“Sales of Microsoft’s Windows RT-based Surface tablet are off to a “modest” start according to chief executive Steve Ballmer.”
see Surface sales 'modest' so far, Ballmer modestly admits • The Register.
Meanwhile, Nexus 7 Is On Top Of The Holiday Shopping Lists. See? Price/performance matters. You can buy two Nexus 7 for the price of one Surface. If the unique features of “Surface” don’t appeal to a buyer, they will buy something else and more often than not it will be an Android/Linux tablet.
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In case you haven’t heard it (which is unlikely), Ballmer had Sinofsky (the Windows division chief) “fired”. Of course, he was officially thanked for his accomplishments, but Ballmer was probably close to a heart attack when he saw Windows 8 sales numbers.
Lutz D. Meier wrote, “Ballmer was probably close to a heart attack when he saw Windows 8 sales numbers.”
The ultimate victory will be when Ballmer is sacked in the middle of the night…
The problem for M$ remains that no matter what they do they cannot reclaim a high share of the market for PCs when they will be charging a huge price for their licence. They either have to accept a lower licensing fee, a lower share or some combination. Who is running the show is almost irrelevant to that reality. This should have happened 20 years ago except that M$ was allowed to manipulate the market with exclusive dealing.
Sinofsky was next in line for Balmmer’s job. My first thought was that this was a pre-emptive strike to get rid of the competition.
Microsoft’s mindset is like it’s 1995. They are under the spell of those glory days. After all, they have the money to prove it. At least that’s what they must be telling themselves. But the world we live in now is upside down compared to 1995. I don’t think they have a clue.