Ballmer Speaks on His Solo Act 196
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "In his first one-on-one interview since Bill Gates's retirement announcement, Steve Ballmer tells the Wall Street Journal he is bullish on Microsoft's investments in online services, and he dismisses as 'random malarkey' the idea that Microsoft is having trouble hiring and keeping the kind of brilliant employees that have always been the company's competitive weapon. Here's Ballmer on Gates's departure: 'As co-leaders of the business, I could allow Bill to be the full-time champion of innovation. And [now] with me really being the guy who's here every day running the place, I must be the champion of innovation.' And on competing with Google: 'We're going to compete. We're going to be in the online business. We are going to have a core around online. We're going to be excellent. That, I would tell people, to count on...'"
Outdated Icon? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm no anti-microsoftie, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Spelling error (Score:1, Interesting)
Nice innovation there Steve...
Damage Control By Gates (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone notice a pink elephant around here? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rather scary... (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
First, Microsoft itself prefers to use Google: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/22/02
Then, Microsoft "warns google away": http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/16/20432
After that, they change their mind and are going to allow competitive search: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/19/21
And now, they are going to
What's going to be next?
Re:I'm no anti-microsoftie, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
pay (Score:1, Interesting)
I heard before that MS employees almost never get a raise though, as compared to how often people with similar jobs do. So it's not necessarily how much they make that is an issue, but how much their pay continues to raise in relation to the economy.
Re:Bloated head (Score:5, Interesting)
I think more than anything this is an indicator of the state of Microsoft. If you've got to send the CEO out on PR all the time, then there's some pretty shaking ground that the company is sitting on. Products and services should be able to speak for themselves without the CEO having to go on a media tour to tell how great they are. He's got to go around evangilizing MS because if people (employees as much as customers) hear it enough, they just might start to believe it.
Innovators never talk about "innovation." (Score:5, Interesting)
BIll Gates didn't say "I want to make innovative software," he said he wanted a computer on every desk and Microsoft software in that computer.
Edwin Land didn't say "I want to develop innovative imaging-related products for the consumer and technical markets," he said "Marketing is what you do when your product is no good" and "The bottom line is in heaven."
Re:Predictible Slashdot. (Score:3, Interesting)
Linux IS ready for the desktop, and now awaits only adoption.
Steve Ballmer is Howard Dean's long lost brother? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: Outdated Icon? (Score:3, Interesting)