Steve Ballmer laughs off the iPhone, deems it "most expensive" in the marketplace
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 18th 2007 2:41PM
posted Jan 18th 2007 2:41PM
We'll be the first to give props to Steve Ballmer for accomplishing what he has at Microsoft, and we will agree that the iPhone is one expensive (and probably overpriced) little machine, but during a recent interview where he was questioned about the iPhone, he proceeded to not only compare Apple's forthcoming handset with the "$99 Motorola Q," but insisted that the iPhone was "by far the most expensive phone in the marketplace," which couldn't be farther from the truth. Sure, most of the long, long list of mobile phones priced above (sometimes well above) the $500 price point aren't exactly mainstream handsets, but as the luxury phone market continues to bloom, Apple is looking to take advantage of those willing to shell out half a grand to have the hottest gizmo out. Additionally, Steve did mention that the iPhone was absolutely "not suitable for business purposes" due to its complete lack of a keyboard, but considering its half-hearted attempt at Push mail and lack of 3G, we doubt Mr. Jobs is out fighting for the corporate market just yet anyway. Nevertheless, it's always entertaining to see one head honcho completely mock another company's product, so click on through for the YouTube'd interview.[Via Digg]
Every new major product gets a lot of hype but you never know how good it is too many people buy it and every says "wicked" or what a lot of rubbish it is, this is the same with the iPhone and time will tell.
Everyone knows Steve Ballmer is a FOOL. But $500 is too expensive for a phone with a 2 year contract...Time will tell.
1) No big shock, Microsoft will continue to claim the iPhone sucks until the inevitable Windows Mobile 6 knockoff.
2) God, that picture is ugly.
3) (insert (DEVELOPERS x 10000) here)
Being overpriced hasn't stopped a lot of products from flying off the shelves, especially the PS2 and XBOX when they originally released.
I predict there will be a relatively large initial rush of the iPhone, and it will sustain but gradually peter down to where it's sales are around most Cingy high end handsets.
When you break the price down, it's really not all that bad. Look at it this way, a 4 gig iPod Nano costs $250, the 4 gig iPhone costs $500, so basically you are playing $250 for all the phone and video and OS features of the iPhone.
But still, for locking yourself up for 2 years that phone should be AT LEAST $100 cheaper.
Let's see.. how much is Vista Premium?
This man is an idiot and is running his mouth. The funny thing is, he's just increasing the desire for the iPhone.
$500 on 2 year contract, and it isn't even suitable for business purposes?!
So, it's overpriced, and lacks needed functionality.
Why all these hunched over looks?
Dang, he looked nervous to me.
Balmer knows the iPhone rocks.
By the time Iphone is out, Winmo 5 will get that re-skin upgrade, but it will still be clunky with options all over the place in the settings folder. I have owned my Winmo5 device for over a year now and I still find it confusing to change settings.
Let's go back a couple of years....do you remember when the Razr first hit the market? It hovered in the 600-700 dollar range when it first arrived...and people still bought it...then price came down and it is now the single most popular handset ever sold in mobile phone history! Apple and Cingular have been around the block a couple of times...I think it's very short sighted to make presumptions at this point.
I don't see anything controversial about what Ballmer said. He was asked by the interviewer what his first reaction was and he gave what sounds like an honest answer. That's refreshing actually.
He obviously believes in his products and in the MS strategy in the phone space while admitting that the iPhone may do well. What's the big deal? Does everyone have to worship Apple gizmos? At a fully subsidized cell plan price of $500...I think it's reasonable not to be awed.
>reasonable not to be awed
dude,have you ever seen how butt ugly Windows Mobile 5.0 is? I mean, it's a graphical interface, but they don't really exploit the graphical interface. I guess because I worked with text based interfaces for so many years, I can see it... Winmo 5.0 to me harkens back to Windows 3.0 graphically...
Nice tongue dude! I'm hoping that a non-phone version will be available. I like my phone to be a phone.