[Macworld]

Post your comments for Microsoft looks to mimic Apple success, says Ballmer here

[spim]

Microsoft copying Apple ???!!!!!
who would've thought of such a thing
I definitely shocked.
the scene from Casablanca with the Police Chief comes to mind,
"I am shocked, shocked I say to learn there's gambling in this establishment!"
"Your winnings, sir."
"Oh, thank you!"

[macwilf]

Mimic is the word:)

[leicaman]

Ballmer lives in an echo chamber. He has no problem saying whatever is convenient at the moment to silence critics.
To think that they could market their way to a better user experience - not to mention actually convince Dell and HP to go along - is laughable at best, worthy of derision at worst. The analyst who thinks that's the approach should be put out to pasture.
Microsoft has no chance of reversing decades of backwards compatibility issues. IT professionals rely on them to not shake things up so they can maximize return on ancient technology investments. That is why Microsoft is in the mess they are in. Now if they offend the ones who have benefited most from a lack of real innovation, they are really in trouble.
Ballmer thinks average people as so stupid that he can say anything he pleases and get away with it. His comments about Yahoo in the same memo show just how truly out of touch with reality this denizen of the echo chambers of Redmond is.

[jddmacworld]

Why not continue to mimi Apple, they have been doing it since the 80's when Poindexter changed from command line UI to Windows after seeing the original Mac.

[rjpotts]

To bad we can't use the "cone of silence" on Ballmer.

[tewha]

This is hugely funny, when viewed from the right angle. Microsoft believes they outsell Apple 30:1. I think those numbers are probably a little off, but whatever. My point is this: Microsoft considers this success and thinks they need to copy it.
Think about that for a second. Forget the relative technical worths of the platforms, and just look at the numbers and their plans to change as a result of them.
Isn't that funny? I really hope Microsoft is so busy chasing the 3% that they end up with it. And I hope in doing so, they lose the other 97%.

[TheUpbeatPenguin]

I think this is just a grab for attention, and MS will probably not actually change anything. Such is the power behind the Microsoft name that they can say whatever they want, and it's immediately interpreted literally, when historically many of their gigantic assertions (.NET for example) amount to almost nothing in the end.

[Graeme_Smith]

When in doubt copy Apple...

[D_Dog]

Xbox: 30% failure rate...nuff said. Copy Apple's ideas & UI? What else is new.

[dreyfus]

MS has never been an innovator, so that's nothing new. Since many years they do nothing else than screaming "we can do that too" whenever somebody else comes up with a great idea or something better than what MS has. For all of the 90s and the early new century this was in most cases enough to kill competitors and make people wait for MSs offer. This perceived safety and the resulting arrogance made them miss the Internet, made them miss peoples demand for painless and creative personal computing etc. Gates went from trade show to trade show giving "visionary speeches" (none of them were ever remotely accurate or specific, not even by Nostradamus' standards) while the cash machine in Redmond was falling apart (no internal discipline, no innovations, jumping on every bandwagon - destroying competition is more important than having profitable products and even dropping resources for the timely development of the OS and Internet software).
Today they have the least standards compliant browser in existence, the worst phone OS, a desktop OS that gets easily rivaled by Linux with KDE 4, a stagnant and frustrated developer community, a bunch of loss leaders and still no vision or direction.
And to make it even better: they are the worst managed company I can think of (and I am not even talking about not being sympathetic). The Desktop OS marketing guy announces a 300 million USD advertising campaign to prove Vista is better than OS X and within days the CEO says that they have to learn from Apple... Great stunt :-) No market leader ever discusses smaller competitors. That is a rule. Intel did never comment on AMD, not even when they had some growth. MS discusses Apple twice a week, even making them a kind of a "role model"? If I would be a share holder, I would freak out. Stock lost almost 30% since December and has not seen any value creation for almost 5 years in a row... and they are so afraid of a company that was almost bankrupt then, that they promise to learn from them... Is it just me, or is this unheard of?
The two biggest OEMs (HP and Dell) get most competition not from Apple, but from cheap systems (like the eee) and home-made systems - not only in developing markets, almost 50% of computers in Europe are home-made or from no-name companies. Now, here comes MS: Please make better and more expensive devices, so we can cope with Apple?! Yeah, HP and Dell have been waiting for just that!
How about putting all your Vista marketing money and all this misdirected creativity into creating a fresh, clean OS that is consistent and competitive first, then only license it to those that will provide appropriate systems? Cannot do that? Right! Whenever you have it ready (2020?), CIOs will still discuss upgrading from 2000 to XP.

[natmusak]

...A little late. :D The PC desktop market, which makes up most the Microsoft's monopoly, is flat-lining while Apple is outpacing the industry 3 to 1 and their iPhone, which represents the next major computing platform, has already surpassed all (including Windows Mobile smart phones that have been available for years) but RIM's established BlackBerry.

[KAdamsInCo]

"the company will try to market its software as competitive with Apple’s in the functionality and user experience areas."
AAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!! Ohhhhh. Ohhhh My. I think I just wet my pants laughing so hard..... Dream on Ballmer. If the "king" himself, Gates, could never match the 'cool style and product usability factor' of Jobs and Apple (something he admits when asked) there is NO WAY Ballmer and company can even come close.
Too funny..... really. Good luck with that.

[bigh]

It's simple - they can't follow Apple because they're not in control of all aspects. That's the lesson here. When MS tried to make the whole widget we get the Zune and the XBox. Truthfully, not so bad, but not even in the league of the iPod and iPhone. They are out of control when it comes to computers, and their business model demands that. The only way they can tighten the reings on hardware is to limit their OEMs, and those OEMs will go to other sources.
They represent the old ways, and their empire is built on such ways. They simply can't do what Ballmer is dreaming about without a major drop in sales. So it won't happen.