Ballmer, is he a problem for Microsoft?

Ballmer's greatest failure was not giving Windows Mobile the attention it needed. I might even call it a critical failure. That was Microsoft's core competency and somehow the opportunity was completely blown. If Microsoft put the same commitment in Windows Mobile that it put into Xbox we wouldn't be talking about Android right now.

Everything else under Ballmer's watch is arguably fine. Windows 7 is a great OS. Microsoft has great developer tools for desktop and web. The Xbox has conquered the living room. You could say Microsoft is still missing the whole software as a service thing, but it is positioned to capitalize on it better than Apple and Apple is doing great. It just needed to be a part of the mobile revolution and all would have been forgiven.

EDIT: I also submit a comparison between NASDAQ and MSFT. MSFT more or less tracks the NASDAQ during both the Gates years and the Ballmer years.

http://www.google.com//finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1...

The really funny part is that if Bill Gates returns to Microsoft to save it, they would be, once more, copying Apple ;-)

After so many years of Ballmer, I would expect the top two or three tiers of managers to be irreversibly damaged. A newcomer would have to fight a lot to get things done and, probably, replace a whole lot of people. That wouldn't happen.

I love the fact that many of the people who think that Ballmer needs to go because he's "out of touch with the times" are praying for Bill Gates to come back. Is there any evidence that Gates who hasn't worked in the industry day to day for years, would do any better?

According to the Article, Greenlight Capital owns 9 million Microsoft Shares.

Steve Balmer owns 333 million shares - which is more than any institutional investor and thirty seven times the ownership of Greenlight. The only person or fund with more is Gates, himself.

[http://www.dailyfinance.com/company/microsoft-corporation/ms...]