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Category: Vista
October 9th, 2008
How much would an $800 Apple laptop hurt Microsoft?
Just when the Windows marketing team thought things probably couldn’t get much worse, there’s word that Apple may be gearing up to launch a new Macbook with a low-end $800 price point.
One of the biggest selling points for new Vista PCs is price. There are more than a few decent Vista laptops out there for under $1,000.
Apple’s PC marketshare is hovering around eight to nine percent in the U.S. For many, Apple machines are still just too expensive — even though the lowest end Macbooks can be had for about $1, 099. But if users could get an Apple laptop for $800, I’d think many would think longer and harder about whether to go with Windows or Mac OS X.
Microsoft — and its PC partners — aren’t sitting idly by waiting for Apple to eat its lunch. Microsoft execs have stated repeatedly that the company, going forward, is working more closely with OEMs to create better out-of-the-box experiences for Windows PC users. It sounds like this will go beyond reducing and/or removing crapware.
There are other projects hatching in other groups at Microsoft, too. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Bill Mitchell and his PC|3 team, which is part of Microsoft’s Core Operating System Division (COSD), is working on “improving the mobile PC experience” for users in the developed and developing worlds both. From what little I’ve heard about PC|3, it sounds like at least part of its mission involves picking up where the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) folks at Microsoft left off.
Microsoft has been mum on when/how/if it can get Vista and its successors to run on ultra-low-cost PCs (ULPCs). Currently, because of system requirements, Microsoft allows ULPC makers to ship with Windows XP, not Vista, and will do so through 2010. Given that magic 2010 cut-off date, I’d expect that the Windows team is working to produce some Windows 7 SKU that will be customized to run on ULPC systems.
Don’t forget, coming up from the other end of the market, there’s also a skunkworks effort inside Microsoft to port Windows Mobile to Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). No word on what’s happening on that front….
If Apple does, indeed field an $800 laptop, do you think Microsoft will lose much market share? What else should and could Microsoft be doing to steel itself for a possible Apple price attack?
October 8th, 2008
No surprise: Microsoft to fine-tune UAC in Windows 7
In the latest post on Microsoft’s “Engineering Windows 7″ blog, Microsoft officials acknowledge what everyone’s been assuming: Microsoft is going to fine-tune the User Account Control (UAC) feature with Windows 7.
UAC, which debuted with Windows Vista, provides users with standard user rights, as opposed to uber administrative rights, by default. Microsoft argued that this change would help save users from themselves, so that they wouldn’t accidentally modify system settings, disable antivirus software, etc. When UAC is turned on, users receive many, poorly explained notifications when the system believes they are engaging in “risky” behavior.
With Windows 7, Microsoft is not going to do away with UAC, according to the October 8 post by Ben Fathi, president for core OS development (and others on his team) on the E7 blog. But it is going to “address the customer feedback and satisfaction issues witht the (UAC) prompts themselves,” Fathi blogged. He said with Windows 7 Microsoft has two overriding goals when it comes to UAC. From his post:
“We’ve heard loud and clear that you are frustrated. You find the prompts too frequent, annoying, and confusing. We still want to provide you control over what changes can happen to your system, but we want to provide you a better overall experience. We believe this can be achieved by focusing on two key principles. 1) Broaden the control you have over the UAC notifications. We will continue to give you control over the changes made to your system, but in Windows 7, we will also provide options such that when you use the system as an administrator you can determine the range of notifications that you receive. 2) Provide additional and more relevant information in the user interface. We will improve the dialog UI so that you can better understand and make more informed choices.”
With Windows 7, Microsoft is endeavoring to reduce unneeded and duplicate prompts; to make prompts more informative; and to provide “better and more obvious control over the (UAC) mechanism,” Fathi’s blog post said.
Fathi said he’s confident the revamped UAC system will be less hated than the original UAC lockdowns introduced with Windows Vista in the name of better security. More from his post:
“We’ve already run new design concepts based on this principle through our in-house usability testing and we’ve seen very positive results. 83% of participants could provide specific details about why they were seeing the dialog. Participants preferred the new concepts because they are ’simple,’ ‘highlight verified publishers,”provide the file origin,’ and ‘ask a meaningful question.’”
UAC seems to be one of the most hated features of Vista. (Just do a Web search for “how can I disable UAC” for unofficial proof of that contention.) From what Microsoft has shared so far, do you think the proposed UAC changes for Windows 7 go far enough to undo the damage to Vista’s reputation done by UAC to date?
October 3rd, 2008
Microsoft extends XP downgrade rights date by six months
Microsoft is sending some very confusing signals about Windows Vista — the latest of which it issued via a statement on October 3.
The Register reported on October 2 that Microsoft was going to extend again the date until which PC makers would be allowed to continue to offer Windows users “downgrade rights,” enabling them to switch from Vista to XP on new machines. The Reg said Microsoft had moved the downgrade cut-off date from January 31, 2009 to July 31, 2009.
I asked Microsoft about the Reg’s report and got this statement, via a company spokesperson:
 ”As more customers make the move to Windows Vista, we want to make sure that they are making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as possible. Providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of that commitment, as is the Windows Vista Small Business Assurance program (available in the U.S. only), which provides 1-on-1, customized support for our small business customers.”
In other words, the Reg’s story was correct.
The spokesperson sent further clarification:
“What’s changing is Microsoft is giving six more months where it will provide downgrade media for XP Professional for OEMs and system builders to provide to their customers who purchase Windows Vista Ultimate and Business editions – (which the company figures will be) largely going to be small businesses since that’s the audience that would want/use XP Pro. So it’s the same old downgrade right thing that was in the EULA (End User License Agreement) before; it’s just Microsoft is providing the media to partners a few months more.”
“The same caveat with providing the downgrade media as before applies, which is OEMs and system builders don’t have to do so if they don’t want – it’s their business decision to make.”
Microsoft has extended XP’s end-of-life date before. In Apri 2008 l, Microsoft officials said the company was not going to extend again the date on which it required OEMs to stop preloading XP on new machines. That date was June 30, 2008. Microsoft did say that system builders, a k a white box vendors, would be allowed to continue to preload XP on new systems until January 31, 2009. OEMs and system builders both were OK’d to continue preloading XP on new ultra-low-cost systems through 2010, as many of those systems were and are incapable of running Vista.
Bottom line: Even though Microsoft is maintaining publicly that Vista is finally ready for prime time, it is allowing PC makers to continue to offer customers XP. So what’s a user to believe? Is Microsoft really standing behind Vista? And if it’s not — but instead is doing what customers really want (while simply giving lip-service to Vista’s readiness — is that still a positive?
September 16th, 2008
Windows 7 hits Milestone 3
I have seen the future — specifically Windows 7 Milestone 3 (Build 6780).
I got a gander at the latest test build of Windows 7 briefly (courtesy of a source of mine) and was not allowed to take any screenshots. But it is real, it does exist and it is, indeed, in certain testers’ hands inside and outside the company.
From the quick glimpse I got of Milestone 3, it sounds like Bryant of AeroXperience was right on the money with his hypotheses about what’s changed in the latest internal test builds. The latest build seems quite stable. The Ribbon user interface from Office 2007 is now part of WordPad and Paint. Home Groups — the functionality formerly known in “Longhorn”/Vista as “Castle” — is part of the new Windows 7 build.
I also noticed that the “Graphical Console,” a k a PowerShell Version 2, seems to be part of the latest pre-release Windows 7 build.
(Looks like Stephen Chapman over at the UX Evangelist site got to see Build 6780, too, and has a lot more to say on Windows 7’s Paint and WordPad.)
From what admittedly little I had a chance to see, Windows 7 does not look or feel like a major departure from Windows Vista.
Sources say there isn’t an “M4″ currently on Microsoft’s Windows 7 schedule. Next up is likely some kind of preview build (which may or may not be distributed to those attending the Professional Developers Conference and/or Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in October and November, respectively.) After that, a broadscale Beta 1, which should be feature-complete and pretty much set in stone, is expected for mid-December.
Like my ZDNet blogging colleague Ed Bott said, it’s not impossible for Microsoft to hit a 2009 release for Windows 7 if the first true beta doesn’t go out until December. Such a move would not be unprecedented.
Do you think the Softies are going to get Windows 7 out the door in 2009, as they are hoping — and maybe even early enough to make it onto new machines in time for Holiday 2009 sales?
September 11th, 2008
Keep the faith: More Windows-specific consumer ads coming soon
If you liked the first Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad for Microsoft, you’ll probably love the second. If you didn’t, there’s hope: A more Windows-centric one will air in a matter of days, according to Microsoft officials.
On September 11, ad No. 2 in the new Microsoft series aired on “Big Brother” reality show on CBS. (Microsoft provided me with access to the ad early, under embargo, so I had a chance to see it before it debuted on prime-time TV.)
The good news about the second ad designed for Microsoft by agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky: It’s no less esoteric than the first — but at least we now know the start of Microsoft’s campaign to rebrand and reposition Windows among consumers is “about nothing.” So it doesn’t matter that there are no hidden clues or subliminal anti-Apple messages in the new, 90-second spot. You get to see Seinfeld clipping his toenails. Enough said. Here’s the uncut version of Ad No. 2:
(Microsoft is showing Part 1 of the ad on September 11 and Part 2, during the “Ghost Whisperer” on September 12.)
The bad news about the ad: Like the first Seinfeld-Gates ad, which aired a week ago, the latest Microsoft consumer-focused ad does little, if anything, to endear Microsoft or Windows to consumers.
(Update: Windows Director Chris Flores reminded readers/viewers last night that the goal of the first few commercials is simply to get Microsoft noticed. Flores blogged: “Oscar Wilde’s quote on the subject may be overused, but it’s good to keep in mind when thinking about marketing products that can get taken for granted in today’s crowded media landscape: ‘The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.’”)
“Very shortly, we will move into another phase of the campaign that will be about Windows,” a Microsoft spokesman told me this evening. And “Windows,” in this case, means desktop, laptop and mobile. “We’re talking days,” not longer, the spokesman said.
Microsoft paid somewhere shy of $300 million to create a new marketing/ad campaign aimed at improving the company’s brand among consumers. Part of that money went for TV ads, and part went toward hiring 150-plus “Windows gurus” to help retail customers better understand how Windows-branded products should and could work.
Microsoft is expected to use the new ad campaign to help it cement the message that Windows is “without walls.” Exactly what that means and what form the messaging will take is still unknown. But Microsoft is trying to emphasize that Windows Vista, Windows Mobile and Windows Live are all part of the same family….
Microsoft’s public line is that the new consumer ad campaign is doing what the company intended: Getting people talking (even if negatively) about Microsoft and Windows. Officials are touting that the first ad saw more than 3 million views on YouTube. I’m not quite so sure than any publicity is good publicity, in this case.
Loading …Other takes on the new ad welcome in the Talkbacks.
September 8th, 2008
Do you have what it takes to be a ‘Windows guru’?
Can you “take the fear and complexity out of technology and make it easy and enjoyable”? “Answer questions and offer solutions to retail customers that surpass their expectations”? And are you willing to work for $20 an hour, full-time, including weekends?
If so, you might be just the kind of person Microsoft is looking to hire as one of its Windows gurus.
Last week, Microsoft kicked off its $300 million marketing campaign aimed at improving the image of Windows in the retail market. Some of those millions will be spent on a new ad campaign, the first installment of which aired last week. But Microsoft also is dedicating some of the $300 million pie to bringing on 155 or so “Windows gurus,” whose jobs will be to evangelize Windows technologies inside Best Buy , Circuit City and other retail outlets.
Microsoft is looking to place its first wave of gurus in major cities on both coasts, as well as some smaller, suburban-mall-heavy venues (Framingham, Mass., Paramus, N.J., Tacoma, Wash., etc.) in between. (Microsoft blogger Sean Earp ran a list of the cities where Microsoft is looking to add gurus — plus the full guru job description.)
The Windows gurus will be “full-time, blue-badge positions” who won’t be on commission, a Microsoft official said last week. When it announced its intention to hire these new “personal shoppers,” Microsoft had 2,000 applicants in five days, officials added.
Microsoft is aware that 155 evangelists is a drop in the bucket when it comes to improving the company’s retail image, and is planning to add more gurus to its ranks before and after this holiday season, officials said.
Perhaps Microsoft should allocate some of its marketing millions to paying PC makers to take their crapware off new PCs, too… Or maybe the Windows gurus can get into the crapware-uninstall business themselves.
Do you think these new gurus will help Microsoft improve the perception of Windows Vista, Windows Mobile and Windows Live among retail customers?
September 5th, 2008
Forget Seinfeld. Can Windows gurus help the Windows brand?
The day after it launched the first ad in its $300 consumer-focused make-over campaign, Microsoft is going public with some of the other planned Windows-branding fixes it has in the pipeline.
Microsoft isn’t opening brick-and-mortar Microsoft stores. Instead, this holiday season, Microsoft will be hiring 150 or so Microsoft-trained “Windows gurus” to work in retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City to help explain how Windows, Windows Live services and Windows Mobile PCs and devices work. The gurus will “assist PC buyers, similar to the Nordstrom model of ‘personal shoppers,’ where the focus is more on informing and supporting the customer than on the actual sale,” according to Microsoft.
Microsoft also is revamping the Windows.com Web site to make it easier for customers to get technical assistance without the “geek-speak.” The redesigned Windows.com site is online now. And on the Redmond Microsoft headquarters campus, Microsoft is touting its Retail Experience Center as part of a larger research facility designed to better understand “how consumers are experiencing the Windows brand at retail as they select and purchase PCs.”
On September 4, Microsoft aired the first of what it is touting as an ongoing series of commercials “using humor and a light touch.” The first spot, starring Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld, has been largely panned by commentators on my blog and many other sites across the Web for being too esoteric and not funny. Several folks have said they didn’t realize they were watching a Microsoft commercial at all.
In case you were wondering, this is what Microsoft believes it is doing with the new marketing campaign. From the press materials Microsoft issued after the first ad ran:
“On Sept. 4, Microsoft Corp. launched the largest consumer marketing campaign in the history of the company, focused on the broad potential of Windows across PCs, the Web and mobile devices. The campaign is part of a larger effort to connect people with the power and potential that Windows brings to everyday life….
“The spot is the first and most visible sign of an ambitious effort by Microsoft’s Windows business to reconnect with consumers around the globe.”
Microsoft officials also reiterated that the company is working closely with PC makers to launch new systems later this fall and beyond that will be tuned to provide a better Windows experience.
At least for now, it looks like all that talk about Microsoft taking the offensive against Apple was little more than talk. Granted, there are some who believe mentioning your competitors in any way, even humorous, does more harm than good to an established leader.
(Update: In a letter to Microsoft employees from Microsoft Senior VP of Windows and Online Services Bill Veghte (the full text of which is on Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott’s site) about the new “humor and humanity” marketing campaign, it seems even clearer Microsoft isn’t going to fight back against the Apple and its “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” commercials. Veghte doesn’t cite Apple by name in the internal e-mail. , saying instead: “I’m glad Microsoft is finally telling its own story. The bad guys have owned this conversation for too long.” My mistake: The “bad guys” comment came from Thurrott, not Veghte.)
With the new campaign, Microsoft is spending its marketing millions to emphasize the appeal of the Windows platform (comprised of Windows on PCs, Windows Live services and Windows Mobile), as opposed to Vista or any other individual Windows release.
Let’s just forget about that first Seinfeld commercial for a moment (or mercifully longer…). What do you think of Microsoft’s broader consumer-marketing plan for the Windows brand? Can a couple hundred Windows personal shoppers and a less clunky PC-buying experience help Microsoft fight Apple, Google, Nokia and its other consumer/device competitors?
September 4th, 2008
First Microsoft make-over ad airs: $300 million well spent?
During the NFL season opener on September 4, Microsoft aired the first of the ads that it paid agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky $300 million-plus to create to help make over the company’s image.
Here it is, courtesy of YouTube:
No mentions or even thinly veiled references to Apple. And there is only an indirect reference to Windows.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not yearning for the “Wow Starts Now.” But I’m not wowed by the first in what is expected to be a series of star-studded ads designed to reshape Microsoft’s consumer image.
Isn’t there a happy medium between a speeds-and-feeds spot and one that doesn’t say anything about Microsoft or its products?
What do you think of Ad #1 in Microsoft’s make-over campaign?
September 4th, 2008
Is Microsoft putting Windows 7 on a diet?
Until I had a chance to look at some new screen shots on LiveSide.Net of Windows Live MovieMaker — yet another of the Windows Live Wave 3 services going to beta real soon now — I hadn’t really put two and two together.
The lightbulb that just went off: As part of Microsoft’s mission to insure that Windows 7 and Windows Live Wave 3 are joined at the hip, Microsoft is exorcising features that used to be part of Windows from the operating system.
I had a similar, half-formed idea about this earlier this year, when I wrote “Windows 7 might go to pieces.” But now it’s crystalizing further….
Think this through: Microsoft has been hit with lawsuits (and threatened with additional new lawsuits) over its propensity to add formerly unbundled features to Windows. When I heard about its plans to tightly integrate Windows Live and Windows 7, I immediately thought that the company was opening itself up, yet again, to more potential antitrust actions.
But what Microsoft seems to be doing, instead, is continuing to gradually remove certain features — like MovieMaker (which one codename tipster reminded me last week has been going internally by the name “Sundance”), Mail, Photo Gallery, Messenger, etc. — from Windows and making them optional add-on services. (MovieMaker, for example, was cut from Windows Vista around the time of the Longhorn reset.)
Yes, these Wave 3 Windows Live services still have a software component (as required as part of Microsoft’s Software + Service strategy). But to get that component, you are going to have to download the software onto your Windows machine — or at least agree to install it if it’s already preloaded somewhere on a new system.
Could Microsoft have found a way to secure one of the flanks that its opponents have used to keep the company in check in recent years, specifically, the threat of antitrust suits if and when the Redmondians decide to bundle any new bits with the Windows OS? Can you envision other formerly bundled pieces of Windows that Microsoft could and should turn into Live Services?
Update: In a September 6 posting to the Engineering Windows 7 blog, Windows chief developer Steven Sinofsky made a couple of related points. He said Microsoft is not going to introduce a role-based deployment model (a la Windows Server) with Windows 7. He also said Microsoft is going to continue to distribute the full set of Windows components as part of Windows 7, though he seemed to imply that some of these components will be on the Windows 7 disc and not configured by default. (I think that’s what he was saying; I got lost about half-way through his 3,300+-word post.) I found it interesting Sinofsky — who also heads Windows Live engineering — didn’t mention Windows Live at all, as it pertains to Windows 7….
September 4th, 2008
The question that won’t go away: What comes after Yahoo?
During an appearance at the Citi Global Technology Conference on September 4, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell faced the same question that he’s been answering for months: What is Microsoft’s online strategy now that the company has decided against buying Yahoo?
And Liddell’s answer to that question hasn’t changed: Microsoft will continue to grow its online business organically while making smaller acquisitions in the space.
Liddell spoke and fielded questions for close to an hour. He brushed aside one attendee’s question about Microsoft’s thoughts on Google’s recently introduced Chrome browser by saying Microsoft constantly fields new competitors across all of its products. (Liddell’s hasty dismissal looked particularly bad, given the latest browser stats showing Internet Explorer continuing to lose market share, albeit, just a point.)
Other Liddellisms from his appearance (which I listened to via Webcast):
* He said Microsoft was planning back in December 2007 on making the Xbox price cuts it announced this week. He said that the cuts were already embedded in the company’s financial guidance with it provided Wall Street analysts this summer.
* Liddell called Microsoft’s online group the part of the company he is “least happy with,” but said again Microsoft views online as a “multi-year journey” in which it will continue to invest for the foreseeable future.
* He said to expect Microsoft to spend half of its $2 billion in capital expenditures in the coming year on improving basic facilities for all of its employees and the other half on building out is online datacenter infrastructure.
* Microsoft still could be interested in a search deal with Yahoo, Liddell said, even though he called the former Microsoft acquisition target a “declining asset.” He also cautioned attendees that Microsoft won’t suddenly go out and make another large online acquisition “just to get scale.”
* He said Vista is a product that “we (Microsoft) feel better about internally than others feel externally about it.” He cited Gartner predictions that by the end of this year Vista will be installed on more PCs than XP was at this point in its lifecycle.
One question I was curious about — besides Liddell’s take on Chrome — but which no one asked: Why is CEO Steve Ballmer keynoting the Consumer Electronics Show in January? Microsoft had definitely led folks to believe that Microsoft President of Entertainment and Devices Robbie Bach would be filling Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ shoes in that annual ritual? (Maybe it’s simply because all of the other CES keynoters are CEOs ?)
I also would have echoed another conference attendee’s question about Windows 7 and Office 14 — namely, if Microsoft really is intending on fielding the final versions of its next-generation Windows and Office releases in 2009, as I and others are hearing, when the heck are the semi-public and/or public betas for these products going out? Liddell refused to comment.
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