D8 Video: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the iPad

Ballmer is absolutely right — an iPad is a personal computer (PC) in a radically different form factor. But by focusing on the semantics, he sidesteps the question. Considering how wrong Ballmer's been about everything the past 5 years, can anyone blame him for being vague? (Recall that he laughed at the iPod, iPhone, and now wishes he never heard of the HP Slate.)

I can't help but wonder if Ballmer has outlived his usefulness at MS. Gates (& company) were the innovators during the ascendancy, and Ballmer was/is the maintainer after its zenith. Both were important roles, and both were difficult. Perhaps Ballmer doesn't get enough credit for that.

However, moving forward, Ballmer appears more and more obtuse, confused, stubborn, and in general just lacking any sort of vision. He seems more and more to be out of his element. The defining moment during this interview was when Ballmer failed (or maybe just refused, or got confused, but it doesn't matter) to recognize the critically important distinction between the current generation PCs and the new tablets and smart/app phones. Jobs and others clearly recognize this distinction and are capitalizing on it. Ballmer, in this interview, lumps tablets together with PCs. He calls tablets “another form factor” of PCs. Imagine if in 1990 a CEO of a major electronics maker said that a console stereo system was the same form factor as MP3 players. In 1990, if you weren't visionary enough to foresee the portable music devices, that is exactly how you would have thought.

It's time to change, and change fast. Ballmer is capable of neither.

Claiming that an iPad is a PC in a different form factor is like saying that a motorcycle is a car in a different form factor or the space shuttle is an airplane in a different form factor. This is proof that Ballmer really has no idea what he is talking about…