Ballmer: Search was our worst mistake

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A different opinion

Whose opinion do you hold more likely on the future of
technology, Ballmer, or Steve Jobs?

From MacWorld
http://www.macworld.com/2004/02/features/
themacturns20jobs/
MW: Do you have any other thoughts about where your
competitors are taking their strategies? For example, Windows
Media PCs are computers attached to TV sets.

SJ: Well, we've always been very clear on that. We don't think that
televisions and personal computers are going to merge. We
think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and
you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain
on.

MW: Are there some complementary aspects to it?

SJ: Well, they want to link sometimes. Like, when you make a
movie, you burn a DVD and you take it to your DVD player.
Someday that could happen over AirPort, so you don't have to
burn a DVD -- you can just watch it right off your computer on
your television set. But most of these products that have said,
"Let's combine the television and the computer!? have failed. All
of them have failed.

MW: I don't understand why you'd want to mouse around on
your TV set.

SJ: The problem is, when you're using your computer you're a
foot away from it, you know? When you're using your television
you want to be ten feet away from it. So they're really different
animals.

From CNET:
http://news.com.com/2100-1045_3-5103279.html

Asked about Apple's interest in selling Macs that could serve up
the video recording abilities Microsoft offers with its Windows XP
Media Center Edition, Jobs joked that Apple was instead focused
on melding the computer with a toaster.

"I never get mine quite brown," said Phil Schiller, vice president
of marketing. "We can do an up-sell for bagels."

Jobs said that he doesn't see such products creating a big
market.

"We're not going to go that direction," Jobs said. "There is a
small audience that likes this."

Jobs said there are several problems with the Media Center
concept, in particular the wide divergence in the way people
want to watch television as compared with how they use a
computer. "Generally what they want to view on television has to
do with turning their mind off," he said.

Jobs said that video recording is processor intensive and is best
left to a device that is not doing other things such as playing
games or running spreadsheets. "When I want to record 'The
West Wing,' I want to make damn sure it records 'The West
Wing,'" he said.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 03/25/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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