Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Ballmer: I worry more about disruptive business models than competitors

February 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Ballmer: I worry more about disruptive business models than competitors

TAGS: Open Source

Internetnews has is carrying a story detailing Microsoft's Steve Ballmer on how it feels to be #3 (in online services) and competing with "free":

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that the software vendor has had difficulties competing for consumers online and developing a business model for online business services.

But he said that he was more worried about being blindsided by a new business model than any one company in particular.

"I think about new business models more than I think of individual companies," he told analysts at a Merrill Lynch conference in New York today.

Ballmer pointed to open source as one potential source of worry. While the company has gained market share against Linux both on desktops and in the server market, he said that "having a competitor that is nominally close to free is always a challenge... There is a set of pricing pressure that nobody should ignore."

Well, at least this is an honest response to the open source threat. Much better than the patent FUD he has been spraying about. And, I suppose, it's a very telling reason why Ballmer continues to fixate on open source.

Unfortunately, Mr. Ballmer, it won't work. It's much too late for you to be able to kill open source. Better to join the party than to try to kill it.

Posted by Matt Asay on February 17, 2007 01:43 PM

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