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Telis Demos interviews Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for the April 3rd edition of Fortune and unlike most executive interviews, some secrets are revealed:
Do you have an iPod?
No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children–in many dimensions they’re as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.
There was no word on whether he used Windows Live Family Safety Settings to enforce the Google edict, but his comment did rouse some amusement amongst commentators.
More importantly for those outside the Ballmer household:
Think you can you crack the iPod market?
It’s going to take an innovative proposition. In five years are people really going to carry two devices? One device that is their communication device, one device that is music? There’s going to be a lot of opportunities to get back in that game. We want to be in that game. Expect to see announcements from us in that area in the next 12 months.
Yet another hint, like the flurry of secret project rumors last week, that Microsoft is working on an “iPod killer” of some sort. As always, the question is whether Microsoft will finally build a portable device themselves.
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April 3rd, 2006 at 12:13 PM
[...] That’s it? Out of all Microsoft’s new initiatives, that’s it? Folks were laughing at that one when Ballmer uttered it in his recent Fortune interview. [...]
June 1st, 2006 at 7:13 PM
[...] The move by Microsoft appears to be a smart one. With so many Japanese companies involved in the consortium, take up of the new player in the consumer technology hungry Japanese market stands a good chance of success. The mobile phone form factor isn’t a given (or perhaps not the only one), but Steve Ballmer was touting just that back in March. [...]
July 31st, 2006 at 7:18 PM
[...] At the same time, it’s long been rumored that Apple intends to develop an iPod-branded phone of its own. And Steve Ballmer has hinted that Microsoft would like to play in the musical phone market too. Filed under Coopetition, Apple, Verizon, Microsoft, Argo, Zune [Permalink] [...]