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For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

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Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#151

Post by rbanffy »

powertower wrote: post #127
spitfire wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The windows tablets that have been available since the 1990's were simply shit. They were simply a flat screen running windows with a pen. and that idea hasn't changed a bit since windows for pen computing in 1991. Same old windows+a pen interface, and it's absolutely horrible. It wasn't timing, it was simply that Microsoft didn't get that a tablet was something different.

The problem is that a "flat screen running windows with a pen" was the pinacle of what could be brought to market at that time by anyone. Microsoft tried.

Newton and Palm proved you could have a acerem-and-pen computer that didn't suck. It's just that Microsoft will never lauch anything that competes with Windows: they'll just graft the current fad on to of it

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#152

Post by X-Istence »

bigiain wrote: post #144
X-Istence wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They bought it well before gmail even came around. Hotmail when they bought it was running on top of FreeBSD not Solaris. Microsoft even has an entire document on how they did the migration: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb496985.aspx

Thanks for the link, 1997 &2000, eh? No wonder my recollection is so vague... I notice the article mentions "various unix Systems" then goes on to talk exclusively of the FreeBSD web front end. I still have vague (perhaps 12 year old) memories aout the actual mail storage and management being Sun kit... (mostly from the point of view of a bunch of friends who worked at Sun being outrageously amused at the ballsup of…

They used to have a migration PDF that detailed how their mail store was on FreeBSd for the backend, insofar as I can remember. It was possible that there was a mix of Sun technologies in the back.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#153

Post by jsz0 »

paulitex wrote: post #96

Does anyone else feel like the cheers of success for iCloud are a little premature? It's amazing that since it's Apple we automatically believe the "No, really I mean it this time!". Shouldn't previous performance be taken into consideration (.Mac, MobileMe)? Boy who cries cloud? Until iCloud is launched (not til the fall ), all we have is old broken promises, vapourware, and some very expensive data centres. I want…

I've been using MobileMe since it launched and, besides the initial problems, it's actually a really good service. It's the $99 price tag that doomed it to be a niche service. With iCloud being free, even if it's only as functionality as MM, it will probably be successful. Also, historically, Apple is pretty good at saying a product or service is going to do this or that and delivering on it. MobileMe does pretty much exactly what it promises to do. iCloud integration with iOS devices is working out pretty well in the beta so far. The only real question mark at this point is what iCloud.com is going to look like. I do think Apple needs to have a pretty strong web app offering to compliment the iOS/Mac integration.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#154

Post by mparr4 »

msbarnett wrote: post #138
ezy wrote: post #103

Microsoft killed their own brand. Through their own efforts, Microsoft means Office, which means corporate. Unsurprisingly, their best consumer success is only tangentially associated with their name. "Microsoft Xbox" sounds like "Accounting Bouncy-house" to most people. There's a little bit of a dissonance when you remember that, yeah, Microsoft made this game system. Even Windows, which is used by a majority of con…

The big problem I have with the "to the cloud" ads is that there's no real call to action, just a vague message that this "cloud" thing seems neat. It shows you a bunch of features under the vague branding of "Windows Live" and "The Cloud", but it's not really clear what you're supposed to buy or download to get them. Are you supposed to run out and buy one of those touch-screen desktops they're showing off to get th…

Yes. It seems that at some level, the degree of innovation is often similar and the difference between Apple and Microsoft is more a matter of design (which in my opinion is no small factor) and marketing than anything else.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#155

Post by mturmon »

marknutter wrote: post #51
recoiledsnake wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point was about non-obvious features. Lets take the Aero snap feature in Windows 7. How many would know that it is possible to drag a window to the sides and the top etc. and have it snap into place for split screen view or to maximize? Most of the people who know would be either geeks, or someone who saw someone else do it or discovered it by accident. Contrast that to Apple's features, which are demoed…

Give me a break, the only people watching these keynotes are geeks.

Anyone who presents technology to non-expert audiences can benefit from studying these presentations. They're masterful.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#156

Post by danudey »

dorian-graph wrote: post #146
ezy wrote: post #103

Microsoft killed their own brand. Through their own efforts, Microsoft means Office, which means corporate. Unsurprisingly, their best consumer success is only tangentially associated with their name. "Microsoft Xbox" sounds like "Accounting Bouncy-house" to most people. There's a little bit of a dissonance when you remember that, yeah, Microsoft made this game system. Even Windows, which is used by a majority of con…

Well, if they killed their brand they're now resurrecting it. Who does not know of the Xbox? What average family does not want Office on their PC/Mac? Look at the success of Windows7.. and so on..

Everyone knows of the XBox, but almost no one thinks of it as the 'Microsoft XBox'. The only brand they're helping there is the XBox brand, not the Microsoft brand.

Average families that don't want Office? Any of them with a Mac. iWork is cheaper, integrates better, and is generally easy to use, plus the templates are much nicer. For the 99% of people who use 1% of Office's features, iWork is more than 'good enough', it's 'much better'.

Windows 7 was a success because Vista was junk and XP is ten years old and showing its age. It's a good OS, but people are buying it because XP just isn't good enough anymore and it's Windows 7 or Mac OS X.

Microsoft's brand is hurting because they don't have a cohesive strategy for the things they do. They've launched two separate mobile phone platforms in the last few years; one of which was cancelled almost immediately after launch, and the other, while extremely promising, is floundering in the market so far.

Microsoft needs serious top-down leadership, not middle-outwards leadership, and until they get that, their brand is going to continue to suffer.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#157

Post by danudey »

dorian-graph wrote: post #148
forensic wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing wrong with MobileMe or .Mac (they both have bad names -- thats the biggest issue) They weren't huge sweeping successes because they didn't have enough features and cost a LOT. But the features they did have worked well. MobileMe was just .Mac rebranded with more features. iCloud is just MobileMe rebranded with more features. Apple is smart for recognizing when they need to rebrand for communication fa…

Steve Jobs apparently thinks (Or thought) there was something wrong with them.

There was, at launch - they were terrible, didn't work properly, had a ton of downtime, etc. It got a reputation for being a slow, useless, unreliable service, and while the service got much better (I've been using it almost since its inception), its reputation never truly recovered.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#158

Post by danudey »

JunkDNA wrote: post #79

The problem for Microsoft is that they continue to serve two masters: consumer users and corporate users. Corporate IT shops, especially within certain industries, can be exceptionally wary of anything that moves data outside their walls. Consumers are in general not nearly so picky. Corporations are MS's biggest customers and for years have had considerable influence on product direction. It's just not in Microsoft'…

It seems to me that, if Apple so desired, they could make a fair bit of money selling a 'private iCloud' service to companies looking to incorporate iPhones and iPads into their infrastructure in a big way. In the same way companies can set up their own BES server to provide in-house management of their data, the ability to set up an in-house iCloud server, to back up their employees' documents, data, settings, etc., as well as 'find my iPhone', distribute out custom books (e.g. corporate training documents, procedures, forms, manuals, etc.), and in-house apps, could be very appealing to a lot of companies.

I'm sure Apple's considered it, but I doubt they see enough of a market in the product to bother packaging it up and selling it. It's obvious that they're not incredibly interested in the server or high-end enterprise market, and they're perfectly content to let their Activesync integration carry them for now.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#159

Post by erickt »

biturd wrote: post #134
jolan wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> vapourware There's a beta. Register and download it.

How exactly do I get this beta? I have tried, updated iTunes and my iPhone, but see nothing. Do I need iOS5 to be able to use it, which I would need a developer account to get access to?

10.3 should work. Go to the Preferences, then Store, and select Automatic Downloads for Music/Apps/Books. Also, you can go to the Apple Store and under Quick Links, you'll find a Purchased link. That'll let you re-download any Music/Apps/Books. It's not really cloud-y yet, but it's a start.

Re: For Google, iCloud Is Annoying; For Microsoft, It's A Humiliation

#160

Post by theatrus2 »

biturd wrote: post #134
jolan wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> vapourware There's a beta. Register and download it.

How exactly do I get this beta? I have tried, updated iTunes and my iPhone, but see nothing. Do I need iOS5 to be able to use it, which I would need a developer account to get access to?

Yes and yes.
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