Gadgetory

this morning microsoft CEO steve ballmer announced that he'll be retiring within the next 12 months I dieter bohn senior editor for The Verge and with me is our resident Microsoft expert Tom Warren hi doin tom hey not too bad so this is a this is a pretty crazy announcement yeah 9am friday moaning boom yeah actually let's talk about the timing of this so I mean these things typically happen on a friday but they did at the beginning of the day very early on yes coast yeah stokes going up because of it and yeah strange timing strange timing all around really um yeah 9am on a friday and but then like just as April ones about to ship and windows 8 so has he been around and all the executive changes and stuff it's a is very curious timing well we've seen a lot of executive changes yeah it's had the whole I just left here there and then more importantly it wasn't that long ago that we saw the big giant one Microsoft letter yes Steve Ballmer yeah and that's basically shaped the whole senior leadership team and so now its constraints a boom has basically been working with the board and they've shaken up the whole leadership team now there's this team in place but now balls going right so it seems like a it seems like this was kind of planned but i think it's just what's going to happen now let this really the question and but yeah the timing it's just okay now Ballmer said that he would retire within the next 12 months after a successor is chosen so do you expect that we're looking at one more year of bomber in charge or you think he'll be shorter than that yeah I think he's going to be a while because I mean if you if you look at the the way that they've worded this like within the 12 months it seems as though they've they potentially looked internally and they've obviously done this senior leadership changes that we just talked about but it seems strange that they wouldn't have identified someone out that leadership to take over from boomer yeah the name somebody's leaving you want to say this next pressures coming into his la nuit II and make BF feel comfortable in canada and obviously investors a seem to be at the moment seemed to be happy that boom is going right up yeah so let's talk about that i mean it's palmer not been a good CEO for Microsoft and I think he has for like not on the numbers in the sky all the financials then if you look at it like based on that purely then you know he's done what a CEO should do he's there's been growth it's been steady but I think a lot of investors was always called for them to that growth hasn't been in the particular areas that that really hit the media like the consumer stuff they've honestly struggled over the last sort of five five six years on the mobile side and now they're struggling to really make an impact on the tablet sides and these are both key bro quieras the emerging to take over there they're like dominance in the in the pc so basically the microsoft is doing fine quarter-to-quarter but the big question has always been with what steve ballmer particulars does he have a big vision that he could execute on that actually is going yeah they're not taking advantage or the particular growth that's out there at the moment so well as the android and iOS dominating in mobile windows phone still struggling there is that and it's all because they were kind of I think born was slow to react right he laughed at the iphone initially he's laughter Android and it was yeah he's publicly he said some silly things when you look back now who kind of looks it looks a little crazy but I think for the numbers and growing like their enterprise site like they've done pretty well with us office in the services right well I mean it's important to remember that like Microsoft doesn't have to be Apple you know at things like and they can build their own kind of business and Alma has built a certain kind of business yeah but they're having problems so yeah we've mentioned Windows Phone a couple of times is that essential for Steve Ballmer and whoever is going to succeed him to finally like crack that and start gaining big market share yeah that they've had I mean I think it is the poem they have at the moment is that the majority of those sales on these low end handsets and you know if if if Apple goes into that silveria soon like it's rumored to be it's going to be even more difficult to grow that that marker ship I think it's there's a key there's a key thing and I don't think boomer has particularly really pressed upon is essentially internally like how important that is but grow like Windows Phones been slowly developing even even though released in 2010 and so I think they need to get I mean looking at who could possibly succeed and like like yeah well this is inning they've got a recruitment firm its Hendrick and struggles and they're they're looking at both internal and external candidates right yeah I think I think personally and the the next see it will be an extent one oh really yeah I mean I think just from looking at initially is the fact that they haven't identified any one immediately internally and the recent executive changes people leaving Sinofsky going even you know back in November a while yeah I think they that this whole strategy in this whole like leadership stuff it's it speaks to the fact that I think they need someone to come in externally and just shake things up a little bit like really push up on this strategy and like streamline everything into this hole one microsoft go well so actually that was my next question is do you think that this one Microsoft set up and the executive set up that bomber has put in place he's going to leave are we gonna see yet another big shake-up of how Microsoft organizes itself and who's in charge of what once the new guy comes in or near going to bring somebody in to just finish the plan that Ballmer started yeah I don't think so i think is literally like finishing the plan that the fullness died I mean it's curious that he's leaving now but I guess you want to leave in the middle of a verb so its grave either way there's no good time for him to really leave on the strategy but yeah I think they need someone to come in who who's obviously experienced and you know it's kind of a unique company right it's gone they have a lot of employees and they're in a lot of different markets as no there's not many companies that do a similar thing to what most of us so it's a difficult role to fill in a difficult one if you're an external candidate it's really go for and I mean it's going to be interesting but I don't think I don't even give me someone internal okay well we will keep an eye on that and all the rest of the developments in this story check out the verge calm including Steve Ballmer's full retirement letter thanks time very much thank you thanks for watching guys kiss