Steve Ballmer quits

[Catfish]

Oh this perfectly suits my idea of getting a job as a 'Fired Manager'

I let myself be employed, and promise not to do ANYthing. This has the advantage that i do not directly fire people, nor do i any harm to the (big) company.
(This is much better than most big managers have in their sorry portfolio.)

After 3 years i resign, against a payage of say 5 millions.
Deal ?

[Skybird]

Sales numbers of W8 are clearly behind that of Vista per month. Their hardware (RT especially) lies like bars of iron on the shelves. After untypically short time they needed to implement significant price cuts. And total numbers from W8 are further distorted by the intial smile price offensive, where W8 sold more, and with the regular price, sales suddenly collapsing.

I just checked the latest numbers from summer, from ZDnet and some other tech sites and blogs. They all agree in their interpretation of numbers. Wkndows 8 does damage to Microsoft - and probably greater damage than Vista did. Also, the OS is slammed even louder by many bloggers, commentators, writers, than Viksta was slammed back then.

Balmer was the driving voice behind not changing W8 when the first info was released and the public reacted hostile to it. And I think it is fair to say that it has exploded right into Microsoft's face. Since 12 months now W8 reaches only half or less of the total sale numbers of even Vista. Critics slam it for its "features" and design as well. It cannot become any clearer.

I also refuse to applaude any company thjat tightens the screws that hold the customers on short chains. Microsoft may have been forced to give some grounds over original plans, nevertheless they have boosted DRM even further, following the model of Apple, Steam and others there. That may be nice for the profit interests of investors, but what do I care for investors - I am customer, and from a customer's POV I hate companies taking away my freedoms from me and trying to lock me into a closed app store. That's why I refuse to go for Apple, am extremely hesitent over Steam, and do not tolerate Ballmers plans to impose the same schemes - originally just even tighter! - with Windows.

Where Ballmer may score a success indeed, is the X-Box branch of business, I give him that. But its the only point I give him without a fight. When reading between the lines of business reports from the past months and years, Ballmer's was disputed and lost support continously within MS. When Windows 8 failed to ignite and the - who was it, the chief designer I think?! had to leave short after release, I expected Ballmer to no longer standing the mounting opposition, and quitting within two years. Well, and here we are.

[the_tyrant]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Sales numbers of W8 are clearly behind that of Vista per month. Their hardware (RT especially) lies like bars of iron on the shelves. After untypically short time they needed to implement significant price cuts. And total numbers from W8 are further distorted by the intial smile price offensive, where W8 sold more, and with the regular price, sales suddenly collapsing.

I just checked the latest numbers from summer, from ZDnet and some other tech sites and blogs. They all agree in their interpretation of numbers. Wkndows 8 does damage to Microsoft - and probably greater damage than Vista did. Also, the OS is slammed even louder by many bloggers, commentators, writers, than Viksta was slammed back then.

Balmer was the driving voice behind not changing W8 when the first info was released and the public reacted hostile to it. And I think it is fair to say that it has exploded right into Microsoft's face. Since 12 months now W8 reaches only half or less of the total sale numbers of even Vista. Critics slam it for its "features" and design as well. It cannot become any clearer.

I also refuse to applaude any company thjat tightens the screws that hold the customers on short chains. Microsoft may have been forced to give some grounds over original plans, nevertheless they have boosted DRM even further, following the model of Apple, Steam and others there. That may be nice for the profit interests of investors, but what do I care for investors - I am customer, and from a customer's POV I hate companies taking away my freedoms from me and trying to lock me into a closed app store. That's why I refuse to go for Apple, am extremely hesitent over Steam, and do not tolerate Ballmers plans to impose the same schemes - originally just even tighter! - with Windows.

Where Ballmer may score a success indeed, is the X-Box branch of business, I give him that. But its the only point I give him without a fight. When reading between the lines of business reports from the past months and years, Ballmer's was disputed and lost support continously within MS. When Windows 8 failed to ignite and the - who was it, the chief designer I think?! had to leave short after release, I expected Ballmer to no longer standing the mounting opposition, and quitting within two years. Well, and here we are.

I would argue with you regarding windows numbers.

The core problem was the pricing policy of windows 8 that damaged it potential.

Lets discuss the adoption problem. Previous versions of windows had faster adoption for 2 reasons. the first major one is the fact that upgrades are free. Traditionally, computers sold 3 quarters before the next version of windows came with free upgrades once the next version came out. This did not happen with windows 8, you had to pay to upgrade. what percentage of people actually pays for boxed copies of windows? 1%? 3%? Considering that PCs sold more than 300 million in 2012, 3 quarters worth is like 240 million devices.

Secondly, the whole PC industry is collapsing. Almost nobody actually buys boxed windows copies. Historically, PC sales kept going up, and thus, coupled with a small install base, adoption would go up.

I just made this example up, but follow along here. If at Vista's launch, there was 500 million PCs out there, and every year 150 million new PCs were sold, after one year, there would be 650 million PCs, 150 million running vista, with a small amount of upgrades and downgrades effecting the number, vista would get a 23% market share after one year.

With windows 8's launch, the number of PCs out there is HUGE. assume there was 1.2 billion PCs out there, and PC sales are 250 million this year, there will be 1.45 billion PCs after this year, and 250 million of them would be windows 8. Windows 8 would only take 17% of the market.

Regarding Sinofsky, the windows division head that left. He left after barely 2 week after the windows 8 launch. I would tend to disagree with the theory that he left because of poor sales, after all, 2 weeks is not enough time to see the numbers. I would actually argue that he was probably forced out because he sabotaged the other divisions, and was an arse to work with. The just forced him out after a major release in order to not damage the development (many Microsoft insiders agree with this).

Compared to the competition, Windows 8 is actually doing great. The PC industry declined 1.2% last year, compared to Apple, who declined 21%!

[Wolferz]

W8 is great for touch screen hardware but, that's as far as it goes I think.
Every version of Windows after 1.0 was basically a rehash of its predecessor. The marketing language was always the same too...

"Tastes Great! Less filling"
Even though it was actually stuffing a hard drive full of unneeded garbage.

[Rockin Robbins]

The problem with W8 is that the entire idea of the operating system formerly known as Metro (sorry! stolen name! fixing........please wait) is to lower the capabilities of your sophisticated computer to the abilities of a 5" screen cell phone. How do you sell an operating system on the basis of lowering the capabilities of a Ferrari to that of a Yugo? Microsoft will NEVER be able to sell that.

I downloaded the new preview of W8.1 and see that they stole enough ideas from Linux, Ubuntu to be exact, to make the nameless operating system kind of kludge along. You can actually have more than one app on screen at a time now......sort of.......within strict limits. But it is not enough to satisfy a power user of Windows, OSX or Linux.

Ubuntu has a better idea. Instead of crippling a computer to the level of a cell phone, why not enhance the properties of the high end multiprocessor cell phones to the level of a computer? The same software runs with two shells: the full-fledged desktop shell when you cell phone is docked to your monitor, disk drives, mouse and keyboard and whever else you'd like to attach to it. When you undock it all software works through the cell phone shell: same software but two different looks depending on screen size and touch capabilities. AND everything lives on the cell phone that follows you along all day. Where you are, your computer is.

The tragedy is that underneath its despicable shell, W8 is a leaner, meaner, more capable machine than W7 was. There's a lot to like if you can kill that lousy interface! But nobody will ever experience it because they aren't buying.

My W8.1 Preview edition? Safely imprisoned in a virtual machine, from which it will never escape. Ubuntu or other Linux distro is my escape plan if necessary. I own a copy of W7, which may have to serve me for at least 5 years until Microsoft either comes to its senses or is replaced by a company that values its customers. But even W7 will have to wait until XP becomes unsafe.

[Skybird]

What do you mean by "until XP becomes unsafe"...?

It's already since a long time known to be much, much more plagued by infections and security holes than W7. There is no argument to defend using XP. It was good at its reigning time, before W7. No argument to stick to it if you have W7.

Tyrant,
I must leave you to yourself with your assessment that Windows 8 "does great". The business report numbers I googled this afternoon (again) and the feedback by tech inspectors in blogs and tech magazines from the past months on the design and handling of W8 on a PC are so fundamentally detrimental to your views, that it speaks for itself. Regarding cellphones and tablets I never said much, possible that W8 is good for them, but then again, sales of their hardware for W8 are a pain for MS. The early and significant price reduction is a clear indication. and even now they find it difficult to sell the devices. I think they are still overpriced and needless hybrid designs that make too many compromises, do too much in this and thus do nothing really good, and achieve too little in compensation.

In the end, I have not lost money to W8, will not lose it, and anyway, this thread was about Ballmer quitting.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

W8 is great for touch screen hardware but, that's as far as it goes I think.
Every version of Windows after 1.0 was basically a rehash of its predecessor. The marketing language was always the same too...

"Tastes Great! Less filling"
Even though it was actually stuffing a hard drive full of unneeded garbage.

How people react to Windows 8:

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Oh this perfectly suits my idea of getting a job as a 'Fired Manager'

I let myself be employed, and promise not to do ANYthing. This has the advantage that i do not directly fire people, nor do i any harm to the (big) company.
(This is much better than most big managers have in their sorry portfolio.)

After 3 years i resign, against a payage of say 5 millions.
Deal ?

In ancient Greece, they had the "Scherbengericht" (octracism). Citizens were able to file one name per citizen into a yearly counting, a leader or official whom they wanted to get rid off due to his lousy performance in office. If a needed minimum of counts was met, let'S say 3000 votes or so, the person had to leave not only the office, but also the city (=state) and was banned, under threat of death, for a period of ten years. If in this time he would return, he was as good as dead.

Now that sounds like a nice idea when thinking of politics - and company management.

Treaties with leading personnel also need to be transparent, there shall be no golden handshakes, no secret payments, no secrecy about special privileges. Contracts need to be published in full. Managers are liable with their private wealth for their decisions, they shall no longer be allowed to just gamble with money that are not theirs. Finally, a solution must be found to prevent managers running business in a way that may maximise their income, but is at the longterm perspective of the company even after the manager has left again already. While a good sales climate and success shall be shared in boni by ALL working personell, boss and worker alike, and according to everybody's contribution, losses shall not be externalised and must be shared by everybody as well. No boss shall be allowed to privatize profit but to nationalise or externalise losses - or just leave dodge and get away with what he has, leaving behind a ruin. Honest traders (ehrbare Kaufleute) know that. Antisocial parasites, hedgefond managers, opportunists and the like, do not. That is what makes the difference between a constructive, creative, good system of capitalism, and a perverted, damaging capitalism that is a race for monopolism, and ruins community interests instead of contrbtuiong by it. Really free market versus monopolism, so to speak. Monopolies, and capitalism in its constructive, posiitve understanding, are mutually exclusive. Where you have the one, there cannot be the other.

Damn, I think you just stepped onto one of my auto-buttoned reflex-triggers there.