Sometimes Ballmer strikes me as a sad little clown

I’ve been reading the articles of Ballmer talking about mobile technologies and how Microsoft has dropped to Number 5 in the market. Considering that position means they have only a tiny percentage of users, it basically means they’re in last place. Having less than 10% of a market while the top player has nearly 90% doesn’t really bode to well. (A bit of an exaggeration, it really looks like this: RIM, #1 with 35%, iPhone, 28%, Windows 19%, Android 9%) Ballmer is accepting responsibility for the blunder stating:

“We were ahead of this game, in terms of software for phones,” Ballmer told Mossberg. “We are not ahead of this game. We haven’t fallen off the face of the planet, but we were ahead of this game and now we find ourselves at No. 5 in the market.”

Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft had missed a design and release cycle, and he took personal responsibility for the failure. “I chose to make a set of leadership changes in the team of people building and executing on our Windows Phone software,” he said.

Fact of the matter is, MS has been in the mobile game for years now and hasn’t made a dent. They’ve been trying to make something happen since 2001 and obviously it hasn’t worked out for them. And as with so many other markets, they’re so far behind I doubt they will ever catch up.

The number of tech blunders is really starting to take its toll. It’s actually pretty amazing that Microsoft is still raking in billions per quarter in profits considering how aimless and hapless they are these days. Windows, Office, SQL and Exchange are still bringing in the big bucks, but they aren’t blazing into new territories. Their old stalwarts are keeping them afloat as they keep trying, but ultimately failing to bring new ideas and products to market. The Microsoft luster is really wearing off.

And there is no disputing Microsoft is making mistakes. Its facts like this that show the glory days of Microsoft are clearly behind them:

If you invested $1,000 in Microsoft stock on January 2, 2001, and reinvested all your dividends, you have roughly $1,468 today, or a 47 percent return over nearly 10 years. By contrast, $1,000 in Apple stock purchased on the same day is now worth $34,526.88, for a return of more than 3300 percent.

Steve Ballmer admits mobile failures