WSJ: Apple Moves Closer to Making TV Set [wsj.com]
New York Times: What’s Really Next for Apple in Television [nytimes.com]
Business Insider: Apple Could Announce New TV This December, Says Top Apple Analyst [businessinsider.com]
I asked for a couple of references that show rumors about a 1Q 2013 Apple TV release, and I get a WSJ link that references sources at Foxconn, some idle speculation from NYT blogs (which is not the same as NYT btw and is extremely unreliable like the blogs on Forbes, Business Insider etc., thought you would know that) and some speculation from Gene Munster? Wow that's quite a low.
And my broken watch is right twice a day. Doesn't change the fact that it is still broken.
Keep telling yourself that. I had no doubts about how things played out, unlike you and the Slashdot story trying to spread FUD about Ballmer leading the Xbox into the holiday division.
Again, quote me the "speculation and misinformation and BS" in my post to which you started replying.
The most likely explanation based on the facts we know is the following:
Re-org is imminent, and Mattrick left due to reason X. Ballmer takes over for now because the reorg is already imminent and he doesn't want to reveal it yet since it will all come out in a few days. So he tells the Xbox team, report to me and concentrate on getting ready for the Xbox holiday release and hopes to avoid people getting complacent over their work on Xbox One, even if for a few days. All this could be true regardless of reason X. You're getting needlessly caught up with reason X which has nothing to do with whether Ballmer will lead the Xbox One release into the holiday season. There might not be an Xbox division even, there's rumors of a new hardware division which includes Surface.
Again, reason X and employment contracts are just a red herring to this article and your post. The crux is that you and the Slashdot story were insinuating that Ballmer is going to lead the Xbox team long term while it was pretty much a given that he was not.
If you want to read some baseless speculation, misinformation and BS read your posts:
Also I don't know about you but how is Ballmer is really qualified to lead the Xbox team? I mean he doesn't have much experience with that division or familiarity with the subject area in particular. ...
If there is going to be a re-org in a "few days" , there will be new bosses for all parts of MS anyways. And if there is a new boss in a few days, there won't be speculation for the holidays, will there? That makes no sense.