Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was recently interviewed by David Lieberman of USA today where they discussed many different topics, including the iPhone.

It’s interesting how the CEO of Microsoft loves to manipulate numbers and facts. When asked if he would want his customers to get as passionate about MS products as people do about the iPod and iPhone he spouts this off: “It’s sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.”

That seems like a reasonable argument right? Were he talking about PC marketshare maybe, but I’m pretty sure that their Zune doesn’t grab 96% of the market. Something tells me that if the Zune were trouncing the iPod that badly we would have heard about it.

When specifically talking about the iPhone he states that “there’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance” and “I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.”

There he goes spouting off more numbers, only now I don’t know where he’s getting them from. Last time I checked Microsoft didn’t have 60-80% of the market share in the phone world. But it’s good to see that he’s optimistic about the success of the iPhone. Steve Jobs was only aiming at 1% of the market, but Ballmer thinks that he can snag 2-3%. If Steve Ballmer thinks they can do it, then it must be so.

Microsoft’s Ballmer: ‘No chance Apple iPhone is going to get any significant market share’ [via macdailynews]