@strider_mt2k: He reminds me of an obnoxious, overbearing used car salesman. This may have been ok all those years ago when Windows was in it's infancy and needed some loudmouth to sell the sh*t out of it. Nowadays it's just annoying.

Oh, and my apologies if I offended anyone here who actually is a used car salesman/woman. Yours, like any other profession has it's good people and it's share of jackasses..

Jrsy is the dude, playin' the dude, disguised as another dude

That's Balmer?
I thought that was the dad from the Munsters...

agashi

@tande04: Google's financial aim is to get more people on the internet for longer times, going to sites with Google advertising, using Google products with more Google advertising, etc. Making the experience better/more easily suited to their products and the internet in general is a step in that direction.

Reil(aos)

This is microsoft's main problem, they're to busy looking at what others are doing. ballmer is just mad cause he knows that as long as there's a G1 out there, the sidekick is dead & and he is starting to realize that buying Danger the sidekick maker was a really bone head move

snitch29

He didn't the iPhone either.

+ Watch video

That's why Microsoft imitates rather than innovate. They have NO vision at all. Android will eventually be amazing when fully baked, while iPhone is sweeping the world.

Balmer is the albatros around Microsoft's neck.

fatsvernon

Most rational humans don't get Steve Ballmer.

strider_mt2k

On another note: I have 600 fantastic baby android recipes. My books comes out this weekend. "How to cook Baby Androids".

I expect to make billions. If not trillions.

Chromeo

@tande04: Yes, but by it being free and getting spread around enough to make it a standard, more developers will make more applications that will make more people want android. If that happens, they could do a similar thing like apple does with the app store where alot of apps are free, some are charged, and some have ads in them to keep the app free. Mostly at no cost to the user, and apple is raking in the money.

I'm no business major (or math for that matter), but the more your product is out there and in demand can't be a bad thing.

USMarty

Ballmer should have been canned a long time ago. He's gonna run Microsoft into the ground if he has enough time.

b33rl0rd

"I don't really understand their strategy. Maybe somebody else does."

And that, Mr. Ballmer, is why you fail.

Monty

How many more nails does he have to put in his own coffin?

What else can he "not understand about ___________" before he's rightfully shown the door?

Duke

@tande04: how does google generate a ton of their profits? and which way is the mobile landscape going?

google is as much a search engine/internet/program firm as they are an advertsing company. phones are becoming COMs and are moving into the internet space. entering the mobile space is going to help them pioneer ad revenue with location based ads and who knows what.

Anonymoose

Ballmer is fueled by greed.
He is indifferent to anything that does not generate rapid profit.

Nintenboy01

@tande04: Chances are if you have a phone running Android, you will be using Google services. If you use Google services, you will be subject to advertising, and therefore they will make more money, and be able to fund more development and technologies.

Android will make Google money even if they never charge a penny for it.

AlanJC

I'm sure there's a lot of things Ballmer doesn't get.

And besides he's long overdue to have his neck bolts tightened...

Jrsy is the dude, playin' the dude, disguised as another dude

Of course Baller also said that Apple iPhone had "no chance" of success.
I think that Larry & Sergey should take his statement as a sign that they are headed inthe right direction.

rexplex

Ballmer needs to go somewhere and never come back again. If the idiot thinks that Windows Mobile is any good, then why does all his hardware partners have to put a skin/os on top of it?
Just get to finishing windows 7 okay Ballmer? before Snow Leopard is ported to all x86 systems.

greenwald3132

*sheeplishly raises hand*

Uh, I don't especially get it either. So it becomes ubiquitous, then what? Then they start charging? Then they just use name recognition to continue with mobile advertising?

I'm not math major but 1@$0 seems pretty similar profit wise to 1,000,000,000@$0

tande04

Interestingly, Android's don't really get him either.

"We don't really understand all that overly emotional screaming and yelling, and the sweating! Do not get that at all. Maybe somebody else does."

92BuickLeSabre

@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine: My GOD man.

A douche that big could only mean...

strider_mt2k

So he's showing us with his hands on how big that piece of poop that he had trouble with getting out that day?

Ken_Darrow

@snitch29: I disagree. I think Sidekick is fine.

If anything was going to kill it, it would have been the iPhone, and it's survived that.

Android is too complex for your average Sidekick user.

Aaron Martin-Colby

Oh please.

Ballmer understands Android very well. He may seem like an idiot at times, but he's not.

He's bashing the competition as best he can, as any business person would.

It's just hard to bash competition that is perceived as cool by a large majority of geeks.

Aaron Martin-Colby

you forgot this one lol.

+ Watch video

snitch29

@Anonymoose: just to clarify, people were getting excited about android being engineered to run on any mobile platform, whether it be touchscreen only device, non-touchscreen, touchscreen with keyboard, or a simple phone. how long has WM been able to run on multiple platforms? plus, WM programs are relatively easy to write and there aren't restrictions on app developers.

Anonymoose

@fatsvernon: i'm not a fan of balmer, but to say that microsoft imitates rather than innovates is ridiculous. they were just that far ahead of the curve of everyone else. where they lag behind is in ui and ease of use. and much like android, they depend on developers to get them up to speed on ui.

Anonymoose

@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine: Correction. Here is Exhibit D.

+ Watch video

Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine

CERTIFICATION OF KAISER-MACHEAD IN SUPPORT OF DISMISSAL OF STEVE ANTHONY BALLMER

I am a member of Gizmodo.com, commenter, and am fully familiar with the proceedings in this case and make this Certification in support of the dismissal of Microsoft CEO Steve Anthony Ballmer, pursuant to douchemonkey code D:34:3. Attached are exhibits A through D, example of douchemonkeyness.

A.

+ Watch video

B.

+ Watch video

C.

+ Watch video

D.

+ Watch video

Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine

Forget everyone else and worry about your own shit microsoft. Focus on Windows mobile 7 and get it out as soon as possible.

takashimiike yes really

@tande04: Because I'm a dick, I'm going to take your side. There once was a company that had a business plan that didn't seem to make sense. It became very successful very quickly. Whenever someone would question how the business worked, the company would accuse the person of being too stupid to understand. It turned out that the company's business plan was based largely on accounting fraud.

That company was Enron.

OMG! Ponies!

Ballmer is to MS what Bush is to the US

nutbastard

@rexplex:

yup:

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

as of last month:

"Based on revenue from iPhones, Apple was the #3 cellphone maker last quarter, behind only Nokia and Samsung."

nutbastard

I dunno. Google subsidizes a lot of free products with it's one revenue stream, online advertising.

Maybe Google is taking a page out of Microsoft's Internet Browser strategy. Give away the browser for free and make it available on all Windows Personal Computers?

I am curious to see what happens if the corporate world decides to use Android. Does Google start selling maintenance plans?

yoshi

@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine: Whoa..

takashimiike yes really

@takashimiike yes really: Yea, but balmer probably has little to no effect on winmo 7 and most of the developers are probably reading about this and shaking their heads

Zomb

@nutbastard: several hundred million behind

Zomb

@greenwald3132: The improvements to snow leopard over leopard aren't even worth mentioning let alone paying a hundred bucks for. People whining about how vista wasn't worth the money going out and buying snow leopard is beyond hypocritical. These behind the scenes changes should either be a free update or part of the next OS not a separate one you have to pay for. Apple has been doing some really stupid shit lately, app store sensoring, ads criticizing ads(criticizing adds). Its like they think they can stop innovating now that they have enough cultists.

Zomb

@tande04:

Google's strategy is to wreak havoc on MS and others by giving things away for free. They can afford to piss money into projects that will never make money because of their one trick pony advertising strategy. When the pony dies, all the freebies will go away. Until then, enjoy all the free junk they are putting into the world.

usa1

@commentotron: I don't think their development costs were very high. The only cost would be wages and running servers to support the app store. So they money pit is more like a small depression

Zomb

@OMG! Ponies!: if that's your argument, then that doesn't make you a dick, just stupid. or maybe just a stupid dick. but a stupid dick is probably better than a smartdick, since then it would be small and green.

Anonymoose

@tande04:

It's the usual Google approach: launch a profitless business with no plan, then hope your search ad revenue continues to cover the money pit.

Since it is open, then they cannot control the "app store" so "hoping" that it becomes ubiquitous enough to support a store is a sad business plan. You don't build a busines plan on "hope."

What they want to do is push their own services, as well as the SPAM that goes with them onto the phone. If everyone has an Android and everyone uses Google search, map and nav stuff on it then they get more ad revenue.

The thing to remember is this" Google is a one trick pony. They sell ads. It's all about selling ads. Some services they sell to enterprise guys, but mainly it's ads to search users. They are not very diversified.

commentotron

@Anonymoose: I'm not saying that Google's business plan is based on fraud (although it is based in part on click-fraud); I'm just saying that some people are beginning to wonder what happens when it comes time to pay the piper.

OMG! Ponies!

@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine:

OMG! PONIES!, an attorney licensed to practice Law in the Courts of the State of New York, affirms the following under penalties of perjury as set forth in CPLR 2106:

OMG! PONIES! joins in the application and adopts and incorporates the statements and arguments contained in the Certification of Kaiser-Machead as if fully set forth herein.

Dated: New York, New York
November 6, 2008

Yours, etc.
OMG! PONIES!

OMG! Ponies!

@Zomb:

still.

nutbastard

@OMG! Ponies!: i understand what you were getting at. but the situation at enron was so much more than just accounting fraud. a completely different situation, just not comparable at all.

Anonymoose

@Zomb: umm WHAT? openCL... I dont think i need to say anything else realy, but ill throw this hat in also, Grand Central- actually using multicore processors properly.

Get a quad core machine and install vista on it and push it as hard as you can, it will be near impossible to fully load those 4 cores in vista, because vista is still just xp with pretty pictures, Its just not smart enough to use multicore processors very efficiently.

But really i coulda stopped at openCl and been nuff' said.

dillinger23

@Chromeo: They're really good raw, too!

prince_of_paradox

hehehehe....."poop"....LOL!!!!!....."poop".......BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

fatsvernon

Maybe he'll throw a chair at Androids?

chareverie

@tande04:
Let's face it, Android Phones not exactly free. You pay just as much as a WinMo phone.
Both platforms are equaly good. (debatable depending of fan preferences)

I much rather pay for a WinMo without advertising that be blasted all day with adds to pay for a platform.

If you don't believe me, just look at the free dialup internet guys of yesterday... where are they now?

aec007

@Aaron Martin-Colby: Sidekicks are still for people still trying to be cool. Blackberrys passed them a long time ago (at least in my old store) because people simply wanted a working device..

Same with Android. People prefer working devices and with WM, it's really hit or miss.

magikal04

@takashimiike yes really: Oh c'mon, like the 5 seconds he spent saying that quote would make a difference in development.

rcast1986

Wow, Buchanan, for someone that seemingly openly backs everything Apple does (i.e. defending their exclusion of Firewire on the new MacBooks, among other things), you sure jump on Microsoft's back pretty fast for talking crap which happens to be an Apple specialty. Hell, they don't usually even require the use of "facts", whatever those are. At least Ballmer's just offering his opinion and doesn't pretend it's anything else.

rcast1986

@aec007: I don't get it...I have a G1 and I have yet to notice any more adds than any other internet experience...actually I have noticed less adds when I am browsing on it. I love this damn thing, it beats the crap out of my old ms based phone.

warcow105

@92BuickLeSabre: No one under stands ballmer! What would he be if it wasnt for microsoft? A murder? Maybe a clerk at 711!

vinnyr

I have to agree that Ballmer is a douche, but makes a good point. Android has a lot of potential but it has a bit of maturing to do. I think M$ needs a new public spokesman maybe Rob Bach. Someone younger and with smaller sweat glands.

It will be interesting to see what happens in a year or so. Android is going also need a real kick ass flagship device to drive market penetration and the G1 is not that device. The thing is functional yet "fugly" compared to HTC other offerings (Diamond, Touch Pro, Xperia, etc).

RobSchoenfeld

Of course he doesn't.
He didn't get iPhone either... nor his disaster Vista.

Why is the the CEO of Microsoft again?

vgart

@Nintenboy01: That's really what makes capitalism work. There's a reason windows comes on almost every computer...

That said, if android proves itself to be superior, maybe someday it will be on more phones.

Daytodaz3

@usa1: Are you an idiot? When the pony dies? Are we speaking of the advertising pony? That pony is immortal.

Cliff_Dangers

@vinnyr: It is obvious that he wouldn't understand... after many years microsoft still doesn't understand that IE is a piece of crap browser and all the alternatives free on the net kick it's ass everyday of every year.

Cliff_Dangers

thats good news for google that the head of MS does not have the brain to understand their strategy

diehippiedie

Very simple Steve, get marketshare then monetize. Not getting is why your company is sliding downhill.

macrumpton

@tande04: Maybe might make money from getting a cut in the apps sold for it(?).

hagrun

@Cliff_Dangers: He will start paying attention to that as soon as they loose the #1 spot in market share. Then MS will revamp IE or making a new browser which will also fail to deliver a fast and easy user experience.

hagrun

In other news, Android doesn't get why windows mobile makes it so damn difficult to close a program.

lnlogauge