Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. No surprise, then, that our favorite sweaty iOS hater is banning iPhones and iPads on the court.
According to a new report from Reuters, Ballmer plans to band the Clippers franchise from using anything that’s not Windows or Microsoft-friendly in the future. No Android, no iPhones, and definitely no iPads.
“Most of the Clippers on are Windows, some of the players and coaches are not,” Ballmer said. “And Doc kind of knows that’s a project. It’s one of the first things he said to me: ‘We are probably going to get rid of these iPads, aren’t we?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we probably are.’ But I promised we would do it during the off season.”
This would be a move very much in Ballmer’s wheelhouse. Not only is Ballmer still Microsoft’s top shareholder, he’s the son of a Ford Motor company manager who is a lifelong product and company loyalist.
And he’s not the only ex-Microsoft CEO to ban iPhones and iPads: Bill and Melinda Gates have also famously banned Apple products in their house, even though their kids were clammoring for them.
At least players have until the off-season before Ballmer forces them to trade in their iPads for Surfaces.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
25 responses to “Steve Ballmer will force Los Angeles Clippers to throw out their iPads”
What to say???
The last owner wanted to banned Black people and be new owner wants to ban Apple products. Not as offensive but he is using his position to imposing a rules that limits choice based on a personal prejudice.
SB is a TOOL!! He will do anything to try and make MS products look good. You had your time the 90’s are over Steve.
I wonder how I’d feel if it were the other way around and the whole team was forced to only use Apple products? It’s stupid. I have lots of friends and relatives who use the whole gamut of devices from Apple to Microsoft to Android. It’s no big deal.
Well, it’s no big deal to use any of the products of your choice. But, to be limited in choice to only one product line, that’s another situation completely. I’m not advocating Android or iOS over Windows, but having the choice of all of the products would be definitely perferrable to having my choice arbitrarily taken away.
If I had to use a Surface I would go without Dictator much?
How Ballmer completely wrecked Microsoft: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/07/microsoft-downfall-emails-steve-ballmer
Somewhere in a Silicon Valley Far far away… Nerd Wars…
So for two billion dollars he get’s to force what a couple of hundred people to drop their IOS devices. With the hundreds of millions of IOS devices out there he will go broke long before he puts any dent in Apple’s market share at that rate. The poor Clippers fans, one dumb owner ot the next. Break the cycle.
The players should all threaten to quit the team and let it be worth $1.99
Oh Ballmer. I was almost done hating you…
Probably because iPads are not as productive!
Ummm…
This is actually not that big a deal. People who work for the electric company rarely have natural gas in their homes, especially high ups in electric companies. Coca-Cola employees in Atlanta won’t even eat at a restaurant that serves Pepsi. If I owned the Clippers, I would ban anything related to the Florida Gators. If the team kept using iPads, the story would bash him for leaving Microsoft and then using Apple products, the hypocrite.
“Bill and Melinda Gates have also famously banned Apple products in their house, even though their kids were clammoring for them.”
Now we know the downside to being the kid of a multi-billionaire: you have to use a Windows phone.
I hate it when a NBA team hangs on the blue screen of death.
The Curse of Ballmer strikes again. There is no escaping this bumbling idiot. Remember, he’s the guy who took over a hugely successful Microsoft and drove it year after endless year down the spiral of irrelevance, from which the company will be lucky to escape. Tens of thousands of good people have been sacrificed to this one over-weening ego.
Wait until the Gates’ kids leave home, straight to the Apple Store!
The guy is an asshole. I look forward to the day that Microsoft dies.
Ballmer is certainly welcome to do whatever he wants, but I fail to see how asking the team members to use windows phones will impact their play on the court. As an owner of a basketball team he should be focused on how the team performs on the court and keeping his team happy. If that means those team members want to use phones from Samsung, HTC or Apple, so be it. If he bought the team for no other reason then to market Microsoft products, then he should get out now. The LAC need an owner who is focused on them – not silliness.
It won’t be a surprise to me if Ballmer is a republican Apple lover should bring their I pad and show them as a protest can he do that force the player to give up their I pad slavery all over again
I donkey you too you are not
No he must be a Democrat because he wants to regulate everything.
Those typos dude
Developers! Developers! Developers!