Speaking to an exclusive gathering of press in London on a number of issues, such as security, Steve Ballmer didn't pass up the opportunity to take several digs at his company's arch rival Apple.

Billing Microsoft as the good guys and Apple the villains of the piece - at least as far as corporate America, rather than users, is concerned, Ballmer said: "We’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'."

The story got picked up on a number of Mac sites and geek news portal Slashdot.org and within hours had gone truly stellar. Within 24 hours, Ballmer's words were coming back to haunt him.

On the Dutch leg of his European tour he was asked to explain those views, as expressed in the silicon.com story. It was a question he had perhaps been expecting and was obviously aware of the backlash his words had evoked. However, his exact remarks had clearly, conveniently slipped his mind.

"I don't know what I said exactly, but it was bad," said Ballmer, drawing out the last word - "baaaaaad" - for added emphasis, according to Lars Pasveer, a journalist from ZDNet Netherlands.

Just how "bad" it was can be seen from the nature of the reader comments - a record number - posted in reaction to the story.

One reader wrote: "Such a shame Ballmer has to resort to such stabs at Apple. 'Stolen music' indeed. Yes, all those iPod owners with their fair use encodes of the actual CDs that they own, and their purchases of music from iTunes. Where exactly are his figures showing that most of the music on iPods is stolen anyway?"

"While I'm sure there are music thieves using every brand of portable music player, as an iPod owner and one who only has legally purchased the music on it, I take offence at Ballmer's comments and find them childish," wrote another, adding that it was "a poorly thought-out dig at the iPod's success".

Others took a more sardonic view. "Nice bit of promotion that, if you want people to buy your hardware instead of an iPod, insult the customer and brand him a thief," wrote another reader.