8 ms·

Can't Microsoft do better than Elop ? Gates and Balmer were visionary founders in their time. I am not sure Elop will measure up ; he seems to be only lookin

Can't Microsoft do better than Elop ? Gates and Balmer were visionary founders in their time. I am not sure Elop will measure up ; he seems to be only looking out for himself.

halviti 13y ago
Ballmer from half a decade ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
- Touche 13y ago
  He was laughing at the $500 on-contract iPhone that quickly had its price lowered.
  - gnaffle 13y ago
    In other words, he was unable to anticipate that Apple would be able reduce the price of the iPhone, like they did with the iPod?
    - Touche 13y ago
      Apple miscalculated the optimal price initially and then changed it a few months later. No, obviously he couldn't anticipate that. Microsoft squandered their lead in smartphones, you can blame them and Ballmer for that, but the particular video people love to continuously bring up has nothing to do with where MS made mistakes.
      - gnaffle 13y ago
        I would on the contrary take it as obvious that any CEO of a competing company would take the iPhone as a threat, and anticipate and plan for any possibility, just from having looked at history and seen where Apple went with for instance the iPod. I think this video very clearly shows how Ballmer managed to not take the iPhone seriously, and that has everything to do with why Microsoft made mistakes and were slow to respond from 2007 onwards. The same thing happened with the iPad as well. From everyting he said, you could see that he regarded them as toys.
pauljburke 13y ago
Ballmer a visionary founder? That's wrong on at least two counts out of a possible three.
- manishsharan 13y ago
  Do you remember that "developers developers developers .." bit. Can you recall any other executive of a multi-billion corp who was that passionate about developers? I appreciated a executive who was that passionate about third party developers. Also, he was part of a founding team that built a software giant ! I am a *NIX/Java guy but I appreciate Microsoft SDKs and Tool sets. Ballmer has not been as successful as hoped , but he is ok in my book.
  - angersock 13y ago
    Yep. It's pretty clear that of the big houses out there, only Microsoft really gives two shits about every developer, ninja rockstar or punchclock.
- colmvp 13y ago
  Ballmer was at Microsoft when they were sub 50 people. Maybe he's not a visionary founder but potentially a visionary foundational employee? Considering how long he's been at the company, I'm not sure how one separates Microsoft's high in the 90s from Ballmer.
tdees40 13y ago
It's hard to get excited about the guy who ran Nokia into the ground.
- friendstock 13y ago
  He could write another "burning platform" memo and run Microsoft into the ground too...
- esw 13y ago
  I'm not excited about the prospects of Elop as CEO either, but Nokia was already in trouble when he took the helm.
- rbanffy 13y ago
  Only if you believe he left Microsoft and worked for Nokia. If you consider he has always been working for Microsoft all the time, he successfully completed the mission of running Nokia into the ground so Microsoft could buy the salvage.
  - r00fus 13y ago
    Yeah, as an investor, that's the kind of guy I'd like to have managing my company (not). Hatchet men are useful, well paid, but definitely not high-profile, except to knock down and make their successor look better by comparison (see HP: Apotheker and Whitman).
aryastark 13y ago
Maybe the age of HN is too low to remember, but Gates wasn't visionary. Microsoft's entire business was built on embrace-and-extend strategy. Gates was shrewd and ran Microsoft like the mafia ran Chicago. All this talk of MS needing a forward-thinking visionary with ideas is just wrong. Just look at the environment these tech companies inhabit. You have Google, Samsung, and Apple all declaring patent war. That's how it has always been. Go back to Sun and Microsoft. Or Netscape. Or what MS did to IBM. It goes on and on. Oh, sure, on the consumer side all these companies appear to be innovating and everything is peachy. But that's marketing. In reality it's a cut-throat, winner-takes-all game they are playing. Want Microsoft to succeed? I don't think most people on HN have the stomach for it. You like open source. Open standards. Playing fair. When Microsoft was good, they were really bad.

Can't Microsoft do better than Elop ? Gates and Balmer were visionary founders in their time. I am not sure Elop will measure up ; he seems to be only looking out for himself.

halviti 13y ago

Ballmer from half a decade ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

Touche 13y ago
He was laughing at the $500 on-contract iPhone that quickly had its price lowered.
- gnaffle 13y ago
  In other words, he was unable to anticipate that Apple would be able reduce the price of the iPhone, like they did with the iPod?
  - Touche 13y ago
    Apple miscalculated the optimal price initially and then changed it a few months later. No, obviously he couldn't anticipate that. Microsoft squandered their lead in smartphones, you can blame them and Ballmer for that, but the particular video people love to continuously bring up has nothing to do with where MS made mistakes.
    - gnaffle 13y ago
      I would on the contrary take it as obvious that any CEO of a competing company would take the iPhone as a threat, and anticipate and plan for any possibility, just from having looked at history and seen where Apple went with for instance the iPod. I think this video very clearly shows how Ballmer managed to not take the iPhone seriously, and that has everything to do with why Microsoft made mistakes and were slow to respond from 2007 onwards. The same thing happened with the iPad as well. From everyting he said, you could see that he regarded them as toys.

pauljburke 13y ago

Ballmer a visionary founder? That's wrong on at least two counts out of a possible three.

manishsharan 13y ago
Do you remember that "developers developers developers .." bit. Can you recall any other executive of a multi-billion corp who was that passionate about developers? I appreciated a executive who was that passionate about third party developers. Also, he was part of a founding team that built a software giant ! I am a *NIX/Java guy but I appreciate Microsoft SDKs and Tool sets. Ballmer has not been as successful as hoped , but he is ok in my book.
- angersock 13y ago
  Yep. It's pretty clear that of the big houses out there, only Microsoft really gives two shits about every developer, ninja rockstar or punchclock.
colmvp 13y ago
Ballmer was at Microsoft when they were sub 50 people. Maybe he's not a visionary founder but potentially a visionary foundational employee? Considering how long he's been at the company, I'm not sure how one separates Microsoft's high in the 90s from Ballmer.

tdees40 13y ago

It's hard to get excited about the guy who ran Nokia into the ground.

friendstock 13y ago
He could write another "burning platform" memo and run Microsoft into the ground too...
esw 13y ago
I'm not excited about the prospects of Elop as CEO either, but Nokia was already in trouble when he took the helm.
rbanffy 13y ago
Only if you believe he left Microsoft and worked for Nokia. If you consider he has always been working for Microsoft all the time, he successfully completed the mission of running Nokia into the ground so Microsoft could buy the salvage.
- r00fus 13y ago
  Yeah, as an investor, that's the kind of guy I'd like to have managing my company (not). Hatchet men are useful, well paid, but definitely not high-profile, except to knock down and make their successor look better by comparison (see HP: Apotheker and Whitman).

aryastark 13y ago

Maybe the age of HN is too low to remember, but Gates wasn't visionary. Microsoft's entire business was built on embrace-and-extend strategy. Gates was shrewd and ran Microsoft like the mafia ran Chicago. All this talk of MS needing a forward-thinking visionary with ideas is just wrong. Just look at the environment these tech companies inhabit. You have Google, Samsung, and Apple all declaring patent war. That's how it has always been. Go back to Sun and Microsoft. Or Netscape. Or what MS did to IBM. It goes on and on. Oh, sure, on the consumer side all these companies appear to be innovating and everything is peachy. But that's marketing. In reality it's a cut-throat, winner-takes-all game they are playing. Want Microsoft to succeed? I don't think most people on HN have the stomach for it. You like open source. Open standards. Playing fair. When Microsoft was good, they were really bad.