Get Better Gear!

Premier Sponsors

TechRestore

Other World Computing

Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Supermodified

    • 10 out of 10
    • Amon Tobin
    • The genius is in the beats. Amon Tobin creates fantastic, groovy beats behind beats. "Supermodified" rolls through your expectations of breakbeat music, and turns them up a bit. It's a mellow album, p
  • Another Day on Earth

    • 10 out of 10
    • Brian Eno
    • In his first proper solo release since 1996's relatively cold "The Drop," Brian Eno has constructed a whimsical and ecclectic masterpiece which is arguably one of the year's strongest records thus fa
  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

    • 8 out of 10
    • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
    • When I first got hooked to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the only place I could get their debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, was through the band's Web site. I listened to the two tracks a

  • Plans

    • 8 out of 10
    • Death Cab for Cutie
    • With the introduction of Plans, Death Cab for Cutie became a new addition to many user's Artist list after the single "Soul Meets Body" became a hit on iTunes. Offering a fresh alternativ

  • 2112

    • 10 out of 10
    • Rush
    • We all know it, right? Well, ya just gotta have it. 2112 finally showed Rush out on their own, doing their own thing, and doing it well, IMHO.

Reader Specials

Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!

The Back Page

Steve Ballmer Champions Openness

 Bryan Chaffin - The Back Page

Steve Ballmer...this guy is going to be run out of Redmond on a set of rails at some point, but that's another story for another time. Today, we get to admire his...audacity, as today is the day that he became the new champion of openness.

Yes, that's right: The CEO of the company most responsible for co-opting and corrupting open standards, for trying its hardest to eliminate open standards in many instances, is now championing the idea of "openness."

The comments came during a panel Mr. Ballmer shared with Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, and Olli-Pekka Kallasvu, CEO of Nokia, a panel moderated by Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg.

The panel was ostensibly about the need for innovation in the mobile market, according to a report from CNet News, but it turned instead to what the executives on the panel described as a need for openness.

Mr. de la Vega, for instance, said that Apple would benefit from more interoperability between applications on the iPhone, while both Messrs. de la Vega and Olli-Pekka said there needed to be fewer operating systems competing in the market so that developers could focus more of their efforts.

For his part, Mr. Ballmer said that device openness was important, as it lead to more customer choice. "I agree that no single company can create all the hardware and software," he said. "Openness is central because it's the foundation of choice."

In other words, customers benefit from the kinds of hardware choices that result from companies like Microsoft licensing their operating systems to any and all comers, as opposed to benefitting from the kinds of performance, stability, and ease-of-use that result in proprietary solutions like Apple's, where one company controls the hardware and the software.

The dude doesn't get it. He won't ever get it. He can not see that while Microsoft's model leads to cheap crap dominating the market, and I mean a proliferation of lots and lots and lots of cheap crap to choose from, it also leads to a lack of innovation -- the subject the panel was convening on -- and lots of cheap crap.

But it boggles my mind that the head of the company that tried to convince the world that Open Source development was un-American and bad for business is now trying to champion the cause of openness.

From where I sit on my Throne of Judgement™, Microsoft is the single-most responsible entity for the near-destruction of open standards in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the company has repeatedly tried to dominate the market by introducing its own standards that were incompatible with other technologies.

From the standpoint of having a tiny stake in Apple, I suppose I should be glad. Mr. Ballmer doesn't get it, as I mentioned, and that should leave Apple out front, in the driver's seat. Apple's products have become so popular, in part, because they "just work," and because the user experience is so much better when one company controls the whole widget.

I'd like to see Apple get more competition from companies with similar models. That's the kind of thing that will keep Apple on its toes, but it looks like Microsoft's boss will keep deluding himself that his company's business model can produce products that are better than Apple's.

One more note about this panel: CNet reported that one frustrated member of the audience asked why there was all this concern and talk about Apple when its market share was so small. After all, here are these three non-Apple executives, and all they could do was talk about Apple.

Mr. de la Vega, whose company carries the iPhone in the U.S., replied: "Because the other 99.5 percent of the industry is trying to copy the iPhone."

Oh my! I wish I had been there for that.


Follow me on Twitter @TMOBryan.
Bryan Chaffin began using Apple computers in 1983 in a high school BASIC programming class. He started using Macs in 1990 when the Kinko’s guy taught him how to use Aldus PageMaker, finally buying a Power Computing Power 100 in 1995. Today, Bryan is the Editor of The Mac Observer, and has contributed to the print versions of MacAddict and MacFormat (UK).
You can .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) directly to him, or you can also post your comments below.

8 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

Rootboy said:

Oh YES, that would have been fun! Thanks for the nice perspective, Bryan.

   Quote

Boscher said:

Ya gotta love it though…the mindless fodder that comes out of his mouth is quite entertaining while his warped sense of reality is comical.  Great article!

   Quote

Boscher said:

Ballmer, I mean…not Bryan!  smile

   Quote

Tiger said:

This is the appropriate place to write:

ROTFLMAO

   Quote

macbones said:

Of course Ballmer gets it. But he also gets the fact that vertical integration is not in his company’s best interest. So he tries to paint Apple as the bad guy, and M$ as the company that’s going to work w/ all the partners- and it will, just like it did w/ “Played for Sure”

It really is fun to view ical’d Ballmer predictions that the iPhone would be a non-starter. He must be running a bit scared.

   Quote

aardman said:

I’ve become a big fan of “Lie To Me” ever since I saw the first episode.  Ballmer would be a great subject for the type of lie detection analysis featured on that show.  Every video I see of Ballmer there’s always that false bravado coupled with the grimaced smile and unnaturally loud but wavering voice.  Watch the one where he got asked about the iPhone and he pooh-poohs it as overpriced and destined to lose to WinMo.  I always wondered what was the basic emotion behind the outward signs he was exhibiting.  After watching “Lie to Me” and reading some more about the science behind the show, I think I know what it was:  Fear.

   Quote

AKjohn said:

YOu know this brings back the good old car analogies.  Here’s how: Imagine such openness….forcing every mobile manufacturer to support multiple phone OS’s, Win 6.5, OS X, Symbian, Andriod. You’d choose whichever one you wanted & put it in your phone. (**I DO NOT think this is a good idea, BTW… but bear with me for a moment…)

Now let’s go to our Porsche dealer, who is similarly required to put ANY ENGINE you want in his car. You could order the new Boxster. Then you decide to…. to put the Chevy Cobalt engine in it. Sure you get choice, but then your Porsche doesn’t run like a Porsche, It runs like a Chevy Cobalt. (Tho it probly gets better mileage…) NOw If Porsche WANTS to purchase & install CObalt engines, go ahead. BUt it does not make economic sense for them to manufacture for EVERY ENGINE out there.

How can anyone think that a manufacturer who puts their design blood & sweat into a product would not want to control how it runs.  It’s no different for cars as it is for mobiles.

*and this from the mast man in the free world without a cell phone.

On a sunny Alaska morning

   Quote

azarkon said:

let me translate ballmer’s sentiments:

everything that we don’t control should be opened up so we can find a way to control it, ruin it, and make money from it.

sounds like whining to me.

   Quote

Page 1 of 1 pages

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me  Forgot your password?

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.