You have to wonder just what Bill Gates is thinking, upon learning that the company he co-founded is laying off 5,000 workers. This is the very first time Microsoft has had to resort to this unfortunate practice in its 34 years, and the situation may actually get worse before it gets better.

As you might expect, CEO Steve Ballmer and his minions will engaged in whatever sort of spin control they can muster. It’s the fault of the economy. The PC market has suffered seriously as a result, but things will eventually get better.

Well, I’d never credit Ballmer with a healthy dose of reality. Indeed, he poo-poohed the possibility that the iPhone would succeed, and he’d rather not admit that Macs are gaining in market share while PC sales have flattened and begun a decline.

A new development out of left field that might also hurt Microsoft big time is the arrival of those ultra-cheap note-books known as netbooks, and that’s true before we know whether Apple is going to enter that product segment.

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

This article was posted on Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 6:00 PM and is filed under News and tagged with: Apple, Big Time, Bill Gates, Ceo Steve Ballmer, decline, Dose Of Reality, economy, Iphone, Market Share, Microsoft, netbooks, Product Segment, Spin Control.