I liked it a lot, except for the "promise made, promise kept" by-line.
The Next Microsoft
181–190 of 355 posts
Re: The Next Microsoft
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody cares what HN thinks.
... Then what are you doing in these here comments?
People don't care what hacker/nerd types think because of things like this comment. Insisting on a pedantic interpretation of a comment, whose meaning should be obvious, suggests an inability to tolerate even minor variances from a desired ideal. This is typical of the engineer's mindset -- everything which doesn't conform to an archetype or classification system is flawed or contradictory.
I'm reading these comments because occasionaly I find something interesting. I would never conclude that something either has or lacks value based on the sentiments expressed by HN commenters, which was the point of my response.
Re: The Next Microsoft
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an interesting perspective that I'd never considered before. If you're right, and you sound it, then Microsoft clearly has an internal struggle. Metro is all about simple. It's fast, it's fluid, it's simple, it's "alive with activity". But it's not complex, packed with features. This is the image Microsoft wants to present to consumers. On the other hand, Microsoft's Business division is all about things packe…
Microsoft largely resolves this conflict in a way that works for consumers but not for tech pundits: they bring the same B2B customer service principles to their consumer product support channels (e.g. three years of Xbox repairs for the red-ring of death - on a 90 day warranty no less). Keep in mind that Metro is exactly what enterprise wants. Just listen to the good people at 37signals.
Could you give us a link to what the good people at 37signals have to say?
Re: The Next Microsoft
#184Dear everybody, Are you paying attention? This is how you build a portfolio. Did microsoft ask this person to do this? No. But he did it, and it's brilliant, and now he can put it in his portfolio under "speculative work". And then he gets a job doing this. I can't tell you how many people I talk to (I live in a college town, and frequently go to bars and strike up conversations with people) who just finished, or are…
Any ideas how to promote this kind of initiative in students?
Are you allowed to give your students assignments that involve redesigning existing brands?
I did not go to school for design, so I really have no idea if this is allowed, but what would happen if you told the students that their assignment was to create an ad for Nike?
I'd jump at something like that.
Re: The Next Microsoft
#185This reminds me of Nike branding, which is very powerful.
Re: The Next Microsoft
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used the think the same thing, but it's not clear to me that Microsoft "needs" saving. They're growing the enterprise side of their business quite fast and the problem just seems to be that investors expect them to be the next Apple, whereas Ballmer is turning them into the next IBM. They'll still make boatloads of money on the enterprise side and that'll be enough to keep them floating for decades to come, so I co…
If Ballmer was aiming for the next IBM, he'd have spun off Windows Phone as IBM sold off its PC business. They wouldn't be buying companies and pouring resources into it and pissing off the OEMs by pouring resources into Surface. And if they were just shooting for Enterprise++, keeping Windows Phone and Surface to keep enterprise device sales under their umbrella, they'd be spinning off the XBox and consumer media pr…
Isn't Microsoft more profitable than IBM?
Re: The Next Microsoft
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
But why should i even care about an advertising campaign , when i can look at youtube videos, reviews, and ask my friends about microsoft's products ? if microsoft's product is cool enough, or solves some specific problem i've got, i'll probably hear about it.
YouTube videos and reviews (online or not) are mostly just astro-turfed advertising campaigns. You and your friends are likely influenced by either of these things on both a conscious and subconscious level, which then feeds back into the advertising campaign (this works in both a negative and positive sense). [Edit: this is how the "cool" that you mention gets created. I highly suggest watching a PBS documentary cal…
If you filter reviews, videos and comments and dig in a bit you can get a balanced view of a product.
Yes, ads do influence people somewhat, but the influence is not that big , unless it's supported by a product that can support the imaginary world of the ad.
So brand design is much more than ad design, you have to design every part of your offer to support this illusion.
Re: The Next Microsoft
#188I think the new logo has a very interesting effect, that is according to me though. It's asymmetric yet simple. Where Apple's logo and most logo's can be perfectly centered this one doesn't. I think that's mainly because it looks "italic". I also wonder if this logo follows on certain points the golden ratio, but than again it's soo simple it shouldn't. Lastly, if you'd place this logo on varia devices they would eve…
That forward slant is a very well known design paradigm. Take a look at Deutsche Bank's logo - for example: https://www.db.com/index_e.htm
I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out that the slash in the wrong direction. Or am I just a frazzled old MS-DOS programmer?
Re: The Next Microsoft
#189I was into it, until I saw it running on the boring, generic hardware.
The reason Apple's products are so inspirational, so meaningful, and so timeless is because from the moment you see the computer, before it even turns on, you're entranced.
Apple knows that the experience of using a product starts right from the moment a person sees it, and they've made that part of their mission. Yes, ownership of everything from the hardware to the software is inevitably part of that, but in my mind, it's what makes Apple work from boot-up to shutdown.
Re: The Next Microsoft
#190Having the company name start with a lowercase letter always seems "weak" to me.