Skip to main content

Steve Ballmer: “You need to be a computer scientist to use Android”

steve-ballmer-web-2-conference
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Steve Ballmer is not known for holding back and at the Web 2.0 Summit on Tuesday, the Microsoft CEO tossed out some decent one-liners. Attacking Google search, Android, Yahoo, and touting the company’s recent purchase of Skype, Ballmer let loose, as he often does. Below are some select quotes. 

On Android: “You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone. I think you do to use an Android Phone…It is hard for me to be excited about the Android phones.”

Recommended Videos

On Apple: “Apple is a good competitor, but a different one…Both [an iPhone and a Windows phone] are going to feel very good in your hand and both going to look very beautiful physically…. but when you grab a Windows phone and use it… your information is front and centre… and you don’t have to scroll through seas of icons and blah blah blah. A Windows phone gets things done.”

On rumors of Microsoft making its own hardware: “We are [only] focused on enabling hardware innovation…We have been very successful enabling hardware innovation and will continue to do so.”

On Bing: “Today I’d issue you all a challenge to go take any search you want and try it out on Bing and Google! Seventy percent of the time you probably won’t care, 15 percent you’ll like us better, 15 percent you’ll like other guy better!”

On Microsoft’s failed bid for Yahoo in 2008: “Sometimes you are lucky. Ask any CEO who might have bought something before the market crashed (in 2008)… Hallelujah! Putting everything else aside, the market fell apart…. Sometimes you’re lucky.”

On competing with Google in cloud services:  “All in, baby!. We are winning, winning, winning, winning.” 

On Google+ and social: “There are a variety of different things that fall under the social banner. We’re adding what I’d call ‘connectivity to people’ into our core products, The acquisition of Skype is big step down that path toward connecting with other people.” 

The quotes in this article were compiled from the Telegraph, InformationWeek, CNET, and Internet Evolution

Jeffrey Van Camp
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…
Samsung brings a Squid Game season 2 surprise to the Galaxy Store
A promotional image for the launch of the Netflix app in the Samsung Galaxy Store.

Samsung is working hard to attract Galaxy device owners to visit and download apps from the Galaxy Store, its own pre-installed app store, which rivals Google's Play Store and is pre-installed on all certified Android phones. To do this, Samsung has announced the arrival of Netflix and an exclusive incentive to download it — a special Samsung-only look at the forthcoming Squid Game season 2 Netflix series.

Download the streaming app from the Galaxy Store, and an “exclusive, never-before-seen clip” from Squid Game season 2 will be yours, which is said to provide a “darker, twisted look into the storyline for the upcoming season, and is only available on the Galaxy Store.” You’ll have to be quick to see it, though, as the clip expires on December 26, when Squid Game season 2 premiers on Netflix.

Read more
New renders provide a clear look at the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and S25 Plus
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the S Pen stylus.

Samsung has taken steps in the past to handle leaks, but that hasn't slowed the flow of information this year. The Samsung Galaxy S25 lineup barely has any secrets left given all the information we've seen emerge over the past several months, but now we have mostly clear renders of the Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Tipster Evan Blass shared the renders on X, and the images show the differences in design between the flagship devices. The Galaxy S25 Plus has corners with a more distinct curve, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra has more angular corners.

Read more
Android 16 adds a new way to use the Google Pixel 9’s fingerprint sensor
Pixel 9 Pro in Rose Quartz.

Biometric security — the ability to unlock your phone with your fingerprint or face — is an amazing feature, but you often have to turn on the phone's screen before you can use it. That's because many fingerprint sensors are optical and need light in order to work. Fortunately, Android 16 will make it so that you can open your Pixel 9 without turning your phone screen on at all (while also avoiding the groan that comes from searing your eyes.)

The feature was noted in the Android 16 Developer Preview 2, or DP2, by 9to5Google. The findings imply that this only applies to the Google Pixel 9 series because while it does appear in the Settings search on the Pixel 8 Pro, there's no option to enable it. This is likely due to the Pixel 9's ultrasonic fingerprint scanner; the improved hardware doesn't require light to use it.

Read more