Microsoft

Stop Giving Steve Ballmer the Spotlight

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By now you’ve probably heard about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer saying yesterday that “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.”

iPhone competitors have learned that if they want to snag the attention of 10 million bloggers worldwide, all they have to do is join the petty playground wars over the iPhone and say something mean about the device.

Of course Ballmer is going to say that. Microsoft vs. Apple: It’s the classic rivalry. And it makes great reporter bait. But quite frankly, I’m sick of hearing about it.

On another note, this is my 100th post on Apple iPhone Review. Pretty exciting, huh?

Microsoft CEO Denies Zune Phone Rumors

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AT&T iPhone Q&A

Not that the Zune phone would be a threat to the iPhone, but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has downplayed rumors that the company would be creating any sort of Zune mobile phone. Instead, Ballmer said, Microsoft will focus on adding Zune features to Windows Mobile handhelds.

Enough about that. It’s not that I’ve got an Apple bias, just that I’ve always thought the Zune was Microsoft’s desperate attempt at jumping into the PMP market a little too late. By today’s standards, the Zune is already big and clunky, and not very innovative.

Zune Phone Patent Application Reveals Shoddy Interface

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Zune Phone Patent

This post needn’t be lengthy because the concept image of the interface on Microsoft’s possibly upcoming Zune phone speaks for itself.

The image is from a patent filed by Microsoft last June, so I’m not suggesting that Microsoft borrowed the icons-on-a- touchscreen concept from Apple.

Wired thinks it’s simply a matter of “some ideas seem to have their time and pop up in different places simultaneously, just like the TV which popped up independently on both sides of the Atlantic at the same time.”

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Video: Microsoft CEO Laughs at Apple iPhone

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Check out this video where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughs at Apple’s iPhone, “the most expensive phone in the world,” because, he says, “it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine.”

He’s right, the lack of tactile response could be a killer for iPhone. What do you think?

Apple iPhone Rumors a Deceptive PR Campaign?

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Apple iPhone Concept

A Taiwanese newspaper revealed Tuesday Apple’s plans to have Foxconn mass produce at least 12 million iPhones. Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs is expected to formally launch the iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco this January. Whether or not these plans are true is unclear, but the news could not have come at a worse time for Apple’s rival Microsoft, whose Zune MP3 player launched the same day.

As phones today are increasingly featuring MP3 compatibility, the Apple iPhones would challenge Apple’s influence in the mobile phone industry.

Computerworld blogger David Haskin said the Apple iPhone rumors may be just a massive PR campaign so “remarkably effective… that it doesn’t even have to be true.”

I’m talking about a massively successful PR campaign done primarily by volunteers. Besides being virtually free and remarkably effective, the best part is that it doesn’t even have to be true. Apple released no information (officially), so it can just sit back, say it doesn’t comment on future products and let the hype build. – Computerworld

That’s not to say the iPhone concept is a fabrication. After news of the iPhone spreads, Haskin said, Apple can analyze feedback from fans, pundits, and industry analysts to help “fine-tune its marketing efforts.”

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