Microsoft CEO On Android: “Only A Computer Scientist Could Figure Out How To Use It”
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took his appearance at the Web 2.0 Summit as an opportunity to publicly press the dislike button on Android, Google apps, and the iPhone.
Microsoft is planning to release new Nokia phones powered by its Windows Phone operating system at Nokia World on October 26 and Ballmer told Web 2.0 interviewer John Batelle that he thought iPhone was the main competition. Though Google’s Android software has gobbled up market share to become the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States, Ballmer was dismissive of the competitor.
“It’s very hard for me to get excited about Android phones; Apple’s a good competitor,” Ballmer said, according to TabTimes.
He went on to criticize Android for not being user friendly.
“You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone. I think you do to use an Android phone,” he reportedly said.
He was hardly complimentary of the iPhone.
According to Business Insider, Ballmer said, “There’s certainly some nice things Apple’s done with Siri, but we’ve been doing the same things for years.”
Ballmer’s remarks come as Windows Phone is facing some tough times. Though he professes to be unimpressed by the competition, Windows Phone’s dwindling market share isn’t likely to have escaped his notice: according to comScore data, Google’s Android powers 43.7 percent of all smartphones in the U.S, the iPhone claims 27.3 percent of smartphone subscribers, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone boasts just 5.7 percent of the market.
As eWeek reports, the last time Ballmer made an appearance at Web 2.0 was in 2009 right after the launch of Microsoft’s search engine Bing. On Tuesday, Ballmer spoke proudly about Bing saying that according to internal tests, most people don’t care which search engine they use, and when they do care their preferences are equally split between Bing and Google.
Search wasn’t the only area where Ballmer suggested that Microsoft was moving in on Google’s turf. When Batelle asked about Microsoft’s shift from packaged to cloud based software, Ballmer said that when it came to cloud-based apps, Microsoft was beating Google 98 percent of the time. According to GeekWire, Ballmer’s take on Microsoft’s cloud-based app business was, “We are winning, winning, winning, winning, winning. Doesn’t mean the other guys don’t win a couple, but man, we’re successful.”
Tags: hightech, Microsoft, phones, Steve Ballmer