a failure, even if they are making money.

don't worry about it.. He won't stop arguing with you. 

[NinjaGinger]

Hopefully they will now  remember that desktop PCs exist and use a desktop with a start-button and list of programs that can then be selected. But only on desktops. Phones and tablets not included.

[HawkMan]

Way overdue... the only reason he stayed for so long is because of his relationship with Gates.

 

He drove the company into the ground.... Mistake after mistake... Millions of dollars wasted...

 

Glad to see him go

How is more sales than ever and millions upon millions earned anything you said ?

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

don't worry about it.. He won't stop arguing with you. 

Its okay im just stirring people up lol

 

[HawkMan]

Show me where Windows 8 is outselling Windows 7?

Show me where Windows Phone is selling anything?

If they cant sell better than a previous product they have released, its a failure, even if they are making money.

We don't sell any windows 7 laptops anymore and haven't for a long time. Customers don't have a problem with it, the who ask for windows 7 are quick turn around when you show them 8 and that they can use it just like 7 jus with a bigger more organized star menu

[Arceles]

Well, he is out, let's see if the new ceo that follows him doesn't trash windows and other divisions of what they currently are, because negativity right now is almost a synonim of MS. How awesome they were with windows 7 and xbox 360... all of that went to hell with windows 8 and xbox 1.

[Dysphoria]

 

And yet they are still having outstandingly good results...  Right...

According to whom? It's been well known arround everyone in MS that the board did not support him.. and they actually wanted to take him down few years back.

 

Errors and mistakes... empty promises and uneducated public statements have made him the laughing stock of MS.

 

Lets not mention the money he wasted on useless rebradning of several services, internal restructuring, and loss of direction, also the mobile phone that no-one wanted... yep vista as well... and I think the nail in the coffin was the surface.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Show me where Windows 8 is outselling Windows 7?

 

Comparitive figures for the timeline of release against previous versions shows that they are actually pretty much level pegging.  7's initial sales were crud due to bad feeling after Vista.

[HawkMan]

Its okay im just stirring people up lol

Ah, so you're just trolling? That's what you're saying ?

Funny, that's against the TOS though...

[Dot Matrix]

Show me where Windows 8 is outselling Windows 7?

Show me where Windows Phone is selling anything?

If they cant sell better than a previous product they have released, its a failure, even if they are making money.

What an utter load of bullocks

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

don't worry about it.. He won't stop arguing with you.

 

And you feel I should because you disagree?  Please learn how debate works.

 

They did make a lot of bad decisions..

 

They most certainly made some very high-profile unliked decisions.

 

According to whom?

 

I would suggest: Their accountants!

 

It's been well known arround everyone in MS that the board did not support him.. and they actually wanted to take him down few years back.

 

Fully aware of the supposed sentiment.  Never really been documented has it...  Not in any concrete way.

 

Lets not mention the money he wasted on useless rebradning of several services, internal restructuring, and loss of direction

 

Very much give you these ones!

 

also the mobile phone that no-one wanted...

 

MS HAVE to be part of the mobile market.  This generation may not be doing so well, but at least they are part of the industry.  I see WinPhone as a success in that they are at least now players.

 

yep vista as well...

 

Yeah, it was very poorly received.  I personally had no issue but don't dispute that there were issues.  I'd not wholly see Ballmer as the problem here though.

 

and I think the nail in the coffin was the surface.

 

I think it's done very well again in the same way as I judge Windows Phone.

[vcfan]

Under Ballmer?s tenure as CEO, Microsoft?s annual revenue surged from $25 billion to $70 billion, while its net income has increased 215 percent to $23 billion. Although these gains have come from the existing Windows and Office franchises, Ballmer also built new businesses such as the data centers division ($6.6 billion in profit for 2011) and the Xbox entertainment and devices division ($8.9 billion). In terms of leading their company?s total annual profit growth, Ballmer?s tenure at Microsoft (16.4 percent) has surpassed the performances of other well-known CEOs such as General Electric?s Jack Welch (11.2 percent) and IBM?s Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. (2 percent). This diversified product mix has helped to offset the company?s reliance on PCs and mobile computing devices; in reporting quarterly results during April 2013, while Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 have not managed to increase their market share above single digits, the company increased its profit 19 percent over the previous quarter in 2012, as the Microsoft Business Division (including Office 365) and Server and Tools division are each larger than the Windows division

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer

 

[MorganX]

Im glad hes gone. 

Now Windows 9 looks promising again. 

 

It isn't that the Modern UI vision is inherently bad, it's that what RTM'd was, and that the management is/was so out of touch (with Sinofsky out of control), communication among divisions has to be nonexistent based on the lack of interoperability of the product lines and well, it's just time for him to go. Under his continued leadership the company just hasn't adapted to what current "consumers" want or how they use products.

 

Servers are going great, but the consumer stuff, the stuff not so profitable, out-of-touch.

 

/IMO

[Dot Matrix]

Hopefully they will now remember that desktop PCs exist and use a desktop with a start-button and list of programs that can then be selected. But only on desktops. Phones and tablets not included.

Windows 8 already has this. Windows 8 is still very much a desktop OS, and Windows 8.1 will halp out as well.

[Rigby]

[Dysphoria]

Hey Nik,

 

When I say the phone that no one liked, I am talking about the Microsoft Kin.

 

You should check the write off on that uterbull.... Millions....

 

Surface... interesting design with a lot of problems, starting from marketing strategy, pricing, to hardware shortcoming, like: battery life, ackward kickstand, lack of HD space, flexy keyboard, and the worse of all  Ballmers public statement couple of years ago trashing tablets and saying there is no place for them in the market, just to release one couple of years later with the some of the same shortcomings that they well knew did not work in the past.