Deathmatch of the Steves: Ballmer or Jobs?

This is a video of Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, discussing Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone back in 2008. Watch, then discuss:

I almost can’t help but feel bad for ol’ Steve (Windows Steve, not Apple Steve). Here’s a man who truly believes in his product, yet is directing a company that is clearly missing the “it” factor.

Need some proof? Ballmer’s own words:

In six months [Apple] will have the most expensive phone by far in the marketplace, and, let’s see! Let’s see how the competition goes.

I wonder if he’s still wanting to “see” how the competition is going. The iPhone doubled it’s market share in the first quarter of 2009, a jump that heretofore has been unheard of. The iPhone has busted the doors off the mobile device market, so much so that competitors are being forced to copy in order to survive.

Ballmer is right: The iPhone is one of the most expensive mobile devices on the market today. My question is this: Why does cost not matter to consumers when it comes to the iPhone? What does it have that other competing products do not?

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Contributor: Justin Wise

I am a religious deviant who enjoys coffee, collared shirts, spending time with my wife and son, learning about quantum physics and creatively exploring the riches of the Spirit of Christ. Find more here: JustinWise.me
  • exactly! STop talking about how expensive it is but how iphone is giving "value" to its users. that's what he should be focusing on.
  • I have had the HTC Mogul for a year now and it did everything I needed except play the music that I was buying with Itunes. The Iphone came in and said, "we can make your life even more mainstream and easier." Instead of carrying around a phone and your ipod, you now have both in one hand. Instead of buying the Nintendo DX, we will give you enough applications that you don't really need that either. When you combine just how much you save by buying an Iphone, to combine all these other devices, it can be stunning.

    My contract is done in January and I am up in the air on whether to stay with Sprint and get the Blackberry Tour and pay lower phone plans or go to AT&T with their higher rate plans but have a great multiuse item to go with it. If Apple wouldn't have exclusively put themselves in one cell carrier market, I think they would have quadrupled their sales easily. AT&T still have a lot of function issues with their phone system that concerns me.
  • CrazyTalk
    A company that pays for it is always a benefit - Is your's paid for by your company?
  • I think that one thing that the iPhone has done is seemlessly made two machines into one. Before the iPhone, you carried your cell phone and iPod. Now, you have one thing. Windows-based phones do not support m4a formatted music, so if you download all your music from the iTunes Store you aren't able to listen to that on your phone, not to mention having to buy a seperate media card to put into a Windows-based phone just to have the space to listen to your music. Another thing would be that too many of the cell phones in general don't have a 3.5mm plug for the headphones, you have to buy a seperate adapter. The iPhone has a lot of things to offer that the competition hasn't even come close to replicating.
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