Speaking at the high profile annual Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco ahead of the Microsoft’s results, Ballmer was asked to compare the appeal of a phone powered by Microsoft Windows and a Google Android device.
He said: “You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows phone and you do to use an Android phone…It is hard for me to be excited about Android phones.”
Ballmer was fairer to the company’s main mobile rival, Apple, saying: “Apple is a good competitor, but a different one.”
He praised Apple’s latest innovation: Siri – the “humble personal assistant” mobile software for the new iPhone 4S. You can tell Siri to set your alarm, send a text message or an email or even ask it to search for something online and it will do it for you.
However, he said that Windows powered phones were better than Apple iPhones for putting the user’s needs front and centre of the phone experience.
“Both [an iPhone and a Windows phone] are going to feel very good in your hands and both going to look very beautiful physically…. but when you grab a Windows phone and use it… your information is front and centre… and you don’t have to scroll through seas of icons .
“A Windows phone gets things done.”
Ballmer said that Windows phones needed to compete better on price with Android handsets and start supporting cheaper models, but he denied that Microsoft would be launching its own handset to go head to head with the Apple iPhone.
“We are [only] focused on enabling hardware innovation…We have been very successful in enabling hardware innovation and we will continue to do so.” Said Ballmer
Source: The Telegraph
