Since I was at Sunday's round table meeting with Steve Ballmer -- unlike some of the people writing rubbish about it -- and since I have it on tape, I can tell you what exactly what he said. However, bear in mind that these were small snippets of a long session, and that even transcribing them accurately gives a distorted impression of the tenor and content of the whole meeting.
Point One came when a journalist asked about DRM in Longhorn, then speculated that the presence of competing music services -- AppleiTunes, Sony Connect, Real Networks etc -- made the EC's ruling on the Windows Media Player "somewhat redundant". (As someone added later, the service dictates the client software.)
Steve Ballmer: Let me first talk about DRM. Now we've had DRM in Windows for quite some number of years, there's nothing new about that....
Journalist: [interrupting] Having said that, that hasn't stopped, you know, pirates from running rampant....
SB: Of course not: nothing does! I mean, what's the most common format of music listened to on an iPod?
J: On an iPod....
SB: Stolen! Stolen!
J: [confused] On an iPod?
SB: Yes. Most people still steal music. [laughing] The fact that you can buy it and it's protected doesn't affect the fact that most people still steal [music]. I'd LOVE to say all problems have been solved, whether it's iPod/iTunes -- where Apple has done some nice work, no doubt about it -- but the truth of the matter is we can build these technologies, but as long as there's alternate forms of music acquisition, there still will be ways for people to steal music.
My opinion: it's perfectly clear what point Ballmer is making, and it's about users, not about iPods. It also seemed to me obvious, at the time, that Ballmer was joking.
Point Two ....
came later after someone asked about innovation in home entertainment, and mentioned the cable companies and Apple. Ballmer was talking up the slow-selling Windows Media Centre PCs and portable video players, "that will literally let us see an explosion into the millions of units of Media Center Edition PCs over the course of the next year or so.
"You mention Apple, and with great respect for Apple, I don't think you'll get... there's no way anything gets to critical mass with Apple, because Apple just doesn't have the volumes. They don't have the volumes anywhere in the world; they don't have the volumes particularly in some countries.... [stuff skipped] The critical mass is going to have to come from the PC, or the next-generation video device."
Comment: Not only is this true, Apple itself recognises that it's true, as shown by it offering the iPod and iTunes for Windows users, doing a deal with HP, chasing the mobile phone market etc. Or, for earlier examples, putting FireWire up for industry standardisation ... and abandoning Apple-specific technologies such as ADB for PC standards such as USB and PCI.
