Bill Gates' inept college roommate gets a lot of heat at shareholder's meeting over Apple's image.

[onehandle]

Bing is a failure. Windows Mobile market share is dropping like a stone. The 'Microsoft Store' is an Internet joke.

This man needs to get fired. I wish Bill Gates would come back, believe it or not.
__________________________________

Microsoft's meeting with shareholders this morning was decidedly low-key, with investors overwhelmingly endorsing the company's compensation practices in their first "say on pay" advisory vote.

Maybe the most remarkable part was that Bill Gates was silent throughout. In a sign of the Microsoft chairman's shift away from his full-time role, he sat at the head table sipping a soda, listening to the proceedings, and writing a note to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at one point. But he didn't give a presentation during the meeting, and shareholders didn't address any questions directly to him.

Ballmer, on the other hand, had plenty to say—particularly in response to shareholder questions about Macs, Windows, and the company's struggle to regain its footing in the market for mobile phones.

One shareholder told Ballmer that he believes Microsoft has a poor reputation compared with Apple among younger computer users, and particularly college students. "I'm just wondering why your marketing group can't do something to try to rein in this next generation, because you've got a real bad image out there," the shareholder said, saying that Apple's ads make the Redmond company look "like a buffoon."

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-tech-observer/2009/11/19/microsoft-annual-meeting-unleashes-wave-of-questions-about-apple/

[bullwinkle428]

1. Did he respond by throwing a chair at the shareholder?

:evilgrin:

[NYC_SKP]

2. ouch.

That had to sting...

[ixion]

3. yeah... the problem is that they create really crappy software

and thumb their nose at the rest of the tech world.

M$: Epic FAIL.

[Saboburns]

23. Microsoft an epic fail?!?

LOL

[ixion]

36. as far as making quality products, yes

sure, they made money, but they did so simply by exploiting the innovations of others. From the get-go that has been their operating motive.

[izzybeans]

4. That Mac campaign with the doofus stand in for Microsoft is pretty much check-mate for a while.

Each time Microsoft tries to change its image, its software, its whatever they keep getting smacked by that ad. Their marketing department definitely got punked. Either way this Mac convertee is happy to have had a trouble free five years after so many crashes, viruses, etc. with my Microsoft products.

[REP]

8. Hey, I love John Hodgman! He's no doofus!

I think it was fiendishly clever to have "PC" be played by someone as likeably goofy as Hodgman.

[izzybeans]

10. I agree. Lazy choice of words.

Goofy is much better.

[Mojambo]

9. That ad campaign is just brutally effective.

The new one where the PC guy is saying how Windows 7 will be different and then they cycle back into the past and have him saying it about every version of Windows should win a freakin award.

[rfranklin]

11. Only if you are an Apple cultist...

PCs will still outsell MACs ten to one.

[izquierdista]

14. As long as consumers have no choice

and M$ will make sure there is no choice.

[msongs]

24. consumers have plenty of choice but don't let facts get in the way....

apple, dozens of versions of linux. All available for people who don't want microsoft, which is NOT a monopoly really.

Msongs

[izquierdista]

38. But they have to BUY microsoft anyway

When you can buy linux preloaded at a BestBuy, not just the latest version of Windows, and without having to pay for a Microsoft operating system that you don't want, THEN there will be competition. You really don't understand all that a monopoly entails.

[ingac70]

27. Apple's prices assure there isn't much choice. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Or you are a student of add campaigns

it is up there with a few others like WHERE's The BEEF...

Oh wait I am a Wendy's cultist too!

Here is a hint, that whole Mac campaign is now a matter of study at business schools around the country.

[alfredo]

25. See my post #18 for the link to the company that makes

all the ads for Apple.

Apple and Chiat/Day remade TV advertising with an ad that ran one time. (1984)

While everyone was going online, Apple goes brick and motar.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402321/index.htm

[alfredo]

18. 10% market share is the figure that Steve Jobs was looking for.

They have tens of billions in cash reserves and little or no debt. Their Market Cap is larger than Dell and IBM. They have a design team that can't be matched in the industry. They control the mindshare of the younger users.

Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder at Disney, and his people pretty much have creative control of Disney. Apple remade the music industry, and is in the process of doing the same with the movie industry. Maybe next year they might do the same for publishing.


Their long relationship with TBWA\Chiat\Day has been one part of their success story. They made the 1984 commercial.

https://www.tbwachiat.com/links.html

Forgot to add:

Look for the iPod Touch/iPhone to become a big gaming platform.

[MattBaggins]

21. Not even close

I actually dislike Apple more the MS; but those commercials are spot on; funny as hell, and a brilliant ad campaign.

[onehandle]

22. Good. Who wants to be with the herd?

I don't shop at Wal-Mart either.

[anonymous171]

29. Wow. Classist much?

It must be nice to have to be able to afford to buy apple's overpriced products and to eschew shopping at walmart. And then there is the added bonus of being able to brag about how individualist and nonconformist you are online. What a wonderful world we live in!

[onehandle]

32. Please pass the Grey Poupon.

I like it better than generic Dijon.

[begin_within]

13. It is a brilliant commercial.

I'm so glad Apple is finally playing hardball after 25 years. I think it's their best commercial ever, equal in value to the 1984 "Big Brother" introduction of the Mac commercial.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. oh man that was also a classic

[begin_within]

12. I LOVE their commercial where they keep saying,

"That's what you said about Vista... That's what you said about Windows XP... That's what you said about Windows 2000... That's what you said about Windows 98... That's what you said about Windows 95... That's what you said about Windows 3.0..." It's so true and I'm glad Apple is finally throwing the truth in Microsoft's face. I'm sure it stings but they need to be told that. I'm proud of Apple for finally producing a commercial with bite rather than their usual goofy dorky ones.

[anonymous171]

26. How can you be "proud" of a company? They are just doing what companies do best, pursue profit.

[begin_within]

35. I'm proud of their marketing department for finally playing hardball after 25 years of

mainly playing chess in selling the Mac vs. the PC.

[Johonny]

31. I agree it's an Ad campaign that just doesn't get old

[Raster]

5. "...developers, crystal meth, developers, crystal meth, developers..."

Any questions?

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Somewehre you forgot the doritos and the Dr Pepper

[Canuckistanian]

6. Flop sweat. n/t

[greennina]

7. When you create absolute crap...

of course your image is going to be poor. Duh.

I'm starting to think that the more a person is paid, the dumber they are. It seems that money sucks the intelligence out of people.

[phasma ex machina]

19. Golden Oldie: Dancing Monkey Boy

Dancing Monkey Boy

[MilesColtrane]

20. Ballmer responded to criticism by singing, "Puttin' on da Wiiiitz!"

[bridgit]

28. Fucking Gates!!

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. Ballmer on the iphone and other apple stuff

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance," said Ballmer. "It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."



iPhone market share grew 375% in Q2
In this context, Apple was the clear winner. Its iPhone sales, as Gartner counts them, grew more than 500% year to year, and its market share, as we figure it, grew 375%. (See chart below the fold.)


Ballmer: iPod users are thieves 2004
Billing Microsoft as the good guys and Apple the villains of the piece - at least as far as corporate America, rather than users, is concerned, Ballmer said: "We’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'."

Ballmer: Zune’s Wi-Fi will help Microsoft challenge Apple’s iPod+iTunes
"Microsoft Corp. expects wireless song and photo sharing to be the feature that helps it challenge the dominant iPod in the market for portable music players, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday," Reuters reports.



He's an idiot and has been wrong almost every time.
I respected Bill but never Ballmer.

[onehandle]

34. He laughed at Apple Stores at launch.

Now he's copied them and has his minions dance.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[madokie]

37. I no longer sing the bill gates blues anymore

I'm happily on my way to a whole new way of computing. It pretty much looks like the others do, apple and windows but it's free and man o man this baby, actually, older'rn dirt, computer is humming along like a fine swiss watch. Yup since I've taken the biggest step I've taken in a long time, since dos 3.2 in fact my computer world is fun again. In other words download one of the linux distro's and give 'em a spin and try'em all or pick one and take a few moments, a day or two maybe, to learn a new way of computing.

I started on ms dos 3.2, skipped, other than, a casual checking it out of windows 3, 3.1 and windows 95. Win 98 sucked but win 98se kind of, sort of, fixed that then xp came alone and I like it fine except I'm just tired of worrying about my registry, have I got all my settings right, do I have the right programs to keep the nefarious bastards out of my computer and on and on. Now I'm using ubuntu 9.1 and loving the comfort it affords me in not worrying about that piece of shit micro$haft overpriced mutha'fuker is working right today or do I need to do a little maintenance once again. Kind of reminds me of when I used to party down and I owned a chevy pickup truck that depending on how rough I treated it last night as to how it would run today. Finally bought me a ford and fixed that now I'm doing the same with my operating system, going linux. screw a bunch of stevie ballmers and billy boy gates and the trash they push off on to so many.