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Microsoft tries to reclaim Windows' image
It's been about 18 hours since Microsoft started running its Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad and the negative comments continue to pour in.
But Microsoft's Brad Brooks looks at it this way: Even if people aren't talking kindly about the new Windows ad, at least people are talking about Windows.
"It's got a lot of people talking and that's exactly what we wanted," said Brooks, Microsoft's vice president of consumer marketing for Windows. For too long, he said, Microsoft has been silent. And as a result, the only dialogue has come from competitors, namely Apple.
Brooks acknowledges it will take more than just ads to improve Windows' image. The key, he said, are the substantive changes the company is making, such as trying to improve the experience for buying Windows PCs as well as getting machines up and running. Here, Microsoft appears to be taking a page or two from Apple's playbook.
Microsoft has set up this "retail experience center" at its Redmond HQ as a means to learn more about how people shop for Windows PCs.
(Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft is setting up store-within-a-store locations at major retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy, a concept that Apple employed at both Best Buy and CompUSA. Microsoft is also hiring between 100 and 200 "Windows Gurus"--Microsoft employees that will be positioned at retail stores to help customers learn more about the operating system. Like Apple's Geniuses, Windows Gurus won't be paid commissions. Instead, Brooks said, they will be compensated in large part based on customer satisfaction.
The software maker also has a new engineering team that Brooks said is working "hand in glove" with computer makers to reduce the time it takes Windows PCs to boot, wake from sleep and to initially get up and running out of the box. Systems that have gone through Microsoft's new process will start showing up this fall from all the major computer makers and get highlighted on Microsoft's Web site. Microsoft considered having some sort of logo to highlight the machines that got the extra attention, but opted against such a move, Brooks said. The company has also revamped its Windows.com site.
Microsoft's efforts come at a critical time for the software maker. It has seen its still-dominant market share slip amid strong gains by Apple. At the same time, the ever increasing power of Web applications has increased the threat from Linux-based machines, seen most poignantly with the appeal of cheap, low-end portable computers like Asus' Eee PC.
On the advertising front, Brooks said Microsoft's pitches will start to get more concrete in about a month, centering on the notion that "Windows stands for living on your own terms."
Although the ads are unlikely to mention Apple by name, they will target some of the Mac's limitations and highlight the breadth and choice that Windows allows.
"You decide what color of PC you are going to have," Brooks said. "You decide what services you are going to use. That was the vision that we had behind our entire model over two decades ago."
As for the rationale behind the teaser ad, Brooks said it would have been a mistake, after being silent for so long, for Microsoft to have just come out swinging with a bunch of shop talk.
"We don't get to come in after being silent in the marketplace for so long and just start saying, hey, here's what Windows is, and here's what it stands for, and here's the specific products we want you to try."
If you want more from CNET News' Ina Fried, check out her Twitter feed at twitter.com/inafried.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
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Beige, black, gray, off-black, off-beige, gray-black, beige-gray...
Oh wait... you can do that with ANY machine. Maybe people DO buy a machine based on what they can get done with it. Sure Ipods and apples are pretty, but if they functioned like a brick, they still would only sell to the fanatics. The problem is that MS has sucked so bad that normal people are booting up Linux or going to Apple.
Not quite perfectly relevant, but... given that my Hackintosh looks nothing like an Apple product, and further given that the internals are built exactly to my specifications, I'd say that I get all the superficial customization I could ever want with the thing (and not just a little internal customization as well...) ;)
See also http://osxx86.org
Make a better product and let word of mouth be your saving grace. Microsoft will be out of business if Windows 7 is a bust. I think it is dead now but they are a huge company and will last a little while.
I guess it is time for the Microsoft fanboys to speak up their dear product Windows and IE and Office and Windows Live and the Zune are looming disasters. How many products can a company destroy in 1 year
Apple went from 2-3%, to ~10% of the overall PC marketshare in less than 7 years... 4% of that gain was in the last year alone. The curve (for them) only seems to be climbing upward. In 2000, Microsoft owned 95% of the desktop Market. Now, I suspect they have just over 80% or so, and dropping.
Desperate? IMHO, not yet - if they were, they'd actually do more than chalk it up to "bad PR" as the reason why the whole planet turned its collective nose up at Vista. If they were desperate, they'd actually do something --anything-- to reverse their losses, instead of mere talk and the occasional creative accounting to claim a bigger share than they actually have.
I figure that once Apple gets to 15-20% (call it by Q1/Q2 of 2010), Microsoft will finally start doing something at the code and sales level about their overall and growing predicament... if they can actually do so by then.
Right now, corporations can get by on keeping XP around, especially larger ones that have monster support contracts that guarantee patches and etc. But by 2010, those corporations are going to have two choices:
1) Windows 7 should be out by then... maybe it'll actually do what Vista couldn't?
2) Linux and/or OSX, where applicable. By then OSX should have enough enterprise features to make it compelling, and Linux (at the corp workstation) generally user-friendly enough to make it compelling.
Thing is, Microsoft really doesn't have as much time as it would first appear. Businesses will start evaluating "what next after XP?" by next year at the earliest, and already the larger ones are running trials with OSX and Linux as potential alternatives.
If MSFT screws up Windows 7 as bad as they did Vista, they stand to lose a lot more than just a little face.
Try again with useful interaction and thoughts.
I guess i expected more, but i am comparing it against all the apple ads.
Guess i wasn't comparing apples to apples
I see MS now has Windows Gurus good to see they will be helping customers, maybe even stopping a few from dumping vista and getting a mac.
Only time will tell
Uh, I see three comments here. What a flood. Could we see a reference or some proof of that claim?
That reminds me, I miss the Chicken Little mini sandwiches that KFC had back in the early 90's. I don't like the chicken sandwiches they have now. We should all demand they stop production and sales of all other products until they offer what I want only.
Now if you honestly believe any of that, then you need to get your head out of the sand and wake up to the real world.
As for the rest? Well, your post here explains perfectly why so many folks are buying Apple computers these days. Dell and HP doesn't give them what they want, they're stuck with incompatibilites (or justifiable fears of same), so why not start fresh with a Mac, where at least you don't get your machine bogged down and the hardware requirements aren't stratospherical?
Windows has such a large share of the market that your analogy should go something more like ford has 95% of all car dealerships and they're not going to sell or service any vehicles except their new mustang, which costs more, gets 2mpg, tops out at 20mph and breaks down at least once every 100 miles.
I think that you are spouting bull, because, simply put..... it takes more than 14 processes just to run XP without any application or services except Windows Explorer.
So the commercial might not be making the geeks happy but maybe it's not supposed to be for the geeks. Maybe the goal was to get non-technical people interested enough to pay attention when the next commercial comes out. If that is the goal then they may have succeeded.
Also, I really want a churro now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL4hyATkQ74
(and yes, that is a MSFT commercial, and yes, that is Steve Ballmer).
This focus on competition will be good for the consumers!
p.s. I did like the Seinfeld/Gates ad better than any of the smug Apple one to date. (except the 1984 Mac ad)
Have we degenerated so far that PR spin has replaced actual competency?
The majority couldn't even explain, at a conceptual level, what an operating system is.
years ago that might have been true. But not now. Even 'average Joe' customers know there are options in what runs their computers. They do indeed choose Windows.
People like you need to look at FireFox. They stopped boo-hoo'ing, they stopped blaming lack of success on everything but themselves, and they went out and built a better product.
People noticed, and they now enjoy a considerable share of the market.
That is the way the system works. I guess it is just easier to blame MS
lk
MS sees the trend. Where people can choose, they choose Apple.
I guess I don't really agree with that. Prior to any Apple commercials, there were millions of negative blogs, articles, and review about Vista. The problems with Vista are well documented. Apple did not create this negativity. They merely had the nerve to repeat some of it.
Any thing else and you are looking for headaches.
I keep telling people who also buy office 2007 that upgrading their video card will make MS Office open fast and respond fast to their key clicks but they say they do not want something meant for video games.
Uuugh!
It's time to stop trying to run Vista and other OS's on crappy integrated graphics chipsets from Intel or anyone else..... it JUST DOESN'T WORK! That is why when my father bought a new computer, I had him buy a 'gaming PC' from Gateway that cost 1.3K and had been rated by CNET as being 'The best machine they had ever had come across their desks at that pricepoint'. It should have cost near 4,000 dollars for everything that was crammed into that bad boy, from what I saw on HP's website and Alienware's website for a comparable computer.
Linux and OSX boot and run much more reliably and fast on equal or lesser hardware. I Still reluctantly use Windows ( I only have Vista because I won't pay extra to "downgrade" to XP. ) because of 3rd party apps that I use.
At one time IBM did an amazing job at cleaning up Windows spaghetti code and had a fast 32 bit OS called Warp, few will remember it as OS/2. When Windows 95 would not run the old Windows apps, the faster, smaller OS/2 would .. and it supported ALL the old legacy device drivers through a transparent compatibility layer.
MS and Windows succeed because the vast majority of computer users think is it a good product and that it is normal fo their machine to get slower and slower and s l o w e r as time goes on. Windows NT 3.51 was the only stable high performance 32 bit or better OS Microsoft produced ... they have never attained that level of stability since. I for one will feel no sorrow when they and their product line are gone for good.
Oh, and Jerry Seinfield? How very '90's.....
Err, yeah - folks speak about AIDS in negative terms as well, and you certainly don't see folks rushing out to catch it, do you?
I also agree with open-mind when he (she?) said: "Apple did not create this negativity. They merely had the nerve to repeat some of it." and that there was a whole host of negative media out there for Vista.
Okay - having seen the ad...
Holy crap was that thing lame. No, seriously... the part where they have to dink around with the shoes to get them to fit looks exactly like how a user has to customize and bang on Windows to get the thing to work. So they're off to change the future! Make things more custom! Yeah! ...err, the Mac is already like that now, and Linux is so customizeable, it has five different GUI environments and you don't even need an Intel PC to run it.
So to those in the know, well... okay, so Microsoft promises to play catch-up? Gee, that's nice. About time. Actually glad to see that they got motivated to actually do something for once. That said, why should I bother to buy a Microsoft product right now, or even bother waiting until this nebulous "future" (according to Microsoft) arrives, when I can buy a Mac right now that already does all of that?
Now, back to the commentary: One thing Microsoft can do is to not "talk shop", but to show --in layman's terms-- what compelling reasons there would be in ditching XP for Vista instead of buying a Mac or a Linux machine.
Let's do a parallel example of a successful campaign: Apple is successful in their ads because they portray the pros of Macs (and the cons of Vista) in ways that even a complete tech-illiterate person can understand (e.g. 'PC' is sick = "viruses"; 'Mac' suddenly and easily speaking fluent Japanese with 'digital camera person' = "painless compatibility"; 'PC' is hopelessly fat = "bloated and slow"... things like that).
Microsoft doesn't have to "talk shop", they just have to deliver their allegories in a way that is a hell of a lot more direct, without all the 'deep' and vaporous subtext. I don't mean the vague lifestyle stuff like 'choices', either. I mean meat-and-potatoes stuff - like features and whatever technical advantages that Vista may hold. IOW, why should I buy a Vista machine... now?
/P
I thought that part was nice, kind of like ?Truth in Advertising?.