What other term do you use to describe his failure to see modern smartphones coming, even after Apple waved one under his nose?
That said, while I've often been critical of Ballmer, I've been reconsidering my attitude towards him now that I've seen the aggressively-invasive direction in which Satya Nadella is taking Windows. Under Ballmer's leadership, Windows 7 never popped up unsolicited ads for Metro on the toolbar, much less ads that I couldn't turn off.
By that measure Dr. Chris Barnard is mediocre, for supposedly performing ~50 heart transplants on dogs. Similarly Nelson Mandela would qualify for his role in founding and leading a militant wing of the ANC. One fact, error, moment or even period do not a mediocre person make.
My only context with Nelson Mandela would be his autobiography, but founding the militant wing of the ANC seemed fairly reasonable from that perspective. Just about all forms of peaceful protest were cut off from the ANC and the ANC it's self was criminalized and attacked.
Few people criticize the deceleration of independence and the subsequent revolutionary war, but unfortunately sometimes in history violence was the only reasonable option.
I think Microsoft saw smartphones coming for a while. See for example "Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone." That said their offerings were not very good but that's another matter.
