Here is a message to all the high-profile businessmen and women in the world of constantly adapting technology: Never Say Never!
Steve Ballmer, has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of Microsoft, whose operating system monopoly has fallen behind Apple and Google in mobile devices, tablets, and smart phone technology. Perhaps because of lack of vision!
Of the iphone, Mr. Ballmer did say:
“$500, fully subsidized with a plan?!… That is the most expensive phone in the world, and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.”
The iPhone did seem expensive at the time, and the lack of a physical keyboard was a shock. Yet the iPhone caught on and set a standard for the diffusion of innovation in smart phone technology. Microsoft, in fact, went on to copy this touch keyboard, however it was too late to make an impact. Apple currently holds 13% of the worldwide smart phone market, while Microsoft holds 4%.
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When asked who is most important in technology development, Mr. Ballmer did say:
“Developers! Developers! Developers!”
Oddly enough, Windows Phone has no developers. And an operating system is only as good as the applications that run on it. Until now, Windows Phone has lacked many major apps, including Instagram, Vine, and Flipboard that kept people from purchasing it. As of last week, Instagram, will finally be available for the Windows Phone operating system. This is a huge step that opens their consumer base to the 150 million users of the app, but is it too late?
Of the Android, Mr. Ballmer did say:
“It is very hard to be excited… about the Android phones. Apple is a good competitor, a different kind of competitor.”
Mr. Ballmer had finally seen Apple as significant competition, but he dismissed the Android-based Google operating system as “difficult.” Because, he said, “you have to be a ‘computer scientist’ to use the phone,” Mr. Ballmer didn’t see the Android as a direct threat to Microsoft’s own operating system.
Ironically, Google used Microsoft’s tactic of letting various hardware manufacturers produce Android devices. This allowed for the operating system to be made in a wide range of mobile devices at every price point. Consequently, Android accounts for 79% of the smart phones sold worldwide.
Mr. Ballmer, however, is not the first Microsoft executive to be caught making a prediction. Predecessor and billionaire, Bill Gates, said the following in 2004 at the World Economic Forum:
“Spam will be a thing of the past in two years’ time.”
And in 1939, the New York TIMES reported:
“The problem with television is that people have to glue their eyes
to a screen. People won’t have time for it.”
Enough said.