“This is how bad things have gotten for Microsoft Corp.: The software behemoth has a virtual monopoly in computer operating systems, and yet it still can’t get people to buy the latest version of its flagship product, Windows,” Allison Linn writes for MSNBC.
“The company knows it has a problem, and it has decided to address it directly with an ad campaign arguing that the product isn’t as bad as people think it is. To their detriment, they’ve fumbled that, too,” Linn writes.
“A new campaign, called the ‘Mojave Experiment,’ shows a series of regular users who seem to like Windows Vista a lot — as long as they don’t think it’s Windows Vista,” Linn writes.
“We don’t actually see much footage of people trying Windows Vista, so we don’t know how much they actually did themselves, versus how much they were shown by an experienced marketer,” Linn writes. “We also don’t know whether the subjects were able to directly address the issues users have complained about, such as sluggishness with older or cheaper computers, or incompatibility with existing products.”
“Plus, we don’t know whether the people they show are a representative sample of the public,” Linn writes. “In short, we feel manipulated, not convinced.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike from Atlanta” for the heads up.]
$500 million for what? M$ shareholders should riot.
This ad campaign will go down as a textbook example of what not to do. Classic desperation tactics.
From the MSNBC article:
“Microsoft takes a page from movie promoters and pulls a one-liner from a long review of Vista. The company boasts that The New York Times “raved” about the operating system when it first came out, writing “Windows Vista is beautiful.”
In fact, the Times was talking about the actual physical appearance of Vista, not the compatibility issues and other problems users have complained about. The actual article’s headline reads: “Vista Wins on Looks. As for Lacks …” “
New slogan:
“Windows Vista. It doesn’t suck as bad as you think. Honest.”
Live from the back room in a mall near you:
“Hey, come here. Yeah, I’m talking to you dipshit. Now sit down and watch this convincing demonstration. Hold on. I need to reboot. I said sit down or you’ll have to return the money we gave you. O.K., now watch these Microsoft employ . . . um, I mean average people off the street enjoy the most fabulous and exciting innovations ever in computer user interfaces. I don’t think you’re paying attention. HEY! WE’VE GOT A RUNNER! CODE NINE! I REPEAT WE’VE GOT A CODE NINE! Who took my Taser?”
“Allison Linn writes for MSNBC”
I guess Allison wanted a new Job because MSNBC does not create critical Stories about Microsoft.
I fact they did use a generic iPodish looking image in the Podcast graphics. Till MS complained now the image is clearly a Zune.
Hang on. Doesn’t the MS part of MSNBC stand for MicroSoft?
PMSL. Now they are slating their own products.
I love it!!!!
This is fantastic
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Zune Tang, What’s your take on this one kid?
Awww! Demon, you beat me to it squire
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If they really wanted to make this a legitimate experiment, they should have given people a copy of “Mojave” and a camera and let them install it on their own computers and try to use it with their existing peripherals. Anything can look great in a controlled environment; Macs work well because they ARE a controlled hardware/software environment.
CYxodus, when you are in as deep a hole as they are, you have little left BUT “desperation tactics”. They introduced Vista well ahead of when Apple introduced Leopard and couldn’t get any traction against Tiger. Then along came Leopard and they STILL couldn’t get any traction. What are they supposed to do??? First thing they tried was announcing they were already working on Vista’s “replacement”. To which Apple announced that “Snow Leopard” would be essentially a “clean-up” OS, fixing a long list of annoyances and dumping PPC systems – No New Features (well, mostly). And they still can’t manufacture any traction for Vista!
This is about as deadly a response to a new product as they could ever imagine. The market was theirs to lose … so they did. What’s Apple? A niche player selling expensive models – worth every penny, perhaps, but still priced near the top of everyone else’s lines. Apple has had little traction in the larger Enterprise market, relying on sales directly to consumers. Suddenly the Enterprise is waking up to the fact that OSX=Unix and that there really is little difficulty in supporting a multi-platform house – despite what the panicky IT drones have been claiming, to maintain Job Security, for many years.
So, yeah. MS is getting desperate. They are a year or more away from any hope of regaining traction. Apple will grow by a couple more % in that time – and that’s a conservative guesstimate. Who knows what it will actually be, given the new “markets” that are opening up to them. Like Enterprise. Like some foreign markets that have been under-served until recently. Once Apple GAINS traction in these markets, the best MS can hope for is to slow their growth – forget about taking it back.
That’s just my opinion, of course.
“Allison Linn writes for MSNBC”
Update. Allison Linn polishes the plumbing with a toothbrush twelve hours a day inside the Redmond Gulag. Her family and friends were told that she was sent away to a nice family with a farm somewhere so that she could run and play and be forever happy.
“$500 million for what? M$ shareholders should riot.”
Frankly, I think that the shareholders should riot over all the $s that were sunk into Vista itself. I would imagine that $500M is just a drop in the bucket compared to that!
All of that time in the oven to produce such an underdone turkey.
Microsoft Bakery!
Half baked ideas used to trample their users like old fashioned bakers trampling a huge lump of dough!
Mr. B: “How will the dough take shape?”
SW Engineer: “I don’t know just yet, but I think we can use the Zune’s mould as a baking sheet”.
Mr. B: “Good idea! If we get them to eat a zune loaf everyday, we will be in the dough! ho! ho! hooo!!! I am too funny sometimes, Is it hot in here? I am sweating like a P**!”
SW Engineer: “Yes it is, it is all those chairs preventing the air from recycling. Do you think you could throw them out?”
Mr. B: “Throw them out? Me??? Am I good at marketing? or am I good at marketing”.
SW Engineer: “Puff! Puff!! Yes you are!”
Crash! Bang! Thud!!!
Mr. B: “Now that is what I call throwing out!” “Now if only I can convince people that Vista by any other name is not Vista…..hmmm, I wonder were I heard that quote from?”
The proof is in the pudding.
This has to be the worst $500M ever spent. Whomever approved of this campaign needs to get fired.
Forget the Mojave. How about the fact that MSNBC is doing an article about how bad Vista is!!!
That’s Fraking bad!
Hasta la vista, Vista!
Windows 7 is to be called WindowsUX when released. A M$ spokesdroid said today.
It’s pretty stunning that MS has come to this. MS started and beat their competition as bottom feeders using lies, deception and thievery to sell their wares. The industry finally got wise to their tactics, since the Dept. of Jusstiss let MS off the hook.
HD DVD died because numerous industries banded together because they didn’t want MS dictating, controlling and profiting from more of their inferior tech. The world learned from the Misery of Windows that was pawned off on everyone.
+++++++++++++++++
DLMeyer… “What’s Apple? A niche player selling expensive models – worth every penny, perhaps, but still priced near the top of everyone else’s lines.”
You’re not serious about that are you? You fell for that MS shill piece last week? Sure, you can buy some generic DOSBox™ for $299 with half the components you need missing. But, if you try to equally spec a Mac with a name brand PC, Macs usually cost about the same, if not cheaper. Plus, Apple uses better components.
Crabapple. Crabapple? Were you trying to be funny? Please stop before you hurt someone.
It’s on MSNBC so it should be propaganda but it isn’t.
Why not? Because in the comments every Paid Microsoft Troll™ has been ordered to make multiple posts praising Vista and it’s zero flaws on their computers. Oh, and they all use Macs as well but they really prefer Vista.
For every IT guy that says stick with XP, there are 2 Paid Microsoft Troll™ guys posing as IT guys saying Vista is ready for prime time now.
It’s all another screwy Microsoft ad campaign that isn’t thoroughly developed until you read the comments.
OH! You guyses crack me up. 😀
“Crabapple. Crabapple? Were you trying to be funny? Please stop before you hurt someone.”
Now, now. Be nice. It was actually pretty good for existential improv theater. Try the veal. It’s topped with capers and comes with a side of baby squash in brown butter.
from the article: “Microsoft says it polled 140 people, and most of them liked “Mojave” better than they thought they’d like Vista.”
So of these 140 people (wow, what a huge sample!) only 71 of them had to claim that they thought Mojave was better than what they ‘thought’ Vista was like. …(Speculation your honor! … Overruled!! The defense may proceed.) We don’t know ‘how much better’ they thought it was… they could have said ‘marginally better’ for all we know. We don’t know what the range of choices was for their rating scale… maybe ‘marginally better’ was the lowest score possible?
It’s hilarious that MS is conducting this poll …. not to determine whether Vista is better than a competitors product, but whether these 140 people thought it was any better at all than what they may have heard on the street and in comparison to their own (nearly) seven year old operating system, Windows XP.
Actually, we don’t even know if these 140 people even use a computer!
Check out this quote from Jim Goldman this morning on Google’s email being down last night. Love the Vista quote. Adois Mojave.
In this case, Google got itself righted in 90 minutes. Not bad. I mean, if your computer at home crashed, and you’re running Microsoft’s Vista, that’s about equal to your reboot-time. All this merely points to the potential pitfalls of Cloud Computing. Nice buzzword, lots of promise, lots of potential rewards, but certainly not without problems, too.
MS = The world’s new comparison of poor run, poorly done everything from software, Big %$# tables, and advertising.
“They introduced Vista well ahead of when Apple introduced Leopard and couldn’t get any traction against Tiger. Then along came Leopard and they STILL couldn’t get any traction. “
Unless you define “Traction” as Vista achieving 5x the entire existing Mac user base in the time it’s been on sale, you might be right. But only in your fanboy dreams.
Even with all the bad press Vista is substantially beating Apple where in counts, in the marketplace.
All the Mojave experiment points out is how a bunch of ignorant people will make up their minds about a product without having any actual experience of it. As such it should be instructive to Mac fanboys.
@: @DLDreamer
Ooo, look a little MS troll! Go back under the bridge, troll.