Microsoft Chief Ballmer Weighs In on Apple's iPhone

TechFlash reports: Tucked away at the end of an Associated Press story on Windows 7 today is an interesting comment from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the question of whether the phone could supplant the PC as the "technology of choice" for mobile consumers. His answer, in essence, was no.

But the way Ballmer phrased it was, well, curious.

"Let's face it, the Internet was designed for the PC. The Internet is not designed for the iPhone," Ballmer told the AP's Jessica Mintz. "That's why they've got 75,000 applications—they're all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone."

It's important to note that we don't have the context of the full interview. But even if the question was framed around the iPhone, it struck me as highly unusual, on a number of levels, that Ballmer referred to the Apple device specifically in his answer, and not to mobile phones generally. My head is spinning with questions.

If the Internet experience on the iPhone is lacking, then isn't it lacking on other devices, as well? Was Ballmer trying to criticize the iPhone? Or was was he holding it up as the gold standard, the device that represents the best of the mobile phone-market in general? And if the Internet experience on phones sucks, shouldn't Microsoft make it better, as opposed to leaning on it as a competitive edge for PCs?

Then there's the issue of the apps. For the record, Apple claims more than 85,000 of them, which is more than Ballmer recalled. But more to the point, mobile apps at their best are not mere windows to the Internet or pure client-side programs but instead "software plus services"—applications that supplement strong local processing and storage with built-in online connections.

Gee, where have we heard about the virtues of that concept before?

FOLLOW-UP: Matt Lauer asked Ballmer about this very topic during the Microsoft CEO's appearance on the Today show this morning. See the video in this post.