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1. sgirard

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Aug 2005

   +19
   11/17, 11:50pm | report spam | close reply

   Mac Ads

   PC: "All the apps that count will be ported to Windows Mobile, you know. You developers should just ignore that iPhone platform, you know, the one with 100,000 applications. Don't bother writing apps for Windows Mobile, either. Just wait for all the cool iPhone apps to be ported to Windows Mobile, Android, and WebOS."
   
   Developer: "Why did I pay good money to come to your developer conference?"
   
   PC: "Um..."
   
   

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1. nowwhatareyoulookingat

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jul 2009

   +23
   11/18, 12:06am | report spam | close reply

   I predict

   mobile apps will remain not being important until...Microsoft can claim to have more apps than Apple's app store... Then having more apps will suddenly become THE most important thing for a mobile OS...

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1. jpellino

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Oct 1999

   +19
   11/18, 12:09am | report spam | close reply

   Ahhhh...

   You can't make this stuff up.

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1. andrewbw

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jan 2001

   -14
   11/18, 12:16am | report spam | (2 replies) close | reply

   how quickly you forget...

   That Apple said something similar when first resisting outside developers being able to create apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The first crack in that facade came with web apps, and finally the App Store.
   
   I don't think what Microsoft is saying here is necessarily incorrect; but neither is Apple's (or Android's) current strategy of encouraging and nurturing a strong app environment.

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1. leamanc

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Oct 2003

   +22
   11/18, 12:35am | report spam | close reply

   Wow

   Coming from the same company that constantly reminded us that "developers, developers, developers" were what made their OS dominant, this is unbelievable.
   
   Yes, the OS is obviously very important. But for the most part, it should stay out of your way, and only provide its features in a totally intuitive manner. Put someone in front of an iPhone and they'll figure out how it works very quickly, because the OS is intuitive.
   
   But the real key to the iPhone's major success has been unquestionably the App Store. "There's an app for that," and that's why people can't live without their iPhones. It's a lifestyle device, and succeeds like no other lifestyle device before or since because of the wealth of apps.
   
   It seems Microsoft will make any statement--even if it makes no sense or contradicts an earlier statement--just to try and cast FUD upon Apple's success.
   

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1. minimansion

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Aug 2001

   +29
   11/18, 01:28am | report spam | close reply

   sore losers....

   these days the executives at Microsoft sound more and more stupid with every dumb remark that they make...
   
   they are like an immature group of sore losers that will just say anything negative about another product space that they are not leading in instead of just innovating and competing...
   
   meanwhile they just keep copying the Mac OS, the stores... everything...
   
   it must eat them up to know the tide is turning and there is not much of anything they can do about it.. wait until the tablet comes and the gap is bridged between the iPhone OS and the desktop Mac OS.... consumer game over...
   
   they really do think we are all stupid....
   
   

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1. Paul Huang

   Dedicated MacNNer

   Joined: Sep 1999

   +15
   11/18, 02:13am | report spam | close reply

   Mary and Jane

   Looks like Ozzie shares the same friends as Ballmer's—Mary and Jane.
   
   I don't know what they are smoking. The horses are already out of the barn, like the way WindowsME and Windows Vista were. Oh, what was it? The 'Mojave Project'?
   
   People are not as dumb as they once were back in the 80s.

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1. niji

   Forum Regular

   Joined: Jul 2001

   -17
   11/18, 05:58am | report spam | (1 reply) close | reply

   Grand Central

   you are all wrong.
   apple is banking on Grand Central as a foundation for apps.
   OS is in fact all important and leaving the OS to do as much work as possible and apps to be specific purpose built functions is all he is saying.
   apple agrees with this.
   

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1. climacs

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Sep 2001

   +16
   11/18, 07:13am | report spam | close reply

   ballmer 2.5 yrs ago

   "Handsets don't matter; mobile OS market penetration matters"

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1. lkrupp

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: May 2001

   +14
   11/18, 07:54am | report spam | close reply

   Just WOW

   First came "rounding error" and now this? Ballmer needs to go, and fast. But, as an Apple fanboy, I hope he stays on for a long long time.

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1. Foe Hammer

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Feb 2005

   +7
   11/18, 07:54am | report spam | close reply

   Like MS Even Knows ...

   ... (or will truly admit) what made it successful. It wasn't "developers, developers, developers" that made MS successful - the developers came afterwards. "Cheap, cheap, cheap" is what made MS successful - and convincing the mindless masses that because it was "cheap, cheap, cheap" that it was also perfectly acceptable for their stuff to "crash, crash, crash." The true coup was the latter. Here was an environment without penalties for MS or its developers. Customers would by and large accept whatever MS did no matter how good or how shoddy it was. If a consumer or a business had bought any other product with an equivalent poor quality to that of the MS products they were using, they would have returned them to the store for full refunds amid loud, animated tirades of dissatisfaction. Talk about drinking some Kool-Aid. MS is and always has been a tax on people who think that by playing a round of golf a week that they're Tiger Woods. Now MS is telling you that if you only have one club and the holes on your golf course have windmills, loop-de-loops and wooden side rails that you should just wait - the country club will soon be open to all of you. In the meantime, here - have another Grapeinator Grape spritzer.

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1. iphonerulez

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Nov 2008

   +6
   11/18, 08:05am | report spam | close reply

   I'm sorry to say, but this person is

   just plain stupid to making statements such as this. If what he said were true, every company wouldn't have been breaking their necks to get their own app stores. I guess he doesn't realize how many people are buying iPhones/Touches just to run apps. They're even buying them for their little kids just to keep them occupied or for learning. Why does Mr. Ozzie think that Apple has sold so many mobile devices in such a short time while most other mobile platforms are losing. Apps may not be everything, but they are certainly a large part of the equation of building a successful platform of any type. The Windows desktop platform was certainly made stronger by the quantity and diversity of programs available. And now this guy Ozzie is saying apps don't mean much for the Apple mobile platform. These guys don't even realize the nonsense they are spouting. They're only proving their own ignorance of what's going on in front of their noses. Does Ozzie think people are trying to bring their iPhones to work and be supported by IT just to play games on. I'd sure like to know what these guys think are important for a successful mobile platform. Multitasking and a keyboard?

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1. simdude

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jun 2004

   +4
   11/18, 08:14am | report spam | close reply

   Ozzie

   re:
   First came "rounding error" and now this? Ballmer needs to go, and fast. But, as an Apple fanboy, I hope he stays on for a long long time.
   
   
   While Ballmer is a techno-idiot, he had nothing to do with this stupidity. Microsoft might do better if they let the other Ozzy take over software.

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1. nat

   Junior Member

   Joined: Mar 2002

   +9
   11/18, 09:09am | report spam | (1 reply) close | reply

   right

   and how many years did we hear about how your "BBQ, Laundromat, Convenience store and Carwash Emporium" business could only be run by software for the PC?
   
   Now? Not so important. Oh Lance Ulanoff had a column over at PC Mag a few weeks back saying the same thing...100,000 apps, so what he asked. What's important is the ones you use everyday.
   
   Right.

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1. climacs

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Sep 2001

   +7
   11/18, 09:15am | report spam | close reply

   apps on iPhone

   there are so many apps, many of them are crapps, but so many of them are useful and I discover new ones weekly - some FREE - which are useful to me.
   
   What good is a multiapp-capable Pre if there are no apps to use?

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1. JeffHarris

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Oct 1999

   +6
   11/18, 09:33am | report spam | close reply

   What REALLY doesn't matter?

   Windows Mobile OS doesn't matter. AT ALL.
   
   And all the time and money in the world they've thrown at it since day one have made no better. More features, yes. Better? Look at the market share numbers. Plummeting.
   
   Or has Microsoft suddenly said that market share doesn't matter any more? They deny so much these days, it's impossible to keep track.

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1. Mr. Strat

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jan 2002

   +3
   11/18, 10:22am | report spam | close reply

   Clue? Real world?

   Does anybody in Microsoft's management have a clue with respect to the real world?

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1. JulesLt

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jul 2005

   +1
   11/18, 10:29am | report spam | close reply

   Mind tricks

   "These aren't the Droids you are looking for"
   
   To a degree he's right - compared to desktop apps, mobile apps are by necessity smaller and simpler, and any reasonably selling one should be cost-effective to port to another major platform, regardless of the pain of doing so.
   
   Where there are gaps between platform SDKs, tools will emerge to fill them in - and games generally use OpenGL which is relatively portable (it's why console-to-iPhone conversions have been possible).
   
   (If I was Google, I'd be working on a commercial iPhone SDK to Android conversion toolkit . . )

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1. pairof9s

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jan 2008

   +3
   11/18, 11:28am | report spam | close reply

   Who chooses?

   "...all the apps that count..."
   
   What an incredibly audacious statement to make. And WTFAY to tell me which apps count and which don't on MY phone?!!
   
   This c*** about "how so many apps on the App Store are worthless" is just hogwash. Variety is the spice of life, right? Should we not take the same approach to the Windows market? How many word processors do we need? How many financial programs? How many games?
   
   Say what you will about Apple and it's policies, but Microsoft has never, NEVER, put the consumers' interest first in any product or service they've created. It's ALWAYS about their bottom line...even to the point of making BS statements like this to justify why they're losing money!!
   
   /

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1. aardman

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Nov 2009

   +4
   11/18, 11:50am | report spam | close reply

   Aren't apps the point of a smart phone?

   With mutterings like these, how can you not help but think Microsoft is being run by a bunch of clowns? They even have clown names.

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1. Rance

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Apr 2002

   +3
   11/18, 12:43pm | report spam | close reply

   AND...

   The internet is just a fad, AND, 640k will be enough for anyone.

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1. eldarkus

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Feb 2004

   +2
   11/18, 04:13pm | report spam | close reply

   comment title

   "Ozzie also noted that as browsers and web apps become more powerful, the distinction between websites and client software that’s installed on your PC will continue to blur."
   
   yea.. it'll be nice and blurry. until your PC or cell phone doesnt have a connection. Then the line will be sharp as a tack.

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1. MacnnChester

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jun 2007

   +1
   11/24, 12:53am | report spam | close reply

   Marketing ...

   Of course this is bull hockey, but does that even need to be mentioned anymore? Nothing Ballmer and Company says needs to be taken at face value much less valued! Consumers and tech journalists/pundits are idiots if they are not bored by this by now and journalists should be pointing out this every day - just as they should be doing with the debate on more important things like health care and the Afghanistan war.
   
   Yet they actually "report" the words of MS talking heads and ex-governors of Alaska as if any of it is news or significant or any more than branding!!
   
   Save us from the complacent, corporate owned media.