Steve Ballmer must go

Sorry about the lack of posts recently.

However I am still alive and keeping half an eye on the big technology companies I follow.

I recently had the misfortune of owning a Microsoft Surface. I got an amazing deal on a Pro at a Microsoft conference so I had to try it.

It was awful. Too heavy to be a tablet. Too small to be a laptop. The battery life is poor. No wonder sales have been slow.

It is ironic that one of the claims Microsoft made about the Surface was that no compromises were involved. This thing is completely compromised. Even the software is compromised, half being the new touch interface and the other half being the old desktop interface.

A shocking statistic was released recently. Microsoft have spent more on marketing their new tablets than they have made from them in revenue.

Steve Ballmer seems to think that whatever his products lack in quality he can make up with marketing. But this is obviously not the case. Consumers are not stupid and it is not hard to see that the iPad is a better tablet than the Surface.

What should Microsoft have done? Maybe made a touch version of Windows that does not have the desktop mode but does run Office and can connect to Active Directory. Instead they released the mess called Windows 8 that is neither fully touch or fully desktop. Can you imagine Steve Jobs sanctioning such a compromise?

I am amazed that Steve Ballmer is still CEO. He has been steering Microsoft in the wrong direction for years.

Microsoft have the engineering fire power to build something great. All they need is the right guidance from the top. And it isn't going to come from Ballmer.