Microsoft’s delightfully understated CEO has admitted that everything he has done over the last year has been a cock-up.
According to the Verge, Steve “there’s a kind of hush” Ballmer has publicly admitted that Microsoft built too many Surface RT tablets, and it’s not selling as many Windows devices as he wants.
The confession came during an internal town hall event last week when Ballmer and COO Kevin Turner both addressed the recent $900 million hit for Surface RT and the sales pace of Windows across various devices.
Ballmer tried to cheer himself up by talking about getting Instagram for Windows Phone, and its plans for the next-generation Surface.
He said that Microsoft had built a few more Surface RT tablets than it could sell. Either that or they had shipped at a price which was so expensive no reseller could get them off the shelves.
Recently Ballmer cut the price of its Surface RT tablets by 30 percent saying that the price adjustment was necessary to sell Surface RT devices.
Ballmer confirmed new devices are currently being tested with incremental improvements.
But Ballmer was even more gloomy when it came to the performance of Windows 8 which shipped as it Microsoft was trying to flog Android instead of its flagship decktop,
He said that Vole was not selling as many Windows devices as it wanted and a lack of devices in retail stores hasn’t helped Windows 8’s initial prospects.
Ballmer said that Microsoft was focusing on the back to school period and the holiday season to ensure Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 devices are available.
