Microsoft is coming up with its Windows Phone 7, and the company’s CEO Steve Ballmer had something to note at the Web 2.0 Submit. On Tuesday, in San Francisco the software giant’s CEO has a lot to note, but he made a point to splash a bit of dirt on Apple and Google, which was definitely to downplay the giants’ handsets. Additionally, he even proclaimed Skype the company’s social play. Ballmer had a notable chat with the host John Battelle at the event, which had a few battling conversations.
During the chat, Ballmer started with the Bing conflict, where Battelle reminded Ballmer that he had said Bing would one day grow up and would thus surprise everyone. But it hasn’t happened, even though Microsoft partnered Yahoo to improve its search. The difference between Microsoft’s Bing and Google is still huge. Ballmer in response challenged that when a user compares search engines, he bets that 70 percent of people won’t care, 15 percent would like Bing’s results, and the other 15 percent would like Google’s.
Then Battelle targeted Ballmer socially, asking whether that market had officially passed Microsoft by. The CEO seemed confident as he responded saying, “We picked our play–connectivity to people.” He noted that Skype basically offers a lot more of the one-to-one, or personal approach to social. Talking about Google Hangouts, Ballmer was asked whether he considers it as a threat for Skype, he said that Skype has been integrated with Facebook. His answer thus was simple, that Facebook is superior to Google Plus and thus, Skype has no real threat from Google Hangouts.
The host and the guest’s conversation went further ahead on its major competitors, Google and Apple, relating it to the handset wars. The CEO first targeted Android phones, as he said that people needed to be “computer scientists” in order to figure out how to use an Android phone. This was when he was asked to compare the appealing Android devices to a Windows powered phone. His replied in a calm way, saying, “You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows phone and you do to use and Android phone…It is hard for me to be excited about the Android phones.”
Talking about the comparison of a Windows powered phone with Apple devices, he was fair enough in saying that he considers Apple as a good competitor. He was even all praise for Apple’s latest innovation, Siri. Siri has been talked about more than any other feature of iPhone 4S, in fact even one does not like the iPhone 4S, he would still have only praise for it. Siri – the “humble personal assistant” mobile software, can set one’s alarm, sent a text message or an email.
But Ballmer expectedly bulled in the comparison, saying that Windows powered phones were better than Apple iPhones, as the former puts a user’s need everywhere, may it be front or center of the phone experience.
He said, “Both [an iPhone and a Windows phone] are going to feel very good in your hand and both going to look very beautiful physically…. but when you grab a Windows phone and use it… your information is front and center… and you don’t have to scroll through seas of icons and blah blah blah.
During their conversation, Battelle and Ballmer shared a few laughs, as they talked about Microsoft’s failed attempt to acquire Yahoo years ago. Baller smartly replied, “sometimes…you’re lucky.”