Mr. Ballmer needs a catchy line to rally the troops.

there's search, which ballmer has said they will throw billions at to be competitive.

there's the cloud which ballmer said that 70% of Microsoft employees are working on projects that revolve around the cloud, a number which he predicts will climb to 90% within a year. We’re “betting our company� on the cloud.

there's, of course, their "new" phone to consider.

now there's the slate. but he's also said it will be phone 7 based. now it's windows based?

must be nice to have a ton of money to lose.

I think it is high time for Ballmer to step down from the organization. Maybe right after the W7P launch, so he can claim to go out with a bang.

Time and time again, Ballmer has failed to see what Apple was up to and failed to anticipate how well Apple's products would sell.

When the iPod came out Ballmer poo-pooed the device and claimed that PlaysForSure was the way to go. The first year, the iPod was on Macs only. However, sales jumped through the roof still making the best selling MP3 player despite being available only on Macs. You'd think that would be a sign for Microsoft to step up and do something, yet it did nothing.

The second year, the iPod was on PCs, but not via iTunes. In the second year, it was on the PCs, but without iTunes. And, still Ballmer did nothing.

In year 3, iTunes was on both platforms and the iTunes store was implemented. At that point, almost everything else in the MP3 market became irrelevant.

For years, the iPod took over the entire MP3 market, and the iTunes store continued to grow. It wasn't until the fall of 2006 when the first Zune was released. That Zune cost the same as an iPod and was actually bigger. It quickly became a joke.

By the time the Zune HD was introduced, the iPod Touch was able to download games via the App Store. (To this day, the Zune HD doesn't have an app store). The iPod Touch morphed into a gaming platform by the time Microsoft finally introduced a system that could compete against the iPod Touch as a mere MP3 player/Video player.

On the phone front, Ballmer first saw RIM's Blackberries take over the corporate email market and did nothing. When Blackberries became smartphones, he still did nothing. When the iPhone was introduced, he poo-pooed it and claimed it couldn't beat Windows Mobile. Two years later, the first Android phone was introduced. Ballmer still did nothing.

Maybe, at the end of this year, will Microsoft finally have an OS that can somewhat go toe-to-toe with iOS and Android devices. It's a Hail Mary pass from a company that allowed itself to sink into the ranks of irrelevancy in this market.

Despite all the hoopla about the iPad (and the fact it really is just a big iPod Touch), Ballmer again misread the market. Tablet Computers must have styluses (despite the success of the sans-stylus iPhone and Android phones).

Microsoft needs to clean house. It needs a new team. It needs someone who has a coherent vision and can stick up to the entrenched interests inside the company. Ballmer is unable to do that.

Ballmer wasn't worried about the iPhone ("it'll never sell"), or about Macs ("Apple's market share is a rounding error"). I guess something finally hit him over the head - maybe all the products Apple is selling, while Microsoft wallows in its failures.

Microsoft still makes lots of money (even a bit more than Apple), but the writing's on the wall.

the iPad? I could understand if MS just offered a tablet to compete with the iPad, but it's a bit extreme to have a need to kill the iPad. You'd figure that the aim of any product would be to satisfy users. Is MS in really that bad a shape that it can't afford to give a few points of market share to Apple? That sounds like pure greed to me. I thought that MS said that the iPad was no threat to desktops, so why would MS even be concerned. An iPad certainly doesn't complete against the desktop market. What's odd is that Windows lovers say that netbooks are better and more versatile than the iPad, so why should Microsoft even bother to pursue some tablet that Windows users don't even want. I'd think "job one urgency" for MS would be something like streamlining Windows 7 and MS Office to run on low-powered computers. Now Microsoft is going to change direction again and try to compete with the iPad. That company doesn't seem to have any long-range plans. Everything is spur of the moment.

Funny thing is that Microsoft never set out to create netbooks. They sort of just came about due to the economy. Consumers started buying the cheaply-built and more compact notebooks just because they were inexpensive. MS didn't even alter Windows XP or Windows 7 to run on them. In fact, I thought MS was unhappy because those netbooks couldn't run more expensive versions of Windows. If MS was that concerned about users, they would have built a really stripped down version of Windows just for netbook use.

... how are Zune (vs. iPod) and Kin (vs. iPhone) working out for ya? Thought so.

How about you bozos at Micro$oft focus on making a great product on your own, rather than getting all jealous and paranoid about Apple's success? Oh, sorry. I forgot: M$' mission statement is "clone and crush the competitors."

I think what a lot of these comments seem to be missing is that:

1) Apple in this case is the company that is the late comer. The modern Apple generally does not create market segments: it simply finds market segments where existing players have validated money-making potential but are consistently underperforming. The tablet market is an example of this: Apple could have made a tablet many years before the iPad, but they waited until they could do it right and be assured of success. Microsoft kept taking stabs in the dark and wound up producing products that, frankly, sucked.

2) Ballmer is right in being concerned about this market. This is the first true post-pc computing device. Establishing a solid foothold this early in the game allows you to not only capture huge amounts of mindshare (any other post-pc device that arrives now will immediately be measured against the iPad), but also allows you to define the battlefield, meaning everyone has to compete on what Apple has presumably selected as its sweet spot (in this case, ease of use and fit and finish). But make no mistake, the iPad is the opening salvo in a battle to determine which computing companies will still be relevant 5 years from now. Microsoft realized this a while ago; this is why they've invested in things like the XBox (a reasonable success), the Microsoft Surface (utter failure), Courier Tablet (never got beyond prototype stage), and the Kin (speaks for itself).

Thus begins Microsoft's long gentle slide into irrelevance.

Focus on making products we want to buy! Wow us Microsoft! I know it's hard to do. I like LiveSync! I like Skydrive! 25gb! Wow!! But, you blow it by partitioning the Skydrive storage for LiveSync, Photos and Office. Why oh why? Let me use the full 25gb as I see fit with your Live services. That would really wow me and blow the roof off of Google and Apple. Don't be shy! Throw down and deliver the goods!

Please Steve B - keep this sort of thing up - just when you think the world is in order and plainness is ruling the day - you open your yap and faith is restored in the essential bizzarreness of the universe.

"Been to too many meetings with journalists struggling to set up iPads for notes"

Unless these journalists are reporting for NickNews, and they managed to jailbreak their iPads and install Linux on them, and are using vi to take notes,

You're full of it.

Too little, too late. Fire up those copiers fellas.

Its sad to see Macnn trying to spice up the headlines like this...

Because we all watched how the iPod was crushed by the Zune, and the iPhone was obliterated by the updated WinMob. Oh, er, wait.

Ballmer, young people don't LIKE your BRAND, and nothing is going to change that.
Your day in the sunny is now overcast, and I see storm clouds rolling in.

I love Apple. Their products are amazing. From their desktops, to their Macbooks, the iPad, iPod and and the amazing iPhone 4 they deserve all of their success. I am a proud iPad owner and a Macbook Pro owner and planning on getting the iPhone 4 within a month or so. I have never been disappointed with any of their products. I never came across the problem like other ppl say, and watching movies on the go with ifunia converter to iPad is really fun :)

MaCNN twisted Ballmer's quote into a tabloid headline that gets everyone excited here. How about "Ballmer: License To Kill iPad".

Yep it's been that long since Microsoft released a product that anyone really cared about... Windows XP. Since then, it' been a cavalcade of half-steps, late starts, breached promises, vaporware, laughingstocks and moribund mediocrities.

The bottom line is that no one really CARES about Microsoft or their products any more. Sure, they've got huge marketshare, captive customers and continue to survive on their OS and Office monopoly cash cows and will continue for quite some time milking those cows. BUT, there's absolutely NOTHING in ANY of their announcements of the past few years that isn't reactionary or yet another me-too stab and grab at relevancy.

Microsoft is a beached whale praying for high tide.

The "job one urgency" could be the feeling he has to get at least a base hit before he gets unceremoniously canned.

Microsoft on reactive mode. Again. And again. Ad infinitum.

At one point, Microsoft's prime directive was to kill "The Baby" affectionately name for what we know today as: QuickTime.

Balmer make funny again.

'me too, me too!'

once again, Microsoft will be a day late and a dollar short. What's more, they don't see the forest for the trees. iPod, iPad, iPhone, Mac computers... all fit together. All reinforce one another. Buying one leads to buying the others. With Microsoft, not so much. Partly because they suck, partly because they are not really a hardware maker. The operating system is becoming less and less relevant, at least as an income source. If people stop buying as many PCs and start buying more post-PC, PC-like products like iPads... Microsoft is doooooooomed.

Steve Ballmer is not a good enough leader for a company with the legacy and potential of Microsoft. Microsoft should start with spending good time and money looking for the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. If I had Microsoft's money I would be searching every high school and college and Internet cafe for a kid who has that special something to lead the next era of Microsoft.

Apple has become what it is primarily because of the brilliance of its CEO. WHAT A CONCEPT! That a company have a leader that is not only a genius business person but also a passionate genius for the actual products they deliver. Too often CEO's get away with just being good executives or personalities or having "proven" experience in their field. Not often enough are CEOs people who have the vision and passion to almost singlehandedly turn their industry into something spectacular.

Of course a company needs a full team of brilliant people to be successful; but I guarantee Apple attracts people that most other companies can only dream of for the simple reason they are inspired by working with Steve Jobs.

... when you keep cranking out #2.

where's wrenchy?

..is to kill your own product lines, like the Kin and Courier.

Way to go, $MSFT. While Billy Gates is off retired and fighting dengue fever in the third world, Steve Ballmer is running $MSFT into the ground.

Couldn't have happened to a more arrogant bunch. Except maybe Sony and their retarded 'Dash' which makes Courier look GOOD.

Dell: Apple should do it's share holders a favor and sell it's self for spare parts. We'll crush you Apple. (never happened)

Creative: (about iPod) We've got products that are gonna blow Apple out of the market place.
(Creative who?)

and now Balmer: Killing the iPAd is job one. (Meh! You had since 2001 to get it right buddy. If you can't get it right in 9 years lets see you try now. Yawn.)

of talent.

Windows 8 is going to be their renaissance.

But they are not going to make it with the phone.

Apple did such a beautiful job on the Pad, after all their
phone experience. Obviously put in a huge amount of work
getting it right.

It's hard to see MS just jumping in at this point with a
"windows-based alternative". Even the Pad is not something-else based.

I hope he stays at Microsoft forever. Rock on Monkey Boy. Only love for ya!!! XOXOXO

I guess it really does start now. 2 years ago, this kind of negative MS comments would be shouted down right away. Companies feared MS and would not allow the all mighty MS to see people commenting against it.

I guess times really are changing. ..... I wonder if pigs are flying yet? LOL

Just a thought,
en

finally and thankfully, MS has a useable o/s today.

Their ipod killer, Zune, is dying.
Their iphone killer committed suicide.
Their ipad killer? if it runs android, it may have a chance. a Windows label on any portable device will be the kiss of death.

... why do they advertise Windows 7 as everyone else's idea?

Microsoft/Ballmer skating to where the puck WAS.

"why do they advertise Windows 7 as everyone else's idea?"

Well, it certainly wasn't theirs now was it?

We should have a Windows 7 ad with that tag line, but with Steve as the idea source.

There he was as he was caught smelling his feet again that producing a repugnant foul smell in the room that caused everyone to run away. This is who he is, a man that smells every time he talks and never gives credit to anyone but himself. A foul odor is never far wherever he walks. I don't understand how this man can be the CEO and make an embarrassment of not only himself but the very company that has made him a billionaire many times over with smelly feet to boot.