“As I watched a TV ad for the Microsoft Surface 3 tablet/notebook, intended to compete with the MacBook Air, I was troubled by the lame attempt to draw important differences between the two,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “While an Apple spot will focus on lifestyle and the things you can accomplish with a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, Microsoft is hoping a logical appeal, however tenuous, will turn the tide and boost tepid Surface 3 sales.”
“I also recall the first Surface ads, where a single person setting up the tablet was soon surrounded by jumping, dancing, prancing fools with noisy music, evidently hoping your senses would be so overwhelmed that you’d become the fool to buy the thing,” Steinberg writes. “The current Surface ads tout such debatable advantages as the presence of a touchscreen and a stylus when compared to the MacBook Air. At the same time, Microsoft’s contender requires an add-on to get the physical keyboard, and convertible notebooks, those serving both notebook and tablet functions, haven’t done so well in the Windows PC world. Worse, a Surface 3 costs more than any comparable MacBook Air and, in fact, can be optioned up to the point where the price matches some configurations of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.”
Steinberg writes, “Evidently Microsoft still doesn’t get it, and it recalls the statement from Steve Jobs so long ago that the company doesn’t have any taste.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote of Microsoft’s latest CEO, Satya Nadella, back in January:
It’s tough, if not impossible, to deliver the type of change Microsoft needs when you’re a lifer.
And, as we wrote back in February:
Satya Nadella is the wrong choice for Microsoft CEO. 🙂
Related articles:
Beleaguered Microsoft’s moribund Windows Phone suffers shipment decline – August 18, 2014
Microsoft’s Windows Store is a cesspool of scams – August 18, 2014
Microsoft’s Xbox One has lost $400 million so far – August 11, 2014
Bill Gates unloads another 20 million Microsoft shares for $882 million – August 5, 2014
Surface damage mounts at beleaguered Microsoft as losses surpass $1.7 billion – August 4, 2014
Beleaguered Microsoft’s Windows 8’s uptake falls again, now slower than Vista flop – August 4, 2014
Beleaguered Microsoft employees ‘shell shocked’ at size of layoffs – July 18, 2014
Beleaguered Microsoft’s 18,000 layoffs the beginning of a painful attempt to clean up Ballmer’s mess, says Street – July 17, 2014
“No taste”; ’nuff said!
No haste, Microsoft. Take all the time you need to get it right. Yeah, no rush here…
M$ should pour a bucket ice water over it’s head and call out Blackberry.
Sorry to be the messenger, but M$ has been replaced by M¢.
Satya Nadella I is the right choice for Microsoft to take Mikey Dell’s advice:
Shut the whole thing down and give the shareholders their money back.
MS is too big to manage.
Shutting down MS would mean breaking it up into divisions and then spin them off as public companies with their own CEOs to set their future courses.
Is it possible they still don’t see the iceberg?
No, they’re sticking with “God Himself couldn’t sink this company!”
‘Satya Nadella is the wrong choice for Microsoft CEO. :-)’
Shhhhh….
Dear Microsoft,
Here’s my great idea, freely given for your consideration:
I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.
Oh, OK. I plagiarized. It’s really iBob’s idea!
No it was Mikey’s idea.
You’re faster than me.
😉
It’s okay. I seem to recall having seen that quote somewhere before iBob used it. 😉
Satya Nadella is the wrong choice for Microsoft CEO…
…but the right choice for Apple. 🙂
Don’t forget to use my category name for the Surface!
The FlopBook!
Or “NopeBook”
That’s a three-pointer!
I propose the Microsoft Dooface
Not only does Microsoft have no taste, they have no class. Negative advertising is all they have, because there’s certainly nothing positive about them or their products.
The ad is brilliant. I mean, if it actually sells a single Surface.
I love how MDN adds “beleaguered” to every story about Microsoft. After all the years of Apple living under the “beleaguered” label, I’m happy to see it happening to Microsoft now. They deserve to be beleaguered. Steve Jobs was right about them. They actually make great enterprise products (for the most part), but their consumer and professional products suck.
I think they should bundle it with a copy of Windoze 8, and a Windoze phone. Imagine bundling 3 loser products together!!! Wha a great incentive to buy! I just keep on coming up with great ideas for the M$ marketing guys. Why can’t they think of these things?! 😊
M$ does have a strategy:
Mainly
Insanely
Corrupt
Ridiculously
Obtuse
Software
Obfuscated &
Functionally
Terrible
😊