Bonum Certa Men Certa

Steve Ballmer Fails in Tablets; Among Microsoft Windows Proponents, Only 9% Want Ballmer to Stay

Steve Ballmer might be the best thing that ever happened to Linux (and worst for Microsoft)

HP Slate - Steve Balmer holds GNU/Linux
Original photo here, fair use for humour purposes



Summary: As Linux grows in portables/mobiles, pressure on Microsoft grows; Microsoft-oriented people begin to ask whether Microsoft should fire Steve Ballmer

THE PREVIOUS post talked about Microsoft's failure in mobile phones. It was only last month that John Dvorak published the article "Whither Microsoft and the Kin," which he summarised as follows:

Software giant is doomed in mobile market


The "mobile market" extends to devices that are somewhere between desktops and mobiles. Sub-notebooks and tablets are key areas and they are growth areas, too. Dvorak's colleague has just been referring to his article (which we missed at the time) and it connects Microsoft's failure in mobile to pressure for Steve Ballmer to leave (or be fired).

A firestorm is raging through the media and the blogosphere these days over Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and whether or not it's time for him to go.

[...]

It remains to be seen whether Microsoft can catch up in the newest growth engines, smart phones and tablets, both huge rocket ships for rival Apple. Its Windows Phone 7 software is due later this year, but many are already skeptical of its chances for success. See John Dvorak column.

So for now, investors might as well heed Egbert's advice and "stop expecting from Microsoft innovation a la Apple and start expecting low-cost mass market adaptations of popular technologies, a la China."


The industry is moving to mobile devices (even PC/server giants like Dell make phones) and all Ballmer has done do far is the making of promises [1, 2] because of pressure from Apple [1, 2] (Ballmer chooses to ignore or dismiss Linux/Android in tablets as he only names Apple). Well, actually, Android (Linux powered) is the one to catch up with for the same reason that Android phones are overtaking hypePhone. Over at ECT Richard Adhikari acknowledges this and he currently writes about "Microsoft's Mobile Morass":

Microsoft rekindled its on-again, off-again love affair with tablet PCs late last month, as CEO Steve Ballmer told financial analysts that it's giving top priority to its tablet project.

However, he was vague about the details. The tablet would run on Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) forthcoming Oak Trail processors, he said -- but these won't be available for about another year. At different times, he mentioned Windows 7 and Windows Phone, in a manner that hid more than it revealed about the operating system such a tablet would run.


Microsoft has already tried this with Slate and with Courier, but both are dead before arrival.

Business Insider says that "Steve Ballmer Has No Respect For An Android Tablet" (being blind at one's own peril) and the article begins with:

Steve Ballmer doesn't consider Google's Android a worthy competitor in the burgeoning tablet market. Speaking with analysts on Thursday about tablets, Ballmer said, "If with the application base, with the tools that we have, with the user understanding and momentum and everything going on, we can't compete with...whatever the weird collection of Android machines is going to look like, shame on us."


The interesting thing is that a clear defeat in the mobile space is part of the reason shareholders want Ballmer out (since years ago when they thought Microsoft would buy RIM). Mac-oriented sites are poking fun at Ballmer right now and even Microsoft boosters like Jason Hiner are fed up [1, 2]. Hiner's colleague at TechRepublic (whitepapers pusher filled with Microsoft boosters) weighs in; Inspired by Hiner, Mark Kaelin decides to create a poll: "Should Microsoft fire Steve Ballmer?"

The results at the time of writing are as follows:

# Yes, but take time to find a good replacement (50%) # Yes, ASAP (31%) # Doesn't matter, it's too late (10%) # No, he is doing a great job (9%)

So only less than 10% have confidence in Microsoft's CEO. This is a poll conducted in a Windows blog (it's called "Microsoft Windows"), i.e. it should be seen as tilted in Microsoft's favour. If this poll was conducted in a GNU/Linux-oriented blog, many would vote for Ballmer to stay because he is crushing Microsoft. Being a Linux-hostile bully has caused him great harm.

Recent Techrights' Posts

More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Links 29/03/2024: Fentanylware (TikTok) Fines and UK High Court Makes It Seem OK to Assassinate People Wrongly (Falsely) Associated With "Russia"
Links for the day
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries