re: Steve Ballmer should no longer be misunderstood

Alan Cobb — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:18:16 GMT

Hi Anand,

I also thought the Kawasaki-Balmer interview worked out brilliantly. For me it was a "defining moment" for Balmer and quite changed my opinion of him. The reason it was so riveting was because Guy kept hitting him with hardball questions and not backing off, and Balmer got to demonstrate his unflappability, knowledge, sense of humor and energy.

I really liked that he did the impromptu "web developers" dance. It took something that he has been ridiculed for and turned it into the opposite: This time it came off like he has a sense of humor, isn't afraid to risk looking foolish (parallels the "bet-the-company" riskiness of the Yahoo acquisition), and understands the importance of (web) developers.

BTW: Re. Dave McClure: Last night I pitched him on doing my "Intro to Silverlight" presentation at the Web 2.0 Expo in SF. He said he was interested, but that the schedule was quite full already. I'm supposed to talk to him at the end of this week. We'll see what happens.

Alan Cobb

re: Steve Ballmer should no longer be misunderstood

drakaal — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:14:52 GMT

I agree with most of this, but I worry about Microsoft after Bill. Ballmer is great, and a powerhouse, but MSFT used to have 2 powerhouses, and now it will have one, and it hasn't really convinced us that it has a new heavy hitter to add to the team.

MSFT is way behind in web technologies and the whole world know's that the future is not on the desktop.

MSFT isn't racing to get up to speed on the technologies to be a major player in the online space. Sure some will argue that the Yahoo acquistion is that, but MSFT's problem isn't tech, or brand, it is not understanding communities. MSFT doesn't know how to get people excited about it's technology.