The Web According to Ballmer
Selected quotes:
"Classically, we're the Windows company. When it provides $20 billion in profit, it's pretty important. "
" In some of these things, you'll have to decide, if you're the big guys: Do I want to play at the application level or do I merely want to play at the commerce and other platform level in a way that strengthens the rest of my assets and allows me to make money?"
"We wanted to win that MySpace deal. At some point, we said we can't do this. Now Google can afford to spend more than us and Yahoo because they have more people in their ad system, so they're getting better yield, effectively."
"Explain how the business for Xbox changes from the first generation of the console to the current generation with Xbox 360. Generation one was lose money—gross margin loss on the console for the lifetime. You've got to take a lifetime view. We did have a lifetime view that said if you add all the revenue from selling consoles and all the costs of shipping consoles, it was negative."
And, from the Comments:
"Ballmer's glib talk about failed products like XBox should make shareholders angry. After promising to break even on the original XBox, now he claims they planned to lose money over the life cycle of the product! XBox and XB360 have so far cost shareholders more than $3 billion, and now Microsoft faces a price war as Sony and Nintendo ship their next-gen consoles. As for Zune, all I can say is why? They have adopted a player product that has already failed in the marketplace, added some half-baked software, and will sell at a price that has zero advantage over the market leader, Apple. This is a strategy for success? "
"Classically, we're the Windows company. When it provides $20 billion in profit, it's pretty important. "
" In some of these things, you'll have to decide, if you're the big guys: Do I want to play at the application level or do I merely want to play at the commerce and other platform level in a way that strengthens the rest of my assets and allows me to make money?"
"We wanted to win that MySpace deal. At some point, we said we can't do this. Now Google can afford to spend more than us and Yahoo because they have more people in their ad system, so they're getting better yield, effectively."
"Explain how the business for Xbox changes from the first generation of the console to the current generation with Xbox 360. Generation one was lose money—gross margin loss on the console for the lifetime. You've got to take a lifetime view. We did have a lifetime view that said if you add all the revenue from selling consoles and all the costs of shipping consoles, it was negative."
And, from the Comments:
"Ballmer's glib talk about failed products like XBox should make shareholders angry. After promising to break even on the original XBox, now he claims they planned to lose money over the life cycle of the product! XBox and XB360 have so far cost shareholders more than $3 billion, and now Microsoft faces a price war as Sony and Nintendo ship their next-gen consoles. As for Zune, all I can say is why? They have adopted a player product that has already failed in the marketplace, added some half-baked software, and will sell at a price that has zero advantage over the market leader, Apple. This is a strategy for success? "
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