Steve Ballmer: Nokia to reveal multiple Windows Phone devices soon

Steve Ballmer is to the technology industry what gasoline is to fire. Put the man in a room with even the most cynical and jaded person on the face of the planet, and Ballmer will put forth so much enthusiasm that said individual will likely experience a severe case of nausea. That’s what happened just a few short hours ago at the Web 2.0 Summit. During his brief interview, the sweaty energetic mountain of man announced that Nokia is going to show a “bunch of new devices running Windows Phone” next week. We’ve been waiting for Nokia World for months now, so we’re glad that exactly one week from today we’ll finally catch a glimpse at what we think will be a portfolio of three Windows Phone devices. Curiously, when asked whether or not Microsoft would consider taking the Apple route, meaning that Microsoft should make their own hardware, Ballmer refused to say that such an idea wasn’t being considered. Instead he spewed forth the politically correct marketing drivel you’d expect his trainers to have rehearsed with him back stage:

“Our business has been focussed on enabling hardware innovation. We’re focussed on enabling hardware innovation broadly through our industry.”

Ballmer took no prisoners when talking about Android and iOS. With the former he said: “You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone, but I think you do to use Android.” With the latter he said consumers are frankly tired of wading through a sea of icons. All we know is that he’s in no position to say anything about the competition since they’re presently kicking his ass so severely that it’s becoming kind of painful to watch at this point.

Like we said earlier, all eyes are now on Nokia. They bet the farm on Microsoft and likewise Microsoft bet the farm on them.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_H7XZGHA4CN5PQYAMAHRAH7WZWM Don Farmer

I can’t wait for the Nokia Mango that looks like the N9. I’m buying that Stefan!! Then I’ll buy the Nokia Play 360 Stefan!! Then I’ll buy the Nokia Windows 8 tablet when that comes out Stefan!!

What’s wrong with Apple? The iCloud is the iFog. The iPhone 4S has a sick yellow screen. There are articles out that say the iPhone has keystroke logger bugs now. I’m staying away from Apple.
http://twitter.com/casandrasdream casandrasdream

Specs from the Stone Age !
Rob Clancy

Ah Stefan, as always you seem to echo and give eloquent voice to healthy skepticism (sounding just a little like cynicism, but I’m on board with that). Nobody toes the company line like Mr. Ballmer. And what a great pic of him! He looks like he’s imitating Darth Vader’s force choke: ”I find your abundant success disturbing…”

The thing that gets me about him and his ilk is that they actually seem to believe that they’re not obviously transparent and completely mutable when commenting on anything at these conferences. Like many who recently were very saddened by Steve Jobs’ passing, I watched a good amount of old footage of him and his rivals (at least that’s how they saw themselves. In truth he had none: no one came close to his combination of vision, brilliance and humanity, he had only fellows and detractors) and I saw one video featuring Mr Ballmer and couple other industry leaders. He did just what he did here and what any good, traditional CEO does: he postured, cast aspersions on the competition (in the video it was Apple) and talked a lot of trash, trying to convince everyone, anyone that everything is just a disorganized mess and fear not! Microsoft will don it’s technologically advanced hero cape and save us all from what we had the folly to call progress. Only here the “folly” is iOS & Android. And didn’t they save us from Windows Mobile? (I mean talk about needing some kind of advanced education, WinMo required one to be a program developer and psychoanalyst to figure out why something was buried in THAT particular menu tree.)

The difference this time is he actually said something positive about Apple (it’s a good competitor. Soooo…Google’s not?), but since his history points to this as an anomaly, I can only assume that before taking the collar off, his trainers were very emphatic about being very careful so close the great man’s passing. You know, in a different life, with a little less crazy, Ballmer could have been a successful politician. But I don’t mean that as a compliment.