Hindsight isn’t too kind to the leadership of Symbian and Microsoft.
Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is (in)famous for laughing off the potential of the iPhone after its announcement in January of 2007. However, as the video below (via Asymco) from IDG News Service in November of that same year shows, he didn’t reserve his Nostradamus-like prognosticating for Apple (AAPL). With the benefit of having watched the iPhone’s early success, he also lobbed the same logic at Google’s (GOOG) Android as well.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwIUEnXctuA&w=600&h=375]
Also noteworthy, Symbian’s then CEO, Nigel Clifford, also didn’t see much threat from Android either.
Neither executive saw the Android Tsunami that would begin with the T-Mobile G1 just under a year later. Now, Android is the fastest growing and largest smartphone OS, causing panic throughout the industry.
Last month, Nokia (NOK) abandoned its own Symbian’s OS for the warm embrace of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS. Both companies’ smartphone market share has quickly deteriorated since the launch of Apple’s iPhone and the subsequent launch of Android devices.
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