Ballmer Slams Android As Cheap and Overcomplicated

jfruhlinger writes "On the day Android Ice Cream Sandwich was released, Steve Ballmer livened up the Web 2.0 conference by lobbing potshots at Google's mobile OS, calling it the choice of 'cheap' phones and claiming 'the biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.'"

Same old Ballmer smack talk

[Lemming Mark]

That sounds like same Ballmer who laughed at the iPhone because of how expensive it was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U [youtube.com]

Same negative marketing smack talk. Also, enjoy the irony that expensive phones are apparently now good, and cheap is bad. (although, of course, cheap isn't the same thing as inexpensive - it really *is* good to be neither expensive nor cheap).

Actually tried a late model Windows Phone here??

[maxrate]

I know it's common to bash MS on slashdot. I tried out a Windows Phone recently... Before grasping it I had a cocky smirk on my face thinking the phone would be complete trash. (I owned two windows CE phones before - hating them and getting rid of them quickly). I was pleasantly surprised using the phone and think it could be a real winner in my honest opinion. I have used Android/BlackBerry and iPhone and although the iPhone is a bunch of fun - I think the Windows Phone gets straight to the point and it's very (very!) responsive. I think Microsoft has a pretty good product here. Try one out before you bash. It may not be 'the best' but it's pretty respectable.

Re:Actually tried a late model Windows Phone here?

[rtfa-troll]

It may not be 'the best' but it's pretty respectable.

Look; I know you're shilling and all that, and I have a family to feed too, so I don't want to criticise, but could you please sound a bit less pathetic:

<beos_fan> BeOS is really not that bad; it's almost better than Windows and it really does interact well. BeOS may not be as effective as a Mac and it doesn't have the user friendliness of Twm [wikipedia.org] but it's really good. Hell, I tried an AT&T Hobbit but I didn't like it one bit, but now that they've moved to the new PowerPC (TM) hardware I'm just amazed by how it does some of what the other systems do. It could be a real winner in my honest opinion. </beos_fan>

Just imagine that? No unpaid BeOS fan would ever descend to your level, so if you are going to carry out your profession for Microsoft, at least make it sound like you're trying to make it sound like you're enthusiastic.

Re:Android has it's flaws

[WalrusSlayer]

So the fact that Apple has successfully beat the carriers with a stick and essentially said "no crapware", is somehow not an advantage an iPhone?

From the consumer's perspective, it doesn't matter where the crapware came from. If it's on the phone and it can't be removed, then you are stuck with a phone full of crapware, end of story.

And that simply doesn't happen with an iPhone. What's so hard to understand about that?

Re:He does have some good points

[lexsird]

I thought it was the Kool-Aid guy and was wondering which wall he burst threw while I wasn't looking. Well, he does have a pitcher of MS Kool-Aid, so it stands to reason, no?

I am not a complete hater. If they want to farm stupid people, please by all means do. Make sure they can call you instead of bothering me. Stupid people need bad products to burn them. It keeps them in line, and if they had smarter products, they might be successful and sweet Jesus, we can't have that! That would mean they might breed and produce even more stupid people. We have our quota of them already, damn it.

It's like a mechanic I knew once said when I asked him why in hell he was a Ford mechanic. He replied, "Fords break down all the time, they give me plenty of work." Face it, you can pay some bills fixing MS crap and helping idiots with their MS products. I would gladly play along with this evil conspiracy, but I hate stupid people. I have paid my dues to IT hell working help desks, and repairing PCs.

My philosophy is; "If you are too stupid to figure it out yourself, you shouldn't have it to begin with." I got my dear old Mom a computer. That got old real fast having to nurse her through noobie stuff. So I threw her off the end of the pier and told her to learn to swim or sink. (Metaphorically speaking of course) Aside from when she ripped the video card out of the mother board by accident, she has learned to fix her own self generated problems. Now I just have to listen to who's been on her Facebook every time the computer subject comes up. Christ! There is another product someone should time travel back and shoot in the head before it got off the ground. But dear old Mom is becoming a self sustaining geek, and I am proud of her. She is now plagued with her computer newbie friends who don't know shit about computers. Oh the vicious circle!

I cackle with glee when they tell me they were on the phone for two hours or so with tech support. It's like an adventure to them and some fresh hell for some low paid fool wishing he had the balls to blows his own brains out. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt from both ends of the spectrum. Don't worry, I get to take a bite out of my own karmic shit sandwich as well. I am a noob in the world of 3D CAD, getting aneurisms from math and design tolerances.

New level, new devil.

Oh, by the way MS troll, die in a fire.

Re:Brace yourself for flying chairs

[Herby Sagues]

Well, to be fair, those claims were never confirmed by anyone else but Lucovosky. He could have perfectly made up the whole thing. It could be real, or it could be false. We have no evidence in either direction, so I wouldn't use that as an argument to support anything.