Steve Ballmer Laughs at iPhone’s Price

Video interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, where he’s asked for his initial reaction to the iPhone:

“$500! Fully subsidized! With a plan! I said that is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine.”

Here’s how it’s going to go. Starting now, Microsoft will mock the iPhone. They will mock the price, they will mock the closed software platform, and they will say that phone users demand and crave the wide variety of products in the Windows Mobile market.

But behind the scenes, they’ve already started working on a Zune clone of the iPhone. Remember their old party line on music players?

★ Friday, 19 January 2007