Ballmer's Greatest Hits

As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer takes his time exiting his job, let us pause for a moment so that the door may hit him on the bottom again.

With that in mind, here’s a timeless classic from 2010, when the iPad had become the most rapidly-adopted device in consumer electronics history.

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Here’s a rough transcript:

“I think people are going to be using PCs in greater and greater numbers for many years to come. PCs will look different next year…they will get smaller and lighter.” Some will have a keyboard, some won’t. Some remote control, some touch powered.

PC sales went stagnant when the iPad was released. Since Android tablets became competitive, PC sales have actually declined.

Now when Ballmer spoke those edible words, he’d seen the iPad. He’d witnessed the reaction to it. He’d read the news reports that no other CE device had ever sold one million units so quickly. And yet he decided that what people really wanted was a full PC squished down into something like a fat tablet — and it still took him 30 months to bring them to market.

A market which immediately rejected them.