Give Ballmer A Chance

Don’t You Think He Did Something Great?

Ben
3 min readSep 21, 2013

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It finally comes to an end of another era for Microsoft. Steve Ballmer is retiring as the CEO Microsoft and will be replaced by his successor very soon. Everyone is hoping to let him go as soon as possible because of all the mess he has done and the wrong steps he lead Microsoft to make, though he actually has taken some big right moves during his life as the tech giant’s CEO.

When someone as important as Ballmer is moving on with their lives, all people will start to count the rights and wrongs they have done. Ballmer is a bold person with a lot of unpredictable and unforgettable moments, as a result the Internet produced a lot of media such as GIF’s to remember all the great moments of him, particularly during the large shows such as the Build Conferences of Microsoft during all these years.

During the decade of Ballmer, some of the greatest mistakes he made include Windows Vista, the OS that was complained by so many people. It’s half baked, slow, buggy and so on. The Kin’s (mobile phones in case you don’t know) that only less than 10 of you used and the Zune media devices which both are already discontinued. Windows Mobile was also a wrong move because of Microsoft’s arrogance and it looking down on it’s competition. Ballmer didn't see all the changes that are going on and it’s lagging behind the market. The company is not providing the services and software that customers want.

That all changed 3 years ago, when they reinvented their mobile OS with Windows Phone. Microsoft started it’s restructure and aimed at repackage Microsoft as one devices and services company, focusing on providing both general and enterprise customers with unified, consistent hardware and software. The redesign of the whole company in such a short time impressed me, they changed the look and feel of all their products from scratch. The image of the company became more consistent across all their departments, when you look at their products now, you know it’s from Microsoft, from software like Windows, Office, Bing, SkyDrive to hardware like Windows Phone, Xbox’s, Surface tablets (laptops) and even Microsoft Retail Stores. You can’t doubt the amount of effort Microsoft (Ballmer) put to make everyone re-imagine the company that existed for more than nearly 40 years.

This last project aiming to restructure and re-market the company as a modern company is very successful in my opinion. Microsoft changed from a traditional software company with multiple divisions to one large devices and services company that provides cutting edge hardware and software.

All in all, even Steve Ballmer did a lot of wrongs, you can’t ignore the rights that he brought Microsoft through. I believe some of you also think that he doesn't deserve all the hate and he did something great for the company as his last move before his departure from the company. Wish him all the best in the future.

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