Ballmer underwhelmed by Google's Android

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November 8, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- TOKYO -- Google Inc.'s plans to enter the mobile market with a cell phone platform might have impressed many in the industry but not Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp., one of Google's biggest competitors.

Ballmer sidestepped a request to make any specific comments on Google's Android software platform during a Tokyo press conference today. "Well of course, their efforts are just some words on paper right now; it's hard to do a very clear comparison [with Windows Mobile]," he said.

Ballmer noted the success his company has had with its Windows Mobile platform, which commands a sizable share of the smart-phone market, especially in North America. Windows Mobile is on 150 handset models and is available from more than 100 different mobile service providers, he said. Microsoft will likely license 20 million Windows Mobile handsets this year, he added.

"We have great momentum -- we've brought our Windows Mobile 6 software to market, we're driving forward on our future releases, and we'll have to see what Google does," Ballmer said. "Right now they have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices, and they're welcome in our world."

Android was developed by Google and others under the umbrella of the "Open Handset Alliance." The Linux-based platform will combine open-source components and include an operating system, a middleware stack, a customizable user interface and applications.

Big names in the wireless industry have already thrown their weight behind the alliance, including carriers such as T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Sprint Nextel Corp., Telecom Italia and China Mobile; several handset makers, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Motorola Inc. and HTC Corp.; and other IT companies, such as Intel Corp., eBay Inc., NVidia Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc.

In addition to Windows Mobile, the biggest competitor Google will face is Symbian Ltd.'s Symbian OS. Two days earlier at a press conference in Tokyo, Symbian's CEO also downplayed the Google platform's significance.

"One of the reactions is, it's another Linux platform," said Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford. "There's 10, 15, 20, maybe 25 different Linux platforms out there. It sometimes appears that Linux is fragmenting faster than it unifies."

See the video from Steve Ballmer's press conference:

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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