Article

2013-11-06 Science & Technology

Microsoft Needs to 'Start up again', Says CEO

[An Nahar] Microsoft
...producers of Windows, Office, and the late Microsoft Bob, contributed $852,167 to the 2008 Obama campaign...
chief executive Steve Ballmer on Tuesday said the computer giant had to reinvent itself to avoid being "old and tired" as his company struggles to keep up in the mobile devices sector.

"We're finding ourselves having to start up again," Ballmer said at a conference in Rome where he announced Italia had become the first country in which Microsoft phones were outselling iPhones.

"Unless you're constantly inventing something new, you're old and tired. Today we're having to remake ourselves," Ballmer told his audience.

Referring to the success of Microsoft against rival Apple's iPhone in Italia, he quipped: "I don't know how long it's going to last."

Ballmer was a classmate and friend of Bill Gates from their days at Harvard University
...home of the Best and the Brightest, contributed $878,164 to the 2008 Obama campaign. Is there a reason universities are among the top financiers of political campaigns?
in the 1970s.

He took over from Gates in 2000 but earlier this year said he will step down by August 2014.

When Ballmer took over, Microsoft was the undisputed tech sector leader, and the world's largest company in market value. But in recent years it has struggled as consumers began to move from desktop and laptop PCs to mobile devices.

Posted by Fred 2013-11-06 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ] Top

#1 "Unless you're constantly inventing something new, you're old and tired. Today we're having to remake ourselves,"

How about stopping the techies in house who operate with an attitude 'This is what we're forcing on you whether you want it or not'? After years and years of bloatware that has to be constantly upgraded because of ever more 'security' issues or glitches for a one-size-fits-all product, maybe the arrival of competitive technology is allowing a lot of the customer base to move away from that 'we know what is better for you' mindset.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-11-06 05:08|| 2013-11-06 05:08|| Front Page Top

#2 Anyone using Windows 8.0/8.1 by choice? There's your problem. That whole UI was a "Who asked for this" moment. They finally got things right with Win7 - stable, fast, and familiar. So they dumped it all for this ugly flat boxy garbage.

Posted by OldSpook 2013-11-06 06:04|| 2013-11-06 06:04|| Front Page Top

#3 Always interested in the hatred for the Metro interface. If you are on a desktop machine, the familiar Desktop interface is only a click away, and since 8.1, you can configure yourself to start up there and mostly stay there. I've been using a Surface Pro since it came out, and I'm already mentally and physically retrained to expect a touch interface. I routinely try to touch screens I already know are not touch enabled. Touch is the future, it's not going away...

Posted by M. Murcek 2013-11-06 09:43|| 2013-11-06 09:43|| Front Page Top

#4 I'd like an 8 inch Windows 8.1 tablet with a Horus Vision app, that'd be handy...

Posted by M. Murcek 2013-11-06 09:46|| 2013-11-06 09:46|| Front Page Top

#5 That ugly, flat, boxy garbage is because the tip of your finger is a lot 'fatter' than the tip of a mouse pointer. You need big boxy icons to be able to grab them with your fingertip.
I use a big desktop 24" display with a mouse and an iPad using my fingers. Both have their uses. The iPad is great for mobility and meetings and the like - but I wouldn't want to write code on one. The iPad is also good for Facebook or email and most if not all of what a typical 'consumer' would use one for.
Having a 'big boxy design' on a desktop is a waste of real-estate. Do you think people are going to sit (or stand) with their arms extended all day to move things around a 24" 'touch' monitor? A mouse (and mouse pointer) is much more precise and easier (at least so far).
I also have a smallish laptop with multitouch and Windows 8 (not 8.1 - problems upgrading) and I use both mouse, keyboard and 'touch' - usually on the desktop and not metro.

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-11-06 10:31|| 2013-11-06 10:31|| Front Page Top

#6 I use the Desktop almost exclusively on my, uh, desktop machine. QuickBooks Pro and Corel Draw are probably never going to be touch applications. On the Surface, I rarely use the desktop at all. Once you find your way around the Metro apps, you get used to them quickly. Point is, there is NOTHING about Metro that prevents a user from living on the Desktop with a mouse. Nothing...

Posted by M. Murcek 2013-11-06 10:46|| 2013-11-06 10:46|| Front Page Top

#7 Hmm.

Posted by newc 2013-11-06 11:09|| 2013-11-06 11:09|| Front Page Top

#8 The modern touch interface on Win 8.1 is pretty much all I use anymore.

Posted by Omineque Glaise1236 2013-11-06 11:42|| 2013-11-06 11:42|| Front Page Top

#9 They need to start up again, but they can't find the start button.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2013-11-06 15:36|| 2013-11-06 15:36|| Front Page Top

#10 My next laptop will be a chromebook.

My 2c worth, is forcing all the manufacturers to preload Win8 and not provide the option of buying Win7 will prove a collosal error, which Google will exploit.

Posted by phil_b 2013-11-06 17:20|| 2013-11-06 17:20|| Front Page Top

#11 I've still got XP (and a desktop - laptops are too small for me to read, and hard to type on).

We're changing at work to whatever the next thing is, and I guess after I've been trained on it I'll have to get that too, since Gatesville won't support XP anymore.

I'm like many people - I don't want to be a techie (I don't understand what most of y'all are talking about, nor do I want to); I just want the damn thing to WORK.

As I explained to a tech guy at work, I don't have to know how a car is built or how to make repairs on it in order to drive it. Think of me as a computer driver. And I'm not alone. >:-(

Posted by Barbara 2013-11-06 18:01|| 2013-11-06 18:01|| Front Page Top

#12 Windows 8 My Lunch.

Wuz setting up a computer for a customer. Wuz like hopping into the grocery to grab a loaf of bread and finding it was now the detergent aisle, spent two work hours walking the aisles.

I will concede that a touch screen would probably made it alright, and eventually everything would be found and re-learned - but that is time I could actually be working.

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-11-06 18:57|| 2013-11-06 18:57|| Front Page Top

#13 Barbara - FWIW, Microsoft stops supporting (upgrades for bugs & other patches) in April of 2014.

Posted by Raj 2013-11-06 19:30|| 2013-11-06 19:30|| Front Page Top

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