For more than 20 years, Steve Ballmer has been Microsoft's chief salesman, promoting his company's products with a mixture of over-the-top enthusiasm, street-fighter brashness and market savvy.
He hasn't mellowed. During the course of a 30-minute sit-down with editors from CNET News.com at the Tech Ed conference in Orlando, Fla., Ballmer was his vintage self, variously pounding on the table or bellowing answers to drive home sundry points with, ahem, extra emphasis. What has changed is how Microsoft's CEO and his sales troops deliver the message.
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