Android News
Steve Ballmer: Windows should be able to crush Android tablets
August 2, 2010 | by Andrew Kameka
Android News
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is up to his old tricks again when discussing Android tablets. Known for dismissing rivals in early stages and watching them later rise to eat away at Microsoft’s market share, Ballmer is once again implying that his company’s effort should easily surpass that of the competition.
When discussing tablets with analysts last week, Ballmer made the following comment, according to Business Insider:
“If with the application base, with the tools that we have, with the user understanding and momentum and everything going on, we can’t compete with…whatever the weird collection of Android machines is going to look like, shame on us.”
In a sad state of affairs, Ballmer is actually right to make these comments. Android has been promised tablets for quite some time, only to be given vaporware and junk. Look how excited people were to see the $150 tablet from a company no one heard about until last week. The Windows tablet experience isn’t the greatest in the world, but it’s more capable than anything we’ve seen from Android (so far). If a company as big as Microsoft can’t beat that, they’re in serious trouble.
However, it’s good to hear Ballmer downing Android as a tablet OS. History has indicated that things he trash tend to do fairly well. We all remember how Ballmer dismissed the iPhone for it’s expensive cost and lack of a physical keyboard; he also questioned Google’s strategy and said Android wouldn’t be a competitor to Windows Mobile.
Hmm. Maybe these upcoming Android tablets won’t be so bad after all.
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Doesn't sound like he actually said MS would "Crush" Android. Just that they should be able to compete, which sounds a lot more humble and realistic.
Android has never officially supported tablets. Its strictly a smartphone os so far.
Maybe that will change with 3.0 maybe not.
The sad (for Android) thing is he's probably right.
What does Google have?
Froyo with support for 480×854 screens coming to the phone near you. Gingerbread in the pipeline to support an odd resolution of 1280 x 760. Chrome OS that Google doesn't know what to do with and how to position.
What does MS have?
Windows 7 available here and now with support for multitouch and pretty much any screen resolution. HP Mini 311 is a very nice netbook with screen resolution of 1366 x 768 (16 / 9 aspect ratio) that has a real OS (vs iOS) and runs both web and native applications just fine.
Of course there's a chance that Google does something extraordinary or Microsoft screws up again but how likely is that?
Borys Burnayev
actioncomplete.com
GTD for Android and Web
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What an over the top title. Sensationalize much?
If you follow the link to the original article, the title in Business Insider is "Steve Ballmer Has No Respect For An Android Tablet," and the first sentence is "Steve Ballmer doesn't consider Google's Android a worthy competitor in the burgeoning tablet market." Following this, the article says, "Ballmer is right when he says Microsoft should be able to squash Android. Microsoft is a bigger company which has been making an operating system for longer."
Not sure that the "sensationalization" began here.
Apart from something like the Archos5IT, which is essentially a MID/PMP, there are currently no android tablets that have made a large enough splash to even approach MS exisiting expertise in productivity based tablets.
It all depends what market they are going for. Consumer tablets are still a niche device and the iPad does not currently have any serious competition. Hopefully this will change, but who knows…
BALMER SMASH!