>>You might have missed some interesting magazine articles in the early 2000's questioning Ballmer's strategy - eg I remember a very good one in the Economist - I wish I had torn it off.
>>
>>To me, all these language and infrastructure issues were valid before Y2k - like 4-stroke engine became a standard in the 20's.
>>
>>Because he never believed in the outcome of the Internet, Ballmer just applied what he learnt at business school (AKA Gartner Magic Quadrant) - once you have a large share on a growing market, you're immune.
>>
>OK, so again, Baller was wrong.
>
>You're implying that there was a correct strategy and he missed it.
>
>What was it?

Mobile OS mimicking the phone he thought of as irrelevant, and Open Source. Google just mixed those 2 things together...