At Microsoft’s MIX conference Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO, really let the questions fly, and handled himself the way one would expect the CEO of Microsoft, with audible playfulness, jokes, and a little dancing. However, the crowd wasn’t all drinking the cool-aid. Former Apple Evangelical turned info product salesman Guy Kawasaki, blogger Rafael Rivera were among those pushing Ballmer while he attempted to show off Microsoft’s latest web wares.
When interviewed by Guy, Ballmer broke the news as gently as he could, “We’re in the game, and we’re the little engine that could, just working away, working away, working away. In online, yeah, it’s Google, Google, Google. I’d say were the underdog.”
One year ago at last years MIX conference Steve and Microsoft were singing a different tune of calling Google “a one trick pony” and “cute.” That would explain the court documents that Guy dug up alleging that Ballmer once threw a chair across a room when an employee let him know he was leaving for Google.
Hopefully Microsoft’s CEO has more than just the one trick of being able to slip out of that question by Kawasaki up his sleeve, because…
Microsoft = Underdog
Seems like one heck of a trick to me.
Posted by: Randall Gniadecki
