Ballmer

Microsoft and Adobe holding secret anti-Apple meetings?

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Oct 7, 2010 a 9:23 pm

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer snuck into Adobe to talk with their CEO, Shantanu Narayen, about how they could team up, cartoon villain-style, to take on the growing mobile power of Apple and one Steven P. Jobs. the NYT Bits blog says:

The meeting, which lasted more than an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could team up in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.

UPDATED: Steve Ballmer NOT announcing iPhone, iPad Visual Studio support at WWDC? [Crazy alert!]

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, May 27, 2010 a 7:37 am

An analyst has let fly that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be getting 7 minutes of time during the WWDC 2010 keynote -- where the iPhone HD/iPhone 4G will al but certainly be introduced -- to announce Visual Studio 2010 will support the native creation of iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps. Is there a word in the English language for something so bat$#!t crazy "rumor" and even "fiction" just don't properly convey its bat$#!t craziness?

10% of Microsoft Employees Secretly Using iPhones?

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Mar 13, 2010 a 4:59 pm

Much to the chagrin of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Devices and Entertainment honcho Robbie Bach, the Wall Street Journal reports that even publicly stomping on employee iPhones hasn't stamped them out:

Nearly 10,000 iPhone users were accessing the Microsoft employee email system last year, say two people who heard the estimates from senior Microsoft executives. That figure equals about 10% of the company's global work force.

Ballmer on Bing as iPhone Default, Google and Apple Still "Stable"

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010 a 10:58 am

Given the rumors surrounding Apple and Google lately, and the iPhone and Microsoft Bing, it's no wonder Mobile World Congress 2010 has raised both topics again, earning a smile from Steve Ballmer, and yet another "stable" comment from Google.

First up, Reuters has comments from Vic Gundotra, Google mobile engineering lead:

"Apple is a very close and valuable partner and we're very excited about the relationship we have with them today. We have no reason to believe that's going to change." [...] "We don't want to comment on those rumours. We think that relationship is stable."

Microsoft's Ballmer to Try and Pre-empt Apple, Introduce HP Tablet Tonight?

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jan 6, 2010 a 10:27 am

UPDATE: According to WMExperts liveblog, it was a Tablet PC by HP running Windows 7 and called -- wait for it -- the Slate. Yes, named after Apple's latest tablet name rumor. Looks chunky, and its using a desktop OS. Okay.

ORIGINAL: So the rumor is Steve is about to introduce a new tablet device -- no, not Steve Jobs of Apple, but his nemesis Steve Ballmer of Microsoft -- and he's rumored to be doing it tonight at CES!

CEOh-SNAP: Ballmer Says the Internet Wasn't Designed for the iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009 a 10:19 pm

Steve Ballmer, whose company produced the single most internet-hostile program in history -- Internet Explorer 6 -- has the stupefying temerity to state:

Let's face it, the Internet was designed for the PC. The Internet is not designed for the iPhone. That's why they've got 75,000 applications - they're all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone.

CEOh-Snap! Ballmer Publicly Ridicules Microsoft Employee for Using iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Sep 11, 2009 a 6:48 am

As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was taking the stage for a private company meeting at Seattle's Safeco Field, he saw an employee about to snap his picture with... an iPhone. So, Ballmer decided to snap instead. TechFlash (via Engadget) reports he grabbed the iPhone from the hapless employee, began making "funny comments", put the iPhone on the floor and pretended to stamp on it, and then continued on, only to remind the employee he hadn't forgotten about him later.

Tuesday Fright Video: Windows 95 Ported to iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Jul 13, 2009 a 11:10 pm

I forget if this brings us 4 minutes to midnight or only 5 on the official app-ocalypse clock, but duck and cover because Windows 95 has been ported to run on an iPhone.

Ish. Gizmodo, via GoodiPhone, has the deets:

CEOh-Snap! Ballmer Says iPhone/Capacitive Touch Too Expensive! (That'll be $800 for the Xperia Please!)

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Mar 19, 2009 a 10:19 am

We have to wonder if Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has some insidious plot to make his PR people pull their hair out, so they'll look just as Fester'ian as he himself. Or maybe he's just jealous of the love TiPb's been giving Palm's Roger McNamee lately? How else can you account for the glorious (for bloggers!) content he keeps spewing in our general direction?

CEOh-Snap! Mr. Ballmer, Think of Windows Phone as a Broken iPhone...

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Mar 5, 2009 a 10:40 am

TiPb. Heart. Steve. Ballmer. Microsoft's #2 has really become #1 in our CEOh-Snap department. See, he doesn't just hit the mic, he pummels it to bloody, infuriating, borderline committable pulp. This time, however, D|All Things Digital brings us a little CEOh-Snap back in the form of Ballmer being on the receiving end for once, via an unhappy questioner at the CIO Summit: