4 ms·

No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. The stuff that those of us who flipped to Apple while he was in charge used (Zu

No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. The stuff that those of us who flipped to Apple while he was in charge used (Zune, Windows Vista, original Surface, Windows Phone) were consistently underwhelming. However, Ballmer was simply inarguably an effective CEO from the perspective of investors. He grew the enterprise business consistently (which has a huge amount of value for legacy purposes), and some of the stuff he launched to support that (Azure, notably) positioned the company to grow in new ways that Nadella has really leveraged. He wasn't a visionary at all, but Ballmer was one of the best executor CEOs out there.

alanh 10y ago
For the kids out there: “original Surface” isn’t what you think. It was a “smart table” and its most compelling use case was to present a menu right underneath your place setting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc
- doodpants 10y ago
  Don't forget this classic parody video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY
  - alanh 10y ago
    There’s a distinct trend of YouTube commenters who believe that the Surface (tablet) is somehow a descendent of the Surface table, just because their names are the same. Interesting. Funny video — thanks for sharing.
- the_watcher 10y ago
  Heh, thanks for reminding me of that.
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  For me its most compelling use case was as a gaming table. At Origins I got to see it used for D&D. Quite fun, but too expensive an option for the average gamer (who isn't already buying Geek Chic furniture).
protomyth 10y ago
> No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. Doesn't that ignore the XBox and the dominance of Windows in the consumer market?
- B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
  Let us know what consumer market products you think MS will have by 2018.
  - protomyth 10y ago
    Satya Nadella is in charge of Microsoft, not Ballmer, so I don't see the relevance of 2018 for the article.
MarkMc 10y ago
> Ballmer was simply inarguably an effective CEO from the perspective of investors. I'm not so sure. Imagine Microsoft had a lazy/disciplined CEO who said, "Windows and Office development only. No Bing, no XBox, no Azure, no Windows Phone, no Nokia". Would the shareholders be richer now?
- yuhong 10y ago
  Especially with declining PC sales.
unscaled 10y ago
> However, Ballmer was simply inarguably an effective CEO from the perspective of investors. Reasonably effective, but not inarguably, since investor basically care only about one thing only: RoI. Under Ballmer's reign, the stock generally remained flat. Microsoft paid dividends, so investors still got some RoI, but not even close to what they could get on Apple in the same era. Under Nadella the share prices went up by 50% (100% really if you count from when Ballmer announced he'd be leaving), so Nadella is inarguably a more effective CEO for short term investors by several orders of magnitude. Nadella's strategy may be slightly more risky, so Ballmer might be an arguably better CEO for risk-averse long-term investors.

alanh 10y ago

For the kids out there: “original Surface” isn’t what you think. It was a “smart table” and its most compelling use case was to present a menu right underneath your place setting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc

doodpants 10y ago
Don't forget this classic parody video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY
- alanh 10y ago
  There’s a distinct trend of YouTube commenters who believe that the Surface (tablet) is somehow a descendent of the Surface table, just because their names are the same. Interesting. Funny video — thanks for sharing.
the_watcher 10y ago
Heh, thanks for reminding me of that.
Jtsummers 10y ago
For me its most compelling use case was as a gaming table. At Origins I got to see it used for D&D. Quite fun, but too expensive an option for the average gamer (who isn't already buying Geek Chic furniture).

protomyth 10y ago

> No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. Doesn't that ignore the XBox and the dominance of Windows in the consumer market?

B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
Let us know what consumer market products you think MS will have by 2018.
- protomyth 10y ago
  Satya Nadella is in charge of Microsoft, not Ballmer, so I don't see the relevance of 2018 for the article.

MarkMc 10y ago

> Ballmer was simply inarguably an effective CEO from the perspective of investors. I'm not so sure. Imagine Microsoft had a lazy/disciplined CEO who said, "Windows and Office development only. No Bing, no XBox, no Azure, no Windows Phone, no Nokia". Would the shareholders be richer now?

yuhong 10y ago
Especially with declining PC sales.

unscaled 10y ago

> However, Ballmer was simply inarguably an effective CEO from the perspective of investors. Reasonably effective, but not inarguably, since investor basically care only about one thing only: RoI. Under Ballmer's reign, the stock generally remained flat. Microsoft paid dividends, so investors still got some RoI, but not even close to what they could get on Apple in the same era. Under Nadella the share prices went up by 50% (100% really if you count from when Ballmer announced he'd be leaving), so Nadella is inarguably a more effective CEO for short term investors by several orders of magnitude. Nadella's strategy may be slightly more risky, so Ballmer might be an arguably better CEO for risk-averse long-term investors.