His [Steve Ballmer's] continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft's stock.

Influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn

Mac shipments in the business market grew at a torrid 66.0% pace, an order of magnitude higher than the 4.5% shipment growth rate of the business market.

Charlie Wolf, Analyst with Needham & Company on Apple making huge inroads in enterprise

I was a strong proponent at the board level for the deal being done.

Bill Gates, on how he advocated the company's takeover of Skype, and urged other board members to support the move.

It's a point of sales problem. It's an expertise at retail problem. It's a marketing problem to consumers. It is a price point problem.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on Why Android tablets aren't selling

Ballmer and his company are at a tipping-point and he knows it. Microsoft is still big and powerful and rich, but no longer is it the biggest, most powerful, and richest.

Famous Blogger Robert X. Cringely on Why Microsoft bought Skype

Typically, in my opinion, community processes don’t work, because you need to know when you’re done. If it’s a community process, someone could take an early version before (it is) locked down, and those devices would be incompatible.

Google's Andy rubin highlighting the difference between something being released as open source code and a community project in context of Android.

Will we sell a few more Kinects when we get these things hooked up? Yeah, I think so. Skype can help where we are in the enterprise by getting those customer bases to work well together.

Steve Ballmer on Skype acquisition to Reuters

When you’re the janitor, reasons matter. Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering.

Steve Jobs quoted in a Adam Lashinsky’s latest feature story on Fortune magazine.

One thing we see generally is people have the same circle of people they’re willing to share their location with all the time, It’s less about the breadth of sharing and more about the level of engagement.

Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Location in an interview with Forbes

No one would willingly give the IRS more than they owe, or submit to taxes they weren’t required to pay. So why is it that people and businesses allow themselves to be unfairly “taxed” by Google?

Tom Rizzo, Senior Director of Microsoft Online Services in a blog post talking about hidden costs of Google Apps

In China, you are seeing the Android operating system, Android phone proliferating across the board.

Daniel Alegre, President of Asia Pacific at Google, in a briefing in Hong Kong

Steve Ballmer at BlackBerry World? It’s like being transported to an alternate universe. It shows when it comes to mobile search, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Michael Gartenberg, a Gartner analyst attending the BlackBerry conference on Microsoft RIM alliance over Bing Search.

I cannot stress enough how important Google's wifi location database is to our Android and mobile product strategy, We absolutely do care about this (decision by Motorola) because we need wifi data collection in order to maintain and improve our wifi loca

Google Location Service Product Manager Steve Lee responding to Larry Page in an leaked email produced by Mercury News

You have to live underneath a rock not to know that the iPad has taken share from the netbook, It’s a problem on the consumer side, and that’s a market where Microsoft continues to give up territory to Apple.

Pat Becker Jr., Principal of Portland, Oregon-based Becker Capital Management Inc., which holds Microsoft shares as part of its $2.5 billion in assets.

For many reasons, I believe Instapaper would still have a market even if Apple implemented Reading List synced to iOS devices.

Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper, a tool to save web pages for reading later on rumors of Apple adding similar feature called "Reading List" in Safari browser.

We delivered strong financial results despite a mixed PC environment, which demonstrates the strength and breadth of our businesses.

Peter Klein,

Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft, commenting on the Q3 results

Over the past three years, Microsoft has created a uniform, detailed map of the Continental United States and 17 countries in Western and Central Europe. The results are spectacular.

Quentin Hardy, an editor for Forbes in a story on Bing Maps titled Bing Maps Aerial Victory

We haven’t, as an industry, done a very good job educating people, I think, as to some of the more subtle things going on here. As such, (people) jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions in the last week.

Steve Jobs in an interview talking about the issues around location information being stored on the iPhone.

I’ll admit, I felt dirty even touching the thing, but after a few seconds I realized I was actually liking this gadget I’d shunned and written off... I’m not happy that the ipad is better, I’m bothered by it to be completely honest.

Brendan, an rabid android fanboy commenting after trying out Apple iPad 2.

There is a feeling here at Google that all good things start in a garage. Larry wanted to create the same kind of environment he and Sergey had when they started Google — a sort of a playground or sandbox for pursuing their ideas.

Greg Butterfield, an engineering lab manager who oversees the Google Workshops which offer a peek into ways Page may try to make the Internet giant work with the verve and creativity of a garage-bound entrepreneur.

If you look at Google as a media company, you are not going to understand it at all, because that is not how it thinks and operates. It's an artificial intelligence company, it's an Internet company, it's a technology company.

Tech writer Steven Levy in his new book, "In the Plex".

Oh yes they do. We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Steve Jobs response to an unnamed reader claiming both that Apple does not track users and that Android does while referring to the information about iOS shared in the media as "false".

Windows 7 has sold more than 350 million licenses. The momentum we’ve seen and continue to see with Windows 7 is incredible

Announcement in a blog post.

From the music industry’s perspective, however, there’s a big difference: Amazon started its service without getting approval from the big music labels. But Apple is actively seeking licenses for its service, and will pay the labels for the privilege.

Peter Kafka in an article titled, One Difference Between Apple’s Music Locker and Amazon’s: Label Deals

We’ve gotten to where we have gotten to faster than we thought. Now we know who is exactly writing each piece of code.

Microsoft Phone unit President Andy Lees after Microsoft signed a definitive contract with Nokia

Apple makes great products, has silly margins and continues to expand distribution with no end in sight. The perfect storm for stock price appreciation over time.

Howard Lindzon, co-founder and CEO of StockTwits in an article Apple…Overwatched and Underowned!! $AAPL

Really the only holdout — the only company that hasn't evolved as much as we would like on this [Do Not Track tool in Browsers] — is Google. But they're moving in the right direction.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in an interview with POLITICO

[Photosynth’s] interaction model, look and feel are very Metro, distinctively ours, yet it works in the iPhone context. It has a distinct voice, yet remains transparent and usable. It isn’t antisocial in its approach to the platform.

Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Architect in the Bing Mobile & Bing Maps team on the design of Photosynth App for iOS devices.

Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple’s innovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design

Apple in a complaint claiming Samsung Copies IPhone, IPad in Galaxy Phone, Tablet Products

It's not about [revenge]. I just felt like it's an important piece of technology history, and I should tell it like it happened, and I hope people understand and respect that

Paul Allen in 60 minutes interview over his memoir, Idea Man

But it would cause a pretty big short-term headache for Apple that, if there’s a new and very inexpensive tablet alternative from Amazon, could pose a credible (although almost certainly not fatal) threat to the iPad’s marketshare. And Apple knows this

Marco Arment, founder of Instapaper in an article, Speculation on an Amazon iPad competitor

Whenever iPhone succeeds, Google succeeds, I actually don't look at it as iPhone versus Android. iPhone is a very strong driver of query growth for Google. We also monetise apps through the iPhone..we actually benefit from iPhone's growth.

Google's Asia-Pacific president Daniel Alegre to AdNews

...It looked like a weapon. It was so sharp and jagged and full of hard lines. It looked like you could cut yourself on the edges...

Unnamed person who saw an early version of Droid, quoted in a Wired Article, The Android Explosion: How Google’s Freewheeling Ecosytem Threatens the iPhone