That's simply not true. Gates was the CEO up until 2000 and though Ballmer had a lot of influence the Senior VPs still reported to Gates. People like Brad Sil

That's simply not true. Gates was the CEO up until 2000 and though Ballmer had a lot of influence the Senior VPs still reported to Gates. People like Brad Silverberg and Jim Allchin weren't taking their marching orders from Ballmer during the 90s (and I'd personally argue Silverberg had a lot more to do with Microsoft's success than Ballmer did). In that context the '00s have largely been Ballmer taking the money from Microsoft's 90s victories and funneling it into a series of failed attempts to enter new markets. As for Jobs he introduced the first iPod 9 months after Ballmer became CEO of Microsoft and I think we all know how Apple's fortunes have gone since then