Month: July 1999

“Although we think PCs will remain the central device of the information revolution, we certainly admit that there will be other devices.”

Microsoft president Steve Ballmer, detailing a new strategy in much the same way his colleague Paul Maritz admitted on the stand in the antitrust trial that he was, in fact, a Microsoft executive, San Jose Mercury News, 23 July 1999

“The old world is lazy. They want to copy — to take old ideas and put them in a new environment. We spend our time thinking about new business models.”

Priceline.com CEO Jay Walker, complaining that he works hard for the money, so you’d better treat him right, The Washington Post, 22 July 1999

“IBook is the ‘iMac to Go.'”

Apple iCEO Steve Jobs, introducing his company’s long-expected consumer portable at Macworld Expo in New York, The New York Times, 21 July 1999

“We had some earlier notions … about how Sidewalk would be everything related to local — community, news, traffic, commerce. We decided it was too broad.”

Matt Kursh, a business unit manager at MSN, on Microsoft’s decision to sell off Sidewalk to competitor Ticketmaster-Citysearch, ZDNN, 19 July 1999

“AOL’s approach is to dumb down the Internet experience. People actually aren’t dumb.”

Earthlink Network chairman Sky Dayton, complaining that America Online has managed to outdumb the competition, CBS MarketWatch, 19 July 1999