Probably still reeling from all publicity around these shots, Microsoft reportedly told journalists gathered for a company press event in Germany not to use or mention Apple products. Our German is a bit rusty and Google is even worse, but according to Handelsblatt and our bad translation:
“While at a Windows Mobile 6.5 demonstration in Munich, Germany a journalist was warned by a Microsoft spokesman not to mention or use Apple products…since it was a Microsoft event the journalist had previously told everyone that he had never owned an easier to use cell phone than the iPhone.”
Now, you can say what you like about Microsoft’s huge market share – not just in terms of PC sales but also in virus and Trojan horse production – but even in Apple’s darkest days we don’t think Cupertino ever insisted on no mention or use of Microsoft-powered products. Looks like a fin de siecle to us…
Anyway, returning to the story, here’s Google Translate’s laughable translation of part of it – perhaps some of our German-speaking readers can, erm, actually translate this.
“The offense: The journalist had dared to talk during dinner to mention that he had never seen a possessed so easy to use phone like its iPhone. Und das auf der Vorstellung des Windows Betriebssystems Mobile 6.5. And on the idea of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. “The emotion surprised me,” says a PR consultant was present at that time. “It shows that the nerves are raw.”
“We’ve messed with Mobile 6.5,” quoted Paul Jozefak, members of the Microsoft Venture Capital Summit, the Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. “I wish we had Windows Mobile 7 in the market.” This should come 2010th.”
So there you have it – the world’s biggest software company, sticking its head in the sand.
Thanks to reader Towa Tei for the tip.
Und das auf der Vorstellung des Windows Betriebssystems Mobile 6.5:
and that at the presentation/introduction of windows mobile 6.5.
In short: At the dinner the journalist mentioned that he never owned such an easy to use mobile phone like the iphone. The microsoft spokesman said that “this is a microsoft event, apple products are not allowed here”. Before the crowd began to lough he insists that “he’s serious about it”
Also mentioned is a twitter message quoting steve ballmer “we failed with windows mobile 6.5, i wish we had windows mobile 7..”
I hope my Englisch is not as bad as Google´s German…
Here´s what I translated:
The offence: The journalist had dared to mention that he had never owned a phone that was as easy to use as his iPhone. And this on the presentation of Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. “The emotionality surprised me”, a then attendand PR-consultant said. “That shows, their verves are on edge.” No wonder. Days before a twittered message caused quite a stir. “We messed it up with Windows 6.5″, Paul Jozefak, Attendant of Microsoft Venture Capital Summit, quoted Steve Ballmer. ” I wish we had Windows Mobile 7 in the market.” That´s about to come in 2010.
And they say Jobs is a control freak!!!!
He is, you’d cry if he caught you with a Microsoft phone at an Apple event!
You would cry if you were using a Microsoft phone at an Apple event, but Steve Jobs would have nothing to do with it.
But seriously, Microsoft is feeling defensive. Apple doesn’t have this insecurity. Jobs would probably be amused if a journalist said he had never used an iPhone.
Every Mac is a platform not only for MS Office Mac but also includes BootCamp to run Windows natively if you want, and there are at least 3 popular PC virtualizers for the Mac as well. So the idea that Jobs would tell you not to use Microsoft is 100% wrong. Not only will he not tell you not to use Microsoft, he will sell you products with which you can use Microsoft.
The famous Bill Gates Big Brother incident at MacWorld in 1997 or 1998 which Windows enthusiasts like to say was Bill Gates saving Apple was all about Steve Jobs saying to everyone involved with Apple: “Microsoft doesn’t have to lose for Apple to win.” Steve Jobs was specifically trying to avoid going down the road that Microsoft is down right now, where Bill Gates has banned iPods from his house and now Microsoft is hassling people for using an Apple PC instead of Dell, or Apple phone instead of HTC.
To really see how childish this is on the part of Microsoft, realize that there were many attendees there who were running Windows 7 Ultimate and the latest MS Office on their MacBook Pro, which requires you to actually pay more for Windows than if you bought a Dell. I bet you there is one guy who bought a MacBook Pro “just for the hardware” and paid $400 for Windows 7 Ultimate and spent 3 days of his life installing and configuring it and the latest MS Office and MS developer tools, and a further day attempting to apply some aftermarket security band-aids and then he proudly went to this conference and was told he is not Microsoft-faithful enough. Talk about an incentive to use Mac OS!
Microsoft can’t compete. That is embarrassing enough. To cry like this is just awful. Just when you think you can’t be any more embarrassed by them.
Mind you, MS should look on the bright side- most of them will be using Word.
Probably.
Der Tiefschlag kam ohne Ansage: „Dies ist eine Microsoft-Veranstaltung“, wies ein Manager einen Fachjournalisten barsch zurecht. „Hier haben Apple-Produkte nichts verloren.“ Als in die Stille am Tisch im Münchner Schickeria-Restaurant „Maria und Josef“ verlegene Lacher ob des Scherzes aufzukommen drohten, setzt er nach: „Das meine ich ernst.“
It came without warning: „This is a Microsoft event“, a manager snapped at a journalist. „Apple products are not welcome here.“ First, the journalists were caught by surprise, but when some of them started to laugh at what they assumed to be a joke, he added: „I’m serious.“
Well, let’s see if we can fine tune this
Der Tiefschlag kam ohne Ansage: „Dies ist eine Microsoft-Veranstaltung“, wies ein Manager einen Fachjournalisten barsch zurecht. „Hier haben Apple-Produkte nichts verloren.“ Als in die Stille am Tisch im Münchner Schickeria-Restaurant „Maria und Josef“ verlegene Lacher ob des Scherzes aufzukommen drohten, setzt er nach: „Das meine ich ernst.“
Das Vergehen: Der Journalist hatte beim Dinnertalk gewagt zu erwähnen, dass er noch nie ein so einfach zu bedienendes Telefon besessen habe wie sein iPhone. Und das auf der Vorstellung des Windows Betriebssystems Mobile 6.5. „Die Emotionalität hat mich überrascht“, sagt ein damals anwesender PR-Berater. „Es zeigt, dass die Nerven blank liegen.“ Kein Wunder. Tage vorher hatte eine getwitterte Meldung für Aufsehen gesorgt. „Wir haben es versaut mit Mobile 6.5“, zitiert Paul Jozefak, Teilnehmer des Microsoft Venture Capital Summit, den CEO Steve Ballmer. „Ich wünschte, wir hätten Windows Mobile 7 im Markt.“ Das soll 2010 kommen.
This was the German text. A translation would be this:
The punch came without any announcement: “This is a Microsoft event. We don’t want to see any Apple products here.” a journalist was told by a Microsoft manager. When the resulting silence at the Munich in-restaurant “Maria and Josef” was threatened to be interrupted by laughs and utters regarding the joke the guy just made, he said: “I am dead serious!”
The crime: The journalist expressed over dinner that he had never had an easier to use cell phone than the iPhone. This at an introduction event for Windows Mobile 6.5. “The emotionality was quite surprising” said a PR manager attending the event. “It definitely shows how people are on the edge.” No wonder. A few days before the event, a twittered news snippet quoting Seve Ballmer said “We f**ed up with Mobile 6.5. I wish we had Mobile 7 ready.”. This came from Paul Jozefak, who participated in the MS Capital Venture Summit. Windows Mobile 7 is due in 2010.
Transcription:
[..Samsung introduces new hardware...bla..]
The blow below the belt came without warning. “This is a Microsoft event” a Microsoft manager barked at a IT journalist “Apple products have no place here”. When a tentative loughter began to rise in the upscale restaurant “Maria und Josef” in Munich he pushed on: “I mean it”
The offense: At a dinner talk the journalist dared mention that he never owned a phone that was easier to use than the iPhone. This was at the introduction event of Windows Mobile 6.5. “His emotionality surprised me”, said a PR consultant attending the event. “It shows that the nerves are on edge [at MS]“.
No wonder there. Only days before Paul Jozefak, attendee at the Microsoft Venture Capital Summit, quoted a twitter message by Steve Ballmer: “We screwed up with Mobile 6.5, I wish we had Mobile 7 on the market:” This is due 2010.
Ballmer knows that he has to reach a similar situation as in the PC world. Today, “Accenture” consultants found, 62% of smartphone owners use it to check their email. They don’t even turn on the PC for it anymore. They use Nokia, Blackberry and iPhone. [..] according to Gartner Windows Mobile has a market share of less than 10% in Q3/2009. What a humiliation.
[...I am getting bored translating.. free translation following] It gets worse: 2010 is the year of Android analysts say. It might surpass Apple and go up to 38%.
…bla bla.. iPhone changed the industry over night
…paradigm shift: technological progress is not bound to new hardware anymore, new software canprovide new/improved services on existing hardware in systems like the iPhone. Now manufacturers have to scramble because they can’t sell new hardware as often as before. Apple is in a good position here since it pouches 30% of the revenue of new software on their hardware by forcing the Apps into the AppStore.
Transcription:
[..Samsung introduces new hardware...bla..]
The blow below the belt came without warning. “This is a Microsoft event” a Microsoft manager barked at a IT journalist “Apple products have no place here”. When a tentative loughter began to rise in the upscale restaurant “Maria und Josef” in Munich he pushed on: “I mean it”
The offense: At a dinner talk the journalist dared mention that he never owned a phone that was easier to use than the iPhone. This was at the introduction event of Windows Mobile 6.5. “His emotionality surprised me”, said a PR consultant attending the event. “It shows that the nerves are on edge [at MS]“.
No wonder there. Only days before Paul Jozefak, attendee at the Microsoft Venture Capital Summit, quoted a twitter message by Steve Ballmer: “We screwed up with Mobile 6.5, I wish we had Mobile 7 on the market:” This is due 2010.
Ballmer knows that he has to reach a similar situation as in the PC world. Today, “Accenture” consultants found, 62% of smartphone owners use it to check their email. They don’t even turn on the PC for it anymore. They use Nokia, Blackberry and iPhone. [..] according to Gartner Windows Mobile has a market share of less than 10% in Q3/2009. What a humiliation.
[...I am getting bored translating.. free translation following] It gets worse: 2010 is the year of Android analysts say. It might surpass Apple and go up to 38%.
…bla bla.. iPhone changed the industry over night
…paradigm shift: technological progress is not bound to new hardware anymore, new software canprovide new/improved services on existing hardware in systems like the iPhone. Now manufacturers have to scramble because they can’t sell new hardware as often as before. Apple is in a good position here since it pouches 30% of the revenue of new software on their hardware by forcing the Apps into the AppStore.
I’m the lead Linux admin in my shop and use a Mac for just about everything — including managing the 300+ Windows servers that we have in production (yes, I do Windows, too).
I went to Microsoft TechEd in Orlando year before last and took my Mac with me. What struck me immediately on seeing all of the other attendees was the number of Macs in use! My admittedly unscientific guess would have put about a quarter of the attendees using Macs. Most of those were on the 13″ Macbooks, a small number of black Macbooks, and an even smaller number of 15″ Macbook Pros.
Microsoft, during the event, kept stressing interoperability with “every major operating system”. They called out RedHat, Suse, and YellowDog Linux specifically. I think they need to check their dictionaries for the definition of the words “every” and “major”.
Throughout the event, the MS drones were very careful to not mention Apple’s OSX at any time. At a few points during open training sessions, I asked how to accomplish the interoperability of whichever relevant topic with Ubuntu Linux or OSX, and all I got back was “there might be some information on the internet.”
I actually had one guy, when I asked about a Linux (not OSX) plugin for some product after the main training session had ended, grab my arm, lower his voice and say, “You know, you could get jumped for asking that around here.”
In that one week, I learned more about the Cult of Microsoft than I had in the previous 20 years of working with its products.
Microsoft never never learned to work and play well with others, as anyone who has ever run a dual boot Windows/Linux system knows.
For years everything at Microsoft has been created with the implicit idea of “Windows Everywhere” which foretold that the 21st century would be an age of computers built into everything (famously: cars and watches) and all of those computers would be running Windows. There was never any need to be compatible with other computing platforms because other computing platforms were all doomed.
Now the computer industry is too big for one company to monopolize all systems. We used to have Mac/PC but now it is Mac, Windows PC, iPhone/iPod, Blackberry, Android, Chrome, Palm, PlayStation, Nintendo, XBox, Ubuntu, and it is the Web that ties it all together, not Microsoft.
I don’t see much future for them. Their products don’t even have the basic 1980s Unix level of security that the Web expects the user to have because the Web was created on a NeXT system, and the Web turns 20 next year. They’ve been cloning the Mac now for 25 years but still haven’t caught up to the 21st century. And their lack of interoperability is killing them in phones and media players, which people carry around everywhere and expect to work with everything they encounter, including the Web.
People used to say that Bill Gates vision of “a computer in every home, all running Microsoft software” was thinking big, but it was executed small as “only running Microsoft software.”
I work in Web development, and people are shocked to find out their Word documents are not Web-compatible, that they have to be converted to Web documents by hand. The reason is that Microsoft tried to make the Web adapt to Word instead of the other way around. Missed opportunity that has cost their customers billions and made the MS Office tools irrelevant for most users.
Hier haben Apple-Produkte nichts verloren. Das meine ich ernst.
Here Apple products have NOT LOST. I mean that seriously.
Reading the WHOLE article, MS is jealous of Apple and recognizes that Apple is doing it right. Don’t take googles and others poor translations, people that CAN’T translate well, as the gospel. Computer and people that DON’T have a firm grasp on a language will rarely give a good translation.
Verloren means and will always mean, to lose. If they said that Apple Products are forbidden the text would have read.
“Hier Apple-Produkte sind verboten.” sind = to be, verboten = forbidden.
Again, MS is recognizing Apples lead in the market.
Your translation is so far off that it hurts to read. I have lived for 10 years in Germany and speak the language fluently. “Apple Produkte haben hier nichts verloren” means “Apple products are not welcome here”. Nothing more, nothing less.
Don’t portray yourself here as knowing what you are talking about, because you don’t.
Your translation is so far off that it hurts to read. I have lived for 10 years in Germany and speak the language fluently. “Apple Produkte haben hier nichts verloren” means “Apple products are not welcome here”. Nothing more, nothing less.
Don’t portray yourself here as knowing what you are talking about, because you don’t. The automatic translators were closer than you.
Brilliant translation! [Irony/Bügelei] I can’t believe you are writing those lines with a straight face.
I am sorry, but “nicht” is “not”, and “nichts” is “nothing”. So as a literal translation (not interpretation, which is really required to get the proper language colloquialism and nuances),
Hier haben Apple-Produkte nichts verloren. Das meine ich ernst.
Is:
Here have Apple-Products nothing lost. That mean I really.
The interpretation is along the lines of:
Apple products have no place here. I really mean that.
If you have “nothing lost,” you are where you are not supposed to be. Kind of like “You don’t have a horse in this race.”
The “literal translation” is the least interesting translation. It’s only good for word nerds, language scholars. What is wanted 99% of the time is not to literally translate an article but to actually rewrite the German article as though it were written by an English-speaking author. So the headline “Apple Products Not Welcome Here” is the right headline. The meaning is what is important, not the actual words that are used.
> Here Apple products have NOT LOST.
That is the most stupid translation I’ve seen so far. Being german myself, I can confirm that “Hier haben Apple-Produkte nichts verloren” means something like “Apple products aren’t welcome here”…
“Microsoft, we’re a sad and pathetic bunch of losers with no imagination, confidence, or direction limping into the future hopeless, helpless, and hapless.”
“Hier haben Apple-Produkte nichts verloren.”
This _is_ quite a strong way to say that they don’t want Apple products at the event. Without being a linguist, I would say it is something between
“Apple products are not welcome” and “Apple products are forbidden”.
It is a harsh and impolite way to say what MS wants during this event.
Microsoft has only themselves to blame for all this. Next month will be the third anniversary that Steve Jobs dropped the iPhone bombshell on the public at Macworld 2007. He effectively gave the industry a six and a half month head start to come up with a response to a product that wouldn’t launch until the end of June. Instead, at year three of knowing details about the iPhone, Microsoft STILL hasn’t gotten a real multi-touch phone in customers’ hands….3 YEARS! In the meantime, Google has come up with a shipping competitor and even Palm got the Pre to the market. And even RIM tried to compete with the Storm but they are lucky that Blackberry customers really really really like them regardless.
And it’s not like Microsoft didn’t have similar technology. But truly, how many people have seen a Microsoft Surface, much less used one? Has this technology made any profit for Microsoft? Instead, Apple is all but printing money with iPhone sales and Microsoft’s marketshare in the phone market has the trajectory of a lawn dart.
I don’t know what Redmond is doing, but time is not on their side. The non-iPhone/Blackberry marketplace for smartphones is being rapidly carved up between Google (mostly) and Palm and if they don’t get a product to market soon, it’ll be all over for Microsoft as a meaningful player in this space.
The first Mac came out in 1984 and it took MS 10 years to catch up, but they did. The current 3+ year lead the iphone has is not insurmountable. Don’t underestimate those guys.
You should compare the iPod and “the new Apple” (1997 through today) to the iPhone, not the Mac and the old Apple, because Steve Jobs was fired from Apple just after the Mac shipped.
Steve took the “Big Mac” project with him, which became NeXT. Had Steve stayed, the NeXT computer would have been the Mac Pro and the compact Mac would have been the iMac, giving Apple both high-end and low-end graphical computing lines. Instead, Apple-without-Jobs marketed the compact Mac as their high-end machine (which it was never meant to be, that was the Lisa and then NeXT) and left the consumer and low-end space to cloners.
So Steve’s Mac vision had the compact Mac competing rigorously against the PC, with the compact Mac priced low and going for market share to build the platform and prevent a cloner from building a platform of their own, and had the NeXT system in today’s Mac Pro slot, providing really high-end computing power to those who need it and pushing the state of the art forward and bringing in big margins that cloners can’t command.
So you’re right that it took Microsoft 10 years to even get into the same ballpark as the Mac, but they did that unchallenged. Apple did not make a low-end PC when Jobs was not there. But notice that Jobs returned in 1997 and in 1998 released the iMac. Notice that the iPod in 2001 was followed by iPod mini in 2003, iPod nano in 2004, and shuffle soon after that, to have the whole line of music players. And with iPhone we see the $99 iPhone 3G just 2 years after launch, completely destroying any opportunity for a low-end platform to take hold. Android has something like 1.8% of the market even with years of hype because the “good enough” smartphone is iPhone 3G, there is no room for Android to become the good enough platform to go with iPhone 3GS at the high-end. From $99 to $299 it is all iPhone.
Actually, if you put Android and Palm together you still get less market share than Windows Mobile. However your point still stands because Windows Mobile went from something like 12% to 4% over the past year or 2 and no end in sight. Everyone agrees Microsoft has to get their act together to stay in mobiles.
This is an idiom.
Imagine this scenario: You stumble into a room where you do not belong. A person in the room says to you, angrily, “You didn’t lose anything here,” meaning that if you are looking for something, it isn’t here. Go away.
English equivalent: Apple products have no business being here.
I don’t even know any German, but the translation to english is:
“We are trying to catch up by copying Apple, we are NOT LOST here.”
I just hope the journalist reminded the MS stooge that there is free speech and a free market and he can blow it if he doesn’t like it.
I wholeheartedly agree. I would NEVER use or mention an Apple product at a Microsoft event….
I’d use Linux
Here are the first three paragraphs:
Operating systems are the key to mobile internet users’ wallets. Controlling them means also controlling software and services. Five different OSs dominate the market and more emerge every day. On tuesday the mighty Samsung, number two in mobile phone sales, will present details of its upcoming OS “Bada”. Dramatic consolidation is inevitable, analysts say. It will be painful. According to Gartner’s prognosis there’ll be only three players by 2015.
The deep hit came without warning: “This is a Microsoft event”, one executive told the attending journalists. “There’s no place for Apple gear here.” When the following silence was about to be disturbed by laughter he added “I mean it.”
The offense: during dinner, the journalist had dared to talk about how he never had owned a mobile phone that was easier to use than his iPhone. This at the presentation of Windows Mobile 6.5. “The emotionality of it all surprised me” says an attending PR person. “It shows they’re nervous.” No wonder. Days before a tweet had drawn attention: “We fucked up with Mobile 6.5″, Paul Jozefak, participant of the Microsoft Venture Capital Summit, quotes Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “I wish we had Windows Mobile 7 on the market.” That is due in 2010.
Once again, the mothership is embarrassed by some mid-level drone who has no conception of the damage he is doing, or how soon he’ll be in the unemployment line.
Please don’t extrapolate one person’s comment at a local event to be “Microsoft’s” policy or anything.
Microsoft is extremely tolerant of competitors products within their walls, at their events, etc. Far more so than you’ll ever see at Apple, despite what other commentors here have claimed.
Can you imagine an Apple employee carrying around a Sony laptop? A Droid? Of course not.
Of course they wouldn’t. Why carry around an inferior solution.
As to me, I wouldn’t call iPhone a mobile phone. It’s just kind of toy, well advertised, but pretty useless in daily life. I’ve played with it for a while and found it uncomfortable and not practical as a phone. It’s like a three-feet-long penis – very cool and quite impracticable.
Not true. The headline is a falsehood, as is the whole premise of this story.
Microsoft does allow Apple products. The very idea that Apple products would be banned is pure nonsense. Though, not surprisingly, Microsoft events are attended by people who use Microsoft products.
This is another interesting example of viral propaganda and negative-marketing sprerad through the Apple fanboy network, though, so thanks for sharing it.
Posting provicative falsehoods is a good way to build traffic and revenue for your adverts, so well done on that count.