Top 80 Steve Ballmer Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I think PCs are going to continue to shift in form factor. The real question is: What’s a PC?”

— Steve Ballmer

52. “All the consumer market mojo is with Apple and to a lesser extent BlackBerry. And yet, the real market momentum with operators and the real market momentum with device manufacturers seems to primarily be with Windows Mobile and Android.”

— Steve Ballmer

53. “If you look at companies with upside potential, Twitter’s right there. They’ve established a brand in a world where it’s extremely difficult to establish a brand. It’s a global brand, people recognize it, people want to let you know what their Twitter handles are, etc.”

— Steve Ballmer

54. “It’s hard to invent a new thing, and it’s just as hard to invent another new thing.”

— Steve Ballmer

55. “If the CEO doesn’t see the playing field, nobody else can. The team may need to see it too, but the CEO really needs to be able to see the entire competitive space.”

— Steve Ballmer

56. “I come back to the same thing: We’ve got the greatest pipeline in the company’s history in the next 12 months, and we’ve had the most amazing financial results possible over the last five years, and we’re predicting being back at double-digit revenue growth in fiscal year ’06.”

— Steve Ballmer

57. “Maybe I’m an emblem of an old era, and I have to move on.”

— Steve Ballmer

58. “I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.”

— Steve Ballmer

59. “I’m very, very bullish about our prospects, and as I tell our board, as I tell our employees, this is the time to invest. There’s so much opportunity. Let’s just invest in that opportunity, and really get after it.”

— Steve Ballmer

60. “Ultimately progress is measured sort of through the eyes of users.”

— Steve Ballmer

61. “So, I think the output of our innovation is great. We have a culture of self-improvement. I know we can continue to improve. There is no issue. But at the same time, our absolute level of output is fantastic.”

— Steve Ballmer

62. “I’m going to f – ing kill Google.”

— Steve Ballmer

63. “Ford shared this vision. We are inviting more players to join in.”

— Steve Ballmer

64. “No. 1 thing is that life is just not as interrupt-driven as when you’re running a company.”

— Steve Ballmer

65. “Eventually the Internet will be accessed by PC, television, and wireless devices.”

— Steve Ballmer

66. “What we’ve gone through in the last several years has caused some people to question ‘Can we trust Microsoft?’ .”

— Steve Ballmer

67. “I don’t know what a monopoly is until somebody tells me.”

— Steve Ballmer

68. “I’d like to own Microsoft shares until I either give something to charity or I die.”

— Steve Ballmer

69. “It actually turns out to be much harder to really understand government across state local and federal.”

— Steve Ballmer

70. “We’re going to try to do more to communicate the value of activation to customers in addition to making the process simpler and more consistent.”

— Steve Ballmer

71. “Only our company and a handful of others are poised to write the future.”

— Steve Ballmer

72. “All companies of any size have to continue to push to make sure you get the right leaders, the right team, the right people to be fast acting, and fast moving in the marketplace. We’ve got great leaders, and we continue to attract and promote great new leaders.”

— Steve Ballmer

73. “The most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen.’”

— Steve Ballmer

74. “Since I’m not a seller of the stock, I don’t really care what it is today.”

— Steve Ballmer

75. “The company I invested in is probably a leader in that area. They’re a company called Second Spectrum, which happens to be based in LA but was started by two USC computer-science professors. It’s filled with guys who love sports, who played sports, but really look like programmers.”

— Steve Ballmer

76. “There is such an overvaluation of technology stocks that it is absurd. I would include our stock in that category. It is bad for the long-term worth of the economy.”

— Steve Ballmer

77. “I don’t really know that anybody’s proven that a random collection of people doing their own thing actually creates value.”

— Steve Ballmer

78. “As a shareholder I have expressed my frustration with not getting more information about revenue and margins from the cloud.”

— Steve Ballmer

79. “There’s a lot of Google fascination out there and we share it, and we’re going to compete, we’re going to compete very, very hard.”

— Steve Ballmer

80. “I think good ideas are usually better done quickly than slowly.”

— Steve Ballmer

81. “The way I do things I usually always prefer to have a very clear strategy and be very focused. At the same time to be very rock solid, and crisp in execution.”

— Steve Ballmer

82. “Most people still steal music.”

— Steve Ballmer

83. “We’ve grown from 18% of the profits of the top 25 companies in our industry to 23% of the profits of the top 25 companies in our industry over the last five years. Profits are up over 70%, where the industry profit is up about 35%. Pretty good.”

— Steve Ballmer

84. “I think it would be absolutely reckless and irresponsible for anyone to try and break up Microsoft.”

— Steve Ballmer

85. “And then you take a look at Spaces, there is this great innovation that came out of nowhere. We have the number one blogging site in the world because of the innovation that’s there.”

— Steve Ballmer

86. “I can tell you first-hand from my experiences with Sacramento, the league does try to honor the fan bases it has, and encourage teams to stay in their home markets.”

— Steve Ballmer