Steve Ballmer Offers a Few Kind Words for Apple's Highly Successful App Store

From DailyTech: After the launch of Apple's iPhone in 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously dismissed the threat that the smartphone could have on the market or its impact on Microsoft's then popular Windows Mobile operating system.

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance," remarked Ballmer in a 2007 interview with USA Today. "It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."

Three years later, and quite a few "price breaks" later, Apple's iPhone is doing quite well and is gobbling up a significant portion of the smartphone market. The iPhone (and by association, its iPod touch sibling) has also been buoyed by Apple's App Store which recently crossed the three billion downloads threshold.

While Steve Ballmer may have been apprehensive about the iPhone at first, he is giving credit where credit is due when it comes to the highly successful App Store. During a recent speaking engagement at the University of Washington, Ballmer noted that, "Apple's done a very nice job that allows people to monetize and commercialize their intellectual property."

Taken at face value, the comment could easily be brushed aside, but there have been reports that Apple and Microsoft are in talks to have Bing replace Google as the default search engine on the iPhone and iPod touch. As most of you already know, Google and Apple have a rocky relationship right now; so kind words from Microsoft's head honcho could help ease any tension that may still be present between the boys from Cupertino and the boys from Redmond.

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