I would actually argue that Microsoft has actually become a more consumer-oriented company over time. Xbox was only released 9 years ago and the Zune was only released 4 years ago. Prior to that, what was Microsoft's consumer focus? Their primary products, Windows and Office, have traditionally focused on selling to businesses (OEMs, VARs, etc). The majority of consumers do not go out and purchase Windows directly -- it is included on their computer.
CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
121–130 of 155 posts
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
you can't have a modern Web experience using only Microsoft products How soon we forget! There would be no AJAX today had Microsoft not introduced XMLHttpRequest to make Outlook Web Access work...
Yes there would. You could do "ajax" style communication using tags in Netscape 4 even before IE4 came out.
But no-one was.
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#123I firmly believe that most of Microsoft's failings in the consumer market come from their fear of the World Wide Web. Microsoft does everything they can to hide their users from the real power of the web, since everyone - including Microsoft - knows that a ubiquitous Web means fewer sales of Windows and Office. Their logic in locking users to Windows-based experiences is old, tired, and not going to work anymore. Peo…
IE is actually not so bad at the web. At least not for the end user (argument about stifling development and innovation aside). As a user of IE, I actually have a better experience with IE than I do with Chrome w/ the sole exception being performance. I'm sure there are sites that don't work on IE, but honestly the only ones I've ever seen are those posted here on HN :-) With that said, everything I've heard from peo…
Any chance you could expand on what makes you prefer the experience of using IE over Chrome?
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#124[deleted]
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
The message I got from the ad is that Windows Phone 7 would allow you to see if you had any updates on the homescreen itself, obviating the need for fiddling with the phone for a long time to access the same information.
That is the fundamental and sad misunderstanding of this ad. People don't fiddle with their phones while walking because the phones are hard to use. They fiddle because the phone is fun and addicting. There's no desire for a phone that lets you get in and out quickly. On the contrary. If they could come up with a phone that lets you be online all the time without walking into things, they'd have a huge winner.
For some reason I find myself reminded of the whole RIM Playbook "coping with family" faux pas. It is almost as if WP7 were being promoted on the basis of selecting a phone based on wanting to avoid something: in the WP7 case, avoiding using the phone, in the Playbook case, avoiding your family. Both show a disconnect with reality and neither bode particularly well for the companies involved.
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I would think that the real problem is Microsoft's unwillingness to become something completely new, something other than Windows and Office." Inability, perhaps. Unwillingness? You're out of your mind. Microsoft has had their fingers in smartphones, music players, search engines, touch computing, web mail, [you name it] for YEARS. And they are not just dabbling... they have poured billions into these areas, trying…
I agree with you, but I fear that the internal politics with Microsoft have been absolutely stifling! Let's take smartphones for instance - look at the Kin. From all reports, killed b/c of politics, in favor of Windows 7. Why not have both and see what the market decides? The Courier. Killed - who knows why? Most likely politics. Microsoft has so many innovative ideas that we see in Research - but we never see them i…
> Why not have both and see what the market decides?
Kin was killed after six weeks, the market decided it was crap and only a couple were sold. Actually not so much that the Kin itself is bad, but carriers weren't enthusiastic enough, and Microsoft had marketing problems for a product that would battle WP7 6 months later.
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I would think that the real problem is Microsoft's unwillingness to become something completely new, something other than Windows and Office." Inability, perhaps. Unwillingness? You're out of your mind. Microsoft has had their fingers in smartphones, music players, search engines, touch computing, web mail, [you name it] for YEARS. And they are not just dabbling... they have poured billions into these areas, trying…
Xbox was their last big success in entering a new market. That's just under a decade ago. The problem is that they have a sucky innovation model. They find something that's already successful, throw money at making a slightly better version (or whatever they can convince themselves is a slightly better version). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It worked when they copied the Macintosh to make Windows. It wor…
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Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#128[deleted]
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
IE is actually not so bad at the web. At least not for the end user (argument about stifling development and innovation aside). As a user of IE, I actually have a better experience with IE than I do with Chrome w/ the sole exception being performance. I'm sure there are sites that don't work on IE, but honestly the only ones I've ever seen are those posted here on HN :-) With that said, everything I've heard from peo…
Any chance you could expand on what makes you prefer the experience of using IE over Chrome?
With Chrome I occassionally run into problems. For example, there was a time when I couldn't get my Amazon cart to work with Chrome. I popped open IE and it just worked. My bank used to not work with Chrome, but now does. I recently had a site where the links in the sidebar weren't clickable, but I know I had clicked them before. Went to IE and it worked.
Printing is also really hit or miss. Weird font sizes, or sometimes blank areas. Not browsing proper, but still worth mentioning.
Admittedly this doesn't happen often, but enough for me to notice.
Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand
#130I firmly believe that most of Microsoft's failings in the consumer market come from their fear of the World Wide Web. Microsoft does everything they can to hide their users from the real power of the web, since everyone - including Microsoft - knows that a ubiquitous Web means fewer sales of Windows and Office. Their logic in locking users to Windows-based experiences is old, tired, and not going to work anymore. Peo…
you can't have a modern Web experience using only Microsoft products How soon we forget! There would be no AJAX today had Microsoft not introduced XMLHttpRequest to make Outlook Web Access work...
There would be no AJAX today had Microsoft
I was loading AJAX data into hidden s in Navigator 4 using a JSON-like hack in 1998. It worked just fine.