Microsoft: Apple too controlling, Android is wild

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has slammed the competition to Windows Phone 8, calling Apple's ecosystem "highly priced" and "highly controlled", while Android's is "wild" and "uncontrolled".

Speaking during a "fireside chat" with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, the outspoken Ballmer said that Android's app strategy is wild due to "an app compatibility perspective, maybe in a way that's not always in the consumers' best interests".

And he criticised Apple's pricing strategy. "Maybe because we live in a country where every phone is subsidised you might forget it," he said. "But in Russia last week, you had to pay $1,000 for an iPhone. So in Russia, you're not going to sell many iPhones.

Windows Phone 8, he claimed, is the best of both worlds however. It has "the quality" but not "at the premium price", and it has a "controlled, but maybe not as controlled ecosystem". Plus it has the "diversity and the lower price points that come with Android".

He also called Windows Phone 8, "the most personal smartphone". "When you whip out your phone, you really see the things that matter to you. And just moving things back and forth among Windows devices will be appealing to a lot of people," he explained.

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