In only half a dozen years Microsoft went from laughing at the iPhone
to admitting MS had none of the mobile phone or mobile device market,
while Apple became the most valuable company in the world.
Another entrenched industry, electric power
will also change radically in only a few years,
and
solar power will win like the Internet did.
MG Siegler of Google Ventures blogged this on ParisLemon 20 September 2013, What A Difference Six Years Makes…
Steve Ballmer, 2007:
Right now we’re selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year.
Steve Ballmer, a few months later:
It’s sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.
Now we’ll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.
Steve Ballmer, yesterday:
Mobile devices. We have almost no share.
And it wasn’t just Steve Jobs riding Moore’s Law on an iPhone: Continue reading
