He toed the diplomatic line for most of the Q&A session, refusing to be baited by queries as to what he thought about Apple’s increased capitalisation, calling them good competitors, adding that they were good competitors too, and pointing out that they were after all, the most profitable technology company in the world, whatever share market valuation might say. But in the end, the irrepressible Steve Ballmer could not resist taking a dig at Google. “You are referring to one of our rivals,” he responded when a member of the media mentioned Google, and then added with a twinkle in his eye. “They seem to be confused. They want to rewrite the operating system from scratch. In fact, they have come out with two operating systems, and I cannot distinguish between them.” He did not name Google, but no one was in any doubt about whom he was referring to.
The peals of laughter that broke out were the first evidence that the Indian media in Delhi had been attending a conference featuring one of the most ebullient characters in tech. For most of the conference, Ballmer had been remarkably low-profile. Perhaps constrained by the relatively small stage, he spoke for a little while on the importance of the cloud and Microsoft’s plans in that regard – his booming voice the only sign of the trademark Ballmer that the world knows – and then sat down, allowing the company’s partners to occupy centre stage.
Then came the Q&A section and the media were asked to confine their questions to what had already been talked about (mainly cloud computing). Of course, they did no such thing. Lesser CEOs would have refused to comment. But this was Steve Ballmer. He ducked no punches and responded in measured tones, the very picture of diplomacy and tact, refusing to rise to comments about Apple and the recent resignation of key Microsoft personnel. So much so that many of us wondered if this was Steve Ballmer speaking, although the voice did boom out from time to time, reminding us just how useless a microphone was for the man.
And then came the query on Google. The reply was vintage Ballmer, and we realised that Redmond’s Steve was very much on stage and all was well in the tech world.
Update: We had our presence during Steve Ballmer’s Keynote at IndiMix 2010 in Mumbai as well and there isn’t anything particularly ground breaking here, just the mention of how Internet Explorer (Yes) and Windows 7 are doing great and a lot of cloud talk. A small video of the Q&A session coming up soon. – Vidoes here
