Save up to $100 on TomTom GPS!Ballmer: Phones are like remote control for life
Updated 4:40 p.m. to note Microsoft not interested in bidding for wireless spectrum.
SAN FRANCISCO--Cell phones are so great these days that some people have started carrying two.
Well, that's not exactly true. A growing number of people do have multiple cell phones, but it's actually a failure, not a success of the industry, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday.
People are finding they need one phone for work and another for home, or one phone for e-mail and another for making phone calls.
"That strikes me as incredibly odd," Ballmer said in a keynote speech at the CTIA Fall 2007 trade show here.
The goal of the industry--and of Microsoft--should be to create devices that work for both home and work and are capable of handling running business applications, unified messaging and gaming.
"In a sense we have to think about the phone as almost a universal remote control for your life," Ballmer said.
Ballmer even conceded that the phone is taking on a more central role than the computer for many people.
"The phone has a unique role," he said. "While the PC is the most powerful device, the phone is most popular device." In a world of services (think Windows Live) that run over a variety of devices, it is the phone that any individual is most likely to have at any given time, he said.
In some cases, the phone will be the computer.
"In many countries the phone will be the PC for people that have very little money," he said, pointing to a scenario in which the phone plugs into a docking station and connects up to a keyboard and television to act as a PC-like device, something Microsoft has been developing in its labs and hopes to start testing over the next 12 months.
How many devices do you carry? For those that do carry more than one, what would it take for you to carry one? Feel free to sound off below or drop me a note.
Update: Ballmer also noted that Microsoft is not planning to bid in the upcoming U.S. wireless spectrum auction as some of its rivals are said to be planning to do.
"What would it buy us to own a piece of spectrum," he said. "It would probably do a lot to alienate the telecom industry."
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
docking station and connects up to a keyboard and television to
act as a PC-like device, something Microsoft has been
developing in its labs and hopes to start testing over the next 12
months.
Ever the imitators, MS will probably come up with a:
1. phone that is not as good as the iPhone; like their
2. Zune that is not as good as the iPod; or their
3. Vista that isn't as good as Tiger, much less Leopard.
Lucky for MS, they still have a $100B head start on Apple in
terms of market cap, and 96% of the global PC market, at least
for now...
important in peoples lives. He forgot to point out that the iphone
is the best phone out there and that people with iPhones are
happier with their devices than any other phone owner.
the Blackberry, but it works well for me.
It handles my mobile calls, my work email, and my three
personal email accounts (2 imap, 2 pop). My home number is
forwarded to my mobile when I'm not home, and the iPhone's
visual voicemail picks up when I choose not to answer.
The voice mail system at work forwards voice messages to my
iPhone as 3gp files which I can play and file.
Many of my work systems can be administered remotely through
the built in Safari web browser.
I get alerts from systems at work as well as my bank, etc by
email and sms. And, in those few minutes when I can relax, I
have a decent music and podcast collection from which to
choose.
It's not perfect, but on most occasions it has replaced both my
laptop and my iPod. Not bad for a v1.0 device.
About the only thing I can't do already with my windows mobile phone is connect it to a monitor. Bluetooth keyboards already work etc.
Kind of a let down speech if you ask me. Almost all of the technology he speaks about is already available.
Love my iPhone!!!
Wow, they are so ahead of the game.
Thanks for showing us the road ahead Ballmer.
OK, I am being sarcastic.
useless brick with a jacked up version of windows mobile OS. I
thought Ballmer was going to make some sort of announcement?
Pointing out the obvious is far from earth shattering.
It is this why I believe that it is the services that provide the infomation that will be truly key moving forth and why Microsoft will become extinct in this new world of information.
Stop thnking platform as a user experience and think of the presentation being the platform to manage the data
Ross
path of what they THINK everyone wants. They take statistics/
trends that are boringly obvious, and extrapolate them into
conclusions that seem to flounder in the desert of consumer
apathy.
Certainly, people NEED business applications (those needs cover
a colossal range of functionality). And certainly cell phones are
more POPULAR than PCs. And certainly, gaming is a growing
market. But I can't think of anything in the success story archive
of consumer devices that stands out as a suggestion that these
certainties should be clumped together into one technology-
device roadmap.
It seems they have just discovered this innovative idea, and feel that Windows is the best option for Wheel users and that Micorsoft will help re-invent it.
Nokia seem to have a pretty good balance with the new N810 tablet (what the foleo should have been) which you can pair with a phone to have a decent mobile environment. I like the option of having a separate phone which can travel better in some cases.
The iPhone is also there and I am looking forward to V2. Shame it doesn't have expandable storage and the iTouch needs bluetooth, but pretty impressive V1 devices.
But imho I think MS offerings in this space are too kludgy. Windows mobile needs to go on a diet.
For corporations, Cisco already has a solution that allows you to use a single phone.
For instance, the system allows you to automatically ring your office phone on your mobile, and use your mobile phone as if you are calling from your office (using office calling plans, caller ID, etc etc).
For that matter, you can be talking on the mobile phone, walk into your office and pick your office phone and continue the conversation (and vise versa)....and so on.
Do you really want me to carry on?
- ballmer
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by mikexeter
October 24, 2007 10:46 AM PDT
- He should retire. He is starting to sound like Jack Welch. Does Microsoft matter any more? Really, moving forward, does it?
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