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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will step down within the next 12 months and hand over the reigns of a new CEO. When the news was announced on Friday, Ballmer and company made it sound like a peaceful transition that would allow someone new to oversee the next stages in the company’s transition from makers of Windows and Office into a “devices and services company.”
But the timing seems a bit curious. Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system hasn’t been a runaway success story, Windows RT appears to be bombing, and while most desktop and laptop computers still ship with some form of Windows, those devices represent a shrinking piece of the pie as consumers flock to smartphones, tablets, and other devices.
The folks at AllThingsD (among other publications), did a little digging and found folks “close to the situation” that confirmed that Ballmer may have been pressured to step down much sooner than he’d originally planned.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- Steve Ballmer may have been pressured to leave Microsoft earlier than planned
When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced plans to step down within 12 months, he kind of made it sound like his choice. That may not have been the case. [AllThingsD] - Google Android 4.3 lets you use volume keys at camera shutter buttons on at least some devices
Google didn’t include this in the list of Android 4.3 features, but it looks like on at least the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Google Nexus 4, you can now use the volume keys to snap photos with the stock camera app. [AndroidPit] - Amazon brings 1-click purchases of physical items to in-app purchases on Android and Kindle Fire devices
Buy a book, battery pack, or golf balls with your next in-app purchase, not just unlimited lives or a bigger virtual gun. [Amazon] - Microsoft’s next Windows RT tablet might be called the Surface 2 instead of Surface RT
It’d still run Windows RT, but maybe dropping the RT from the name will remove some of the stigma? Or maybe it’ll just confuse shoppers. [The Verge] - Chromecast setup app for iOS released, lets you… setup a Chromecast using an iPhone
The Chromecast may be a Google device, but you can use a PC, Android device, or iOS device to send video from the internet to your TV using a Chromecast. Now you can also perform the initial setup using an iPhone or iPad. [TechCrunch]
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It would be a miracle if they didn’t finally decide to loose the bozo.
You have to assume most people on Microcruft’s board must have been lifted there to give them a nice boost to the pension, rather than actually watch, let alone understand what has been going wrong at Microcruft…
Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill
Bill Gates the Computer Guy
(Windows rules)
….
Just saying these kind of shenanigans did not happen under Bill Gate’s watch… and if they did it almost always had a back up plan…
To think the biggest bomb was Windows ME, and even then Windows 2000 was out at the same time and Windows XP quickly replaced it. Windows Vista was a mess but mostly because of OEM foul ups.
To be fair it didn’t help that ISVs sat on their thumbs and didn’t shift with Vista quickly either, so a lot of software ran poorly limping in appcompat mode and throwing up unnecessary UAC prompts until they finally got updates out the door. And a ton of this could be left at Longhorn’s door due to wasted time trying to make .Net part of the OS… leading to a hurried “reset” to produce Win NT6.x instead.
No, the biggest bomb of the Gates era was Bob. The product so horrible they have purged it from memory. And DOS 4.0 was pretty wretched as well.