Ballmer jokes with former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki
Monday, March 10, 2008 - 09:28 AM EST"Mr Kawasaki did not hesitate to bring up past embarrassing moments for Mr Ballmer, including references in an lawsuit that claimed Mr Ballmer threw a chair at a former employee who said he was leaving Microsoft for Google," Wakabayashi reports. "'Don't pick up a chair and throw it at me,' Mr Kawasaki said with a laugh. 'Don't go monkey on me either.'
"At one point, Mr Kawasaki asked Mr Ballmer if he viewed Apple like a Chihuahua that Microsoft kicks off its leg from time to time. Mr Ballmer proceeded to yelp like a dog before praising Apple," Wakabayashi reports. "Later, in response to Mr Ballmer's statement that Apple 'punted' in web services, Mr Kawasaki, known for his ardent support of Apple products, said Apple may argue that Microsoft has punted in operating systems, a reference to some consumer dissatisfaction with the new Windows Vista operating system."
"'They'd be wrong. Every day, statistically they'd be wrong. Last time I checked, there were a lot of governments that think we have a very high market share,' said Mr Ballmer, who joked earlier that Mr Kawasaki's super-thin Apple MacBook Air lacked half the features of a PC," Wakabayashi reports.
Ballmer also "pledged that the company would gain share against Google in online advertising and web searching, even if it's his 'last breath' at the company," Wakabayashi reports.
Full article here.
Kathleen Lau reports for ComputerWorld Canada, "Not surprisingly, Microsoft Corp.’s CEO Steve Ballmer is short on praises for the MacBook Air. Joking that the laptop is heavier than his PC, he pretended to stumble from his chair from the weight of the device in his hands during a speech in Las Vegas Thursday. 'That thing’s missing half the things on my PC. Where’s the DVD drive?'"
"Ballmer also commended Apple Inc. when jokingly asked by Kawasaki whether he perceived the company as 'this little Chihuahua that you just kick away.' After failing to resist the urge to mimic the bark of a Chihuahua, Ballmer said Microsoft has a larger footprint and that it's 'trying to continue to compete with all our vigour and energy,'" Lau reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Citymark" for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Market share is all Microtanic has; they can't say they have the superior OS, because that has never been true. But, the days of Micrtosoft counting on the general public's tech ignorance is waning. That's probably why all Ballmer seems to want to talks about (in the full article) is Google, Google, Google and making Microsoft into an online search and advertising instead of trying to continue tot sell them bloated, spaghetti-coded, upside-down and backwards poorly-faked Mac OSes.
Ballmer's PC laptop can have all the serial ports his tiny pea brain desires, but it'll always be missing Mac OS X and the superior Mac-only apps. Only Apple Macs can run everything that's worth running. Ballmer's OS-limited PC is crippled from the outset. And, if you really want a full featured notebook, Apple hasn't stopped making the MacBook and the powerful MacBook Pro; in fact, they just updated them, as Ballmer likely knows all too well.
Lastly, a toast: "May Steve Ballmer helm Microsoft for as long as it takes!
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"there were a lot of governments that think we have a very high market share"
the same governments who are suing them?