Microsoft CEO Ballmer: Apple iPhone and Mac Will Lose

“During a dinner Thursday at the Churchill Club in Silicon
Valley when ‘asked about smartphones, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
said Nokia, Research in Motion and Apple will all lose out as the
market expands over the next five years, because they design their
own proprietary hardware and tie it closely to their software,’
James Niccolai reports for IDG News Service.

“‘Nokia leads the smartphone market today with about a 30
percent share, he said. ‘If you want to reach more than that, you
have to separate the hardware and software in the platform,’ he
said,’ Niccolai reports.

“MacDailyNews Take: Like with PlaysForSure vs.
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“‘In other words, he thinks the same strategy that helped
Microsoft become the leader on the desktop — licensing its OS for
use by other hardware makers — will let it win out on smartphones.
Long term, he said, the battle will be between the Symbian OS
(which is now open source), mobile versions of Linux and Windows
Mobile,’ Niccolai reports.”

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