Ballmer: 'We don't like being number three'
InternetNews | at | by Mike
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that the software vendor has had difficulties competing for consumers online and developing a business model for online business services.
But he said that he was more worried about being blindsided by a new business model than any one company in particular.
"I think about new business models more than I think of individual companies," he told analysts at a Merrill Lynch conference in New York today.
Ballmer pointed to open source as one potential source of worry. While the company has gained market share against Linux both on desktops and in the server market, he said that "having a competitor that is nominally close to free is always a challenge... There is a set of pricing pressure that nobody should ignore."