The INQUIRER’S top 10 CEO fiascos of 2010

“1. Ballmer has plenty of cash to splash: When you are the
world’s most dominant software company and you have oodles of cash,
you might think that wanting to win in the two shiny growth
segments of consumer electronics might be a good idea. Not for
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. While the company has at long last
revealed sales figures for its Windows Phone 7 handsets, the firm
cancelled its two big pushes into the worlds of smartphones and
tablets earlier this year.

“Cancelling the dual-screen Courier tablet in April after months
of speculation, the blog posting that officially announced its end
also mentioned Kin phones as part of Microsoft’s bright future.
Alas, that product did not last too long either. In late June,
early July, two months after that Courier blog post, Microsoft also
cancelled its Kin phones. Not many companies have the resources to
entirely screw up attempts to enter two markets and then try again
less than a year later.

“Now we know that Microsoft is claiming that it has sold 1.5
million WP7 handsets but there is still no sign of a tablet. During
his lecture at the London School of Economics, Ballmer said that he
expected slates with Windows on them to appear at Christmas. Oh
well Steve, nice prediction but Christmas is two days away and
we’re not seeing any Windows tablets. Better luck next year.”

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