Archive for the ‘quotes’ Category

The iPad: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you…

Friday, August 6th, 2010

I stumbled across a few articles covering the iPad, and it reminded me of one of my favorite Ghandi quotes.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Obviously Ghandi was working with things more important then tech, but the overlap is uncanny to the iPad’s situation.

“First they ignore you…” Microsoft’s strategy regarding the iPad.

“then they laugh at you” Microsoft talking about Apple’s platform.

“Then they fight you” Steve Balmer introducing the “Slate”. video embedded below.

“Then you win” Balmer quote on Apple selling a million iPads a month.

Ballmer said, “they’ve sold certainly more than I’d like them to have sold.”

Ballmer is on borrowed time at Microsoft.

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Keep calm and carry on – The Reddit Story

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

This is a fabulous read for those interested in startups. Alexis Ohanian (one of the founders of Reddit) talks about some of the life challenges on entrepreneurship.

Steve and I spent every waking hour (and some dreaming, no doubt) after graduation with reddit somewhere on our minds. The time we spent working on it together only reinforced the marriage metaphor everyone uses about cofounders.

My life — and thus Steve’s — was dramatically changed during those startup months for reasons beyond my control. I’ve lived a ridiculously fortunate life, so I knew it was only a matter of time before something was going to knock things a bit off course; I just didn’t think it’d happen like this.

Just a month after we started working on reddit, Steve and I were wrapping up a game of WoW around 4am. I’d only been asleep for an hour when my cellphone rang.

Read the whole article here.

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Steve Balmer’s iPhone Clam Chowder

Friday, March 19th, 2010
David Lieberman:

“People get passionate when Apple comes out with something new — the iPhone; of course, the iPod. Is that something that you’d want them to feel about Microsoft?”

Steve Balmer:

“It’s sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.

Now we’ll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn’t just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job.

But it’s not like we’re at the end of the line of innovation that’s going to come in the way people listen to music, watch videos, etc. I’ll bet our ads will be less edgy. But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we’ll get him to own a Zune.”

See the full infographic at gigaom.com.

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Winston Churchill Once Said…

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Churchill: “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?”

Socialite: “My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course…”

Churchill: “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?”

Socialite: “Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!”

Churchill: “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.”

Stick to your convictions. Read more about Churchill here.

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