“‘We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows. That is our bold goal with Windows.’ So spoke Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the outset of his brief speech at the Windows 10 coming out party on Wednesday,”Pressman reportsAaron Pressman reports for Yahoo Finance. “And while the software looks sharp and includes a bunch of useful, new features, Nadella’s emotional pitch sounded a lot more like his wrong-way predecessor, Steve Ballmer, than the savvy newcomer who took over last year.”
“And it wasn’t just seeking the love – Nadella also sounded like he was reviving Ballmer’s strategy to focus on improving and protecting Windows as the top priority, even as the world has moved on to more mobile and Internet cloud-based platforms,” Pressman reports. “‘Simply put, Windows is the best place, it’s the home for the very best Microsoft experiences,’ he declared. ‘There’s nothing subtle about this strategy. It’s a practical approach, which is customer first. We want to give ourselves the best opportunity to serve our customers everywhere and give ourselves the best chance of helping customers find Windows as their home. That’s what we plan to do.'”
“Ballmer’s big mistake was focusing too much love and attention on Windows. Ballmer was also known for his deep, perhaps even excessive, devotion to Windows and Microsoft, whether getting worked up on stage, shouting at developers, criticizing competitors or forbidding his kids from owning iPods,” Pressman reports. “Nadella seemed to mark a sharp break from Ballmer’s Windows obsession. Last March, at his first-ever product unveiling, Nadella started off the demonstration not with a Windows laptop or Surface tablet but with an Apple iPad. Here, finally, years late, was Office for the iPad… Now investors will have to monitor Nadella’s next steps very carefully.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last year, just before Nadella was officially named Microsoft CEO:
It’s tough, if not impossible, to deliver the type of change Microsoft needs when you’re a lifer. 🙂
It’s not the man, it’s the chair. The chair rules the company.
That likely means that the Ballmer-throwing-the-chair episode was his last-ditch effort to retain his sanity against the creeping mental influence of The Chair. Sad.
Be afraid, Nadella. Be very afraid.
At my wife’s office, they have the pregnancy chair. She’s been there for more than 10 years, and that chair is pretty darn consistent.
They should really wash all that sem** out of that chair…
“But the Chair is not my son!”
All hail the Chair.
The Chair! Sounds like a good horror flick. 😱
I will let my Hollywood buddy know, time to stop writing about Chucky and start working on the chair.
May I be the first to declare my unflinching loyalty to our new chair overlords.
The NIGHT of the ChAiR!
The DAWN of the cHaiR!
The DAY of the CHaiR!
It has sequels. I.E. Hollyweird will love it.
What’s really crazy about Nadella’s speech was the mimicking of Tim Cook’s keynotes. Tim comes out and reviews important bullet points, then frames them in the larger context of what Apple is accomplishing and how that conforms to the soul of Apple. Nadella’s can lift entire concepts for his speech, but the core driving MS can’t seem to be as focused as Apple’s.
Even if Nadella had Berry White playing in the background it ain’t going to happen.
There must be something in the water at the Microsoft Executive Suite.
Judging by the reaction after yesterday’s keynote, they’re definitely getting much love
> We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows…
That’s the problem right there. People don’t “need” Windows anymore, so Microsoft can’t even get started… 😉
People who have had to put up with 2 decades of Windows who are in positions of leadership don’t buy “loving Windows.”
Satya Nadella gives Windows 10 gratis – but only for a year – yet expects love in return. Considering that he’s the same guy whose stand on equal pay was to let the system work for women, this puzzling detachment from reality is pretty consistent. That’s Microsoft for you.
Ah, but there is a catch Nadella didn’t mention.
If you have a Surface, it is effectively EOL’d for Win10 or Zuned shall we say.
Microshaft will NEVER RECOVER from having Balmer… The likelihood of Mr. Nadella EVER getting out of ‘hangover’ mode in the customer base and that lingering knowledge of folks that have been un-fortunate enough to have worked with Microshaft, who are continuily beaming hatred toward ANYTHING Microshaft. They are mostly pulling for Nadella to fail and Balmer’s legacy to turn to dust.
Even Paul Thurott has left the Windows fold. He has left the in the bag camp for a more generic Technology blog of his own.
“We don’t want you to feel forced to work in the cotton fields, we want you to LOVE working in the cotton fields!”
As an MCSE, I never felt the love. I felt a hand in my pocket and taking everything I had as I desperately tried to help “Lusers”. The real help came when they were convince to go Mac instead of pouring more money down the rathole.
Feel the love? NOT!
What’s to love? Oh, maybe a job in cyber-security taking care of virii, trojans, worms, boiler-room-like server farms that require constant attention and a short life span as an IT puke. Yeah, feel the love…
Again, NO!
I don’t love the tool. I like what it can do for me. DOS doesn’t do it for me.”WIN10″ won’t either. (AGAIN, TRYING TO IMITATE THE MAC!
Time for Apple to change the Mac OS moniker. Too many wannabees.
People who love people, don’t use Windoze! Windoze 10. The new social disease! 🙂
The odd thing is… I do love Windows; my left hand desktop is Pro7 and my right hand is a Mac. They complement each other beautifully. Maybe one day it will dawn on these guys that when you have a winning horse you don’t need to go hard sell at every turn of the screw. Looking comfortably relaxed in your chaise lounge and not saying all that much can add that glamorous sheen of rarefied air.
“Looking comfortably relaxed in your chaise lounge and not saying all that much can add that glamorous sheen of rarefied air.”
That’s what Apple are doing with iPhones. Rivals are shouting from the rooftops about what they see as the drawbacks with iPhones, but Apple just gets on with the job of developing increasingly sophisticated 64 bit processors which are running rings around their rivals.
Apple is enjoying the rarified air, while at the same time sucking the oxygen out of the mobile smartphone chip business, with rivals having to spend more and more money trying to catch up with Apple, while simultaneously facing lower sales to cover those development costs.
Nadella is absolutely right, Microsoft do need to make their customers love Windows.
It’s not something that you can fake. Having a crowd of loyal Microsoft supporters whooping and hollering loudly, or friendly bloggers waxing lyrical in response to any new product announcement might give the impression that some people love it, but the only love that matters has to come unprompted from real customers.
He knows what he needs to achieve. It’s now up to Microsoft to deliver a product that genuinely deserves such love.
Bad Love:
Ballmer’s big mistake was focusing too much love and attention on Windows
Thus Windows 8. IOW Ballmer had major STDs.