CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand • Hacker News Board

Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand

#151

Post by Tyrannosaurs » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 10:00 AM UTC

contextfree wrote: post #60

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst mistake they could make is to kill it the way they killed the Zune. They're never going to launch a day one, version one product which will displace the iPhone or Android, it's going to take time and investment. The real target should be that they've got 25%+ market share in three years time. That should be what they're aiming for rather than a success this year. People replace phones every 12 - 24 months a…

They didn't kill the Zune. WP7 is basically a superset of Zune - same service for music/video, same client software, (evolution/derivative of the) same UI. There're rumored to be phoneless WP7s in the works too.

Fair enough, kill was probably the wrong word but they seemed to lose interest in the Zune as it's own entity.

But it was actually a pretty good and if they'd stuck at it I get the impression it could have done better than it did. Perhaps it will revive with WP7 (though I see the software is still under development which is good).

Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand

#152

Post by simonsquiff » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 12:25 PM UTC

johnohara wrote: post #56

As one of the largest software developers on the planet, MS has access to more cool stuff than anyone can imagine. With all that cash, I'm sure it comes across they're radar all the time -- and they do make purchases and investments. The problem is the minute they implement new technology it gets some committee-driven marketing name that's so completely disconnected from what it does that it takes million$ to explain…

Their old names were great.

Word, Office, Windows, Outlook - all great names.

Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand

#153

Post by Yaggo » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 12:50 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #75

cryptoz wrote: post #3

I 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…

> As a user of IE, I actually have a better experience with IE than I do with Chrome --

Guess how much extra work it has required from the web developers.

> -- it is based on the worlds most popular web browsing engine

The fact that IE ships with every Windows PC makes it the most used browser, definitely, but not "most popular web browsing engine". Browser engines are used by browsers (or developers), not by end-users, and by that definition I would call WebKit the most popular engine.

Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand

#154

Post by known » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 4:04 PM UTC

oiuhjygtfghjnmk wrote: post #113

known wrote: post #99

Why IBM, Cisco, Intel are not rolling out smart phones?

Same reason they aren't building cars or aeroplanes.

Why IBM, Cisco, Intel are not building smart phones AND cars or aeroplanes?

Re: CNN Money: Microsoft is a Dying Consumer Brand

#155

Post by face » Thu, Oct 28, 2010, 11:09 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #129

simonw wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 some…

I've never had those problems that you mention with Chrome or Firefox. On the other hand, I've had a lot of fun cleaning up Vundo and other malware due to the use of IE.