Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shills Windows 7 on U.S. national TV in front of Apple Mac (with video)

Mac Daily News ^ | 10/24/2009

[Swordmaker]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appeared on NBC's Today Show on Thursday to shill his company's Vista service pack, er, "Windows 7" and spent the entire segment in front of an older model (note the latches above the screen) Apple MacBook Pro (courtesy of an NBC graphic designer — Mac user, no doubt — who must have a wicked sense of humor):


Direct link to video via Hulu here.



Of course, it's easy to run Windows 7 (or any other Windows version, Linux, etc.) and non-Mac applications on OS-unlimited Macs natively (via Apple's Boot Camp) and/or via fast virtualization (VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop for Mac) which is just another reason to Get a Mac. But, Ballmer T. Clown doesn't like that concept very much at all (a href="http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/9412/">Couldn’t you just buy a Mac and run Windows? Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘No, we prefer real PCs’) because he knows that when people get a Mac and really begin to use it, they never want to boot up Windows again if they can help it. Then they start to use iWork in place of Office and... suffice to say, it's bad for Microsoft's sales. Microsoft banks on ignorance; without it, they have nothing.

MacDailyNews Take: It must suck to work for Microsoft where important details routinely go left unchecked and, no matter where in the world you go, you're constantly surround by professionals who all use Apple Macs. Plus, every time you try to promote your inferior products, Apple's keep showing up in your TV appearances and even in your sloppy company's own ads that are, of course, also creating on Macs.

[Swordmaker]

Oh well. I learned all my Audio Production Programs (band in a Box, PowerTrax, CuBase, Pro-Tools, Finale, Sibelius, Loops, etc) on a PC. Now I go out and consult, and all my students have Macs! So I just adjusted my brain a little and rfeworked how the mouse works.

Didn't anybody show you how to configure your mouse and turn on the other buttons?

[Swordmaker]

Their last quarter sales were 13 billion, compared to 8.6 billion for Apple.

They are even closer than that. Microsoft does not sell using the subscription method that GAAP imposed on Apple for the iPhone. Apple had to book the profits of iPhone sales over two years instead of when earned because of GAAP changes made in 2004. GAAP has now changed those rules back but Apple is still wrestling with how to reverse the accounting. During this quarter, the NON-GAAP sales for Apple was 12.4 Billion of which only 8.6 billion was booked. The rest was booked as "deferred income" even though they have the cash in hand.

[TheBattman]

Wow! You made it in at post #2, congratulations... what an honor it must be to not only be a troll, but the first poster to reply...

[TheBattman]

My computer gets me where I want to go and I heard Windows 7 kicks ass which is why Mac users are acting like libs.

Funny - go back and start at the beginning of the thread and make an observation - the very first reply to this thread (and if you deny that there is iron in Ballmer doing an ad for Windows 7 in front of an Apple MacBook Pro, then you have no sense of humor or iron) was from someone posting that "Macs Suck".

So who is acting like "Libs"?

[ThomasThomas]

My would Apple name their computer after a fast food hamburger?

[EternalVigilance]

I’m beginning to think that these threads should be posted in the Religion forum.

LOL...

[Swordmaker]

Funny all that great press for Apple and their revenue was still only 2/3 MS, thus proving my point, if Gates thinks about getting annoyed all he has to do is look at the bank account.

A year and a half ago, IDC found that although Apple represented less than 7 percent of the personal PC market in the US, it had 25% of the entire US PC market's profits. It's only gotten worse for the PC makers in the year and a half since as Apple has actually grown it's market share to 9.6% and maintained its margins (34-36%) while the rest of the PC market has either shrunk or maintained and their profit margins become, well, marginal...

[TXnMA]

LOL!!! HE'S RIGHT! That laptop is exactly like this MacBook Pro -- including the latches and the iSight camera port at the top of the screen.

Wonder whose head will roll when Ballmer picks himself up off the floor, after realizing that he just demoed Windows 7 -- on a Macintosh!!?

Too funny!

[cabojoe]

Seeing as Win 7 will probably be the top software installed on Apple’s hardware I see no problem with this.

[TXnMA]

Fully equipped with virus and Trojan? No thanks...

[Swordmaker]

Seeing as Win 7 will probably be the top software installed on Apple’s hardware I see no problem with this.

It won't even be close. The top software installed on Apple's hardware, as it always has been, is Mac OS X.

[cabojoe]

That comes pre-installed. I hear they are setting up Bootcamp for Win 7. I laughed my ass off.

[discostu]

That’s the difference between having no competition and having tons of competition. Only one company makes Apple, they can set the prices how ever they want; there’s a dozen major brands of PC makers plus custom build shops in pretty much every town, they compete on everything including and often especially price. That’s how I shop for computers, I spec out a machine on the Dell site and take it to my custom build guys and we tweak the parts and I get a better machine than Dell offered for half the price. Doesn’t change MS’s bottom line though.

[Richard Kimball]

That was really my point. I did not think they were that close to being even.

[Minn]

You don't see the irony? It's amusing... and there are other examples of this irony. For instance last spring Ballmer was making a presentation before a large group... and the computer that was driving the background big screen presentation was obviously a Mac.

I'm afraid I don't see an irony. Is it somehow ironic when an ad for a certain TV is seen by somebody watching another brand? What exactly does the presence of a competitor's hardware, which MS isn't really into, have to do with anything whatsoever at all? Had Ballmer or MS made an issue of it, I can just imagine the indignation. "Uptight MS exec refuses to appear on camera with Apple hardware. What a dope! It's just like those ads we identify so much with where the Mac guy is cool and the PC guy is nerdy." So, can you explain where the irony is, or do you have to be one hip types to get it?

[ChessExpert]

“That should have been plenty of time for you to upgrade your apps and convert your files. You had plenty of lead time and warning.”

Yeah. Easy for you to say. Tell me how I convert BookUp files?

[chris_bdba]

Yes that is very unusual and I’d say she got a lemon and it needs replaced. My MacBookPro is nearly 3 years old and hasn’t had a single problem. We have a 12 year old G4 tower and a 10 year old iMac both still running daily that have never seen the genuis bar. Something is wrong.

[ChessExpert]

“Apple is not responsible for the writers of BookUp’s chess programs for not upgrading their product. Apple has made every effort to make it easy to upgrade.”

Fair enough.

“It looks as if you will have to keep an antique Mac around for those legacy apps. Sorry about that.”

That’s where it stands at present.

[chris_bdba]

Seriously you don’t get that they had an Apple MacBookPro running in the background and not what is commonly known as a pc running it and don’t get the irony? That is like a Harley Davidson commercial done with everyone riding a Honda.

[brivette]

as the saying goes, it takes one to know one.....