The CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Sings the Marseillaise

We have the French journalist David Abiker to thank for this bizarre scene. It was recently confirmed that Steve Ballmer was in Paris last week to announce the launch of Windows Phone 7. In France, there will be four phones equipped with the new operating system: the LG Optimus 7, Samsung Omnia 7, HTC Mozart 7 and the Trophy 7 (is the number seven Microsoft’s lucky number?) The products will be on sale beginning October 21 with prices varying from 29 euros to 149 euros, depending on fixed rates set by Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom.

And yet, on October 7, when the CEO of Microsoft went to visit French Headquarters in Issy-Les-Moulineaux, Microsoft had the great idea of organising a competition for mobile applications, where French start-up companies had to present their ideas in a format reminiscent of a TV talent show. The members of the board, who encounter project development in their day-to-day careers, then had to say whether they liked the idea by sounding with a green or red button.

Xavier Niel (Free), Marc Simoncini (Meetic, Jaïna), Jacques-Antoine Grangeon (vente-privee.com), Bruno Vanryb (Avanquest), Pierre-Olivier Carles (Kipost, Labotec), Jean-Marie Culpin (Orange) and Julien Codorniou (Microsoft) all took part, as well as Steve Ballmer, who was in better form than ever. At the end of every presentation, remarkably he would say his battle cry, “Windows, Windows, Windows.”

So what did David Abiker do? After leaving the stage, when all of the members of the jury were together for the farewell photo with the winners — who devised a brilliant mobile game called Arcane’s Tower Defense — the presenter shouted out: “What if we sing the Marseillaise?” At which point Abiker sung the French anthem, raising Ballmer’s fist to the sky, laughing. This last, wonderful act remained on the stage until the end of the song.