07/09/2008, 1:20am, EDT
Wednesday, July 9thMS to counter Apple, Mac OS with new ad campaign
Calling Vista the most secure operating in the world (and taking jabs at Mac OS X security), Microsoft on Tuesday relented in its defense of the problematic Windows Vista, which has been the butt of many of Apple's jokes through its "Get a Mac" ad campaign. The Microsoft exec admitted that the system broke many things and said he feels badly for users' plights; the world's largest software developer, however, will counter Apple's anti-Windows/Vista campaign: "We've got a pretty noisy competitor out there," Brooks said of Apple whose "I'm a Mac... and I'm a PC," commercials criticize Windows Vista. "You know it. I know it. It's caused some impact. We're going to start countering it. They tell us it's the iWay or the highway. We think that's a sad message. Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life."
InformationWeek writes that VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing Brad Brooks spoke during a keynote at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference, acknowledging that users have been hesitant to upgrade, especially in the corporate sector.
Brooks cites Windows XP's relatively uncomfortable launch after the oft-panned Windows ME, saying that XP was eventually stable enough to be used as a primary system.
In addition, Brooks blasted Apple, calling them a "pretty noisy competitor", saying it is "sad" how Apple is portraying it to be "the iWay or the highway".
Instead, Brooks positioned Windows Vista as the preparation for the as-of-yet unnamed Windows 7, which will build on the foundations created by Vista. "Windows Vista is an investment in the long term," Brooks said. "When you make the investment into Windows Vista, it's going to pay it forward into the operating system we call Windows 7."
Microsoft is poised as well to place Windows as "a kind of language," with Brooks saying it has over a billion users worldwide, which, according to Brooks, is more than those speaking Mandarin Chinese or English. He adds that Microsoft believes that, with an alleged 99-percent of all business apps being Vista-ready, the movement is ready to go forward, despite what word-of-mouth and competitors say.
Filed under: industry, software
Other story tags: Microsoft, Windows, Vista, Get A Mac
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Just imagine...
...a $400 software title being "eventually stable enough to be used as a primary system'...
Sign me up!
It's amazing!
Did Microsoft really hire every available clueless moron who happened to earn an MBA in the past 20 years?
This is funny
"Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life".
If this is the case why hasn't Microsoft made something like iLife and tied it in with something like Mobile Me and tie it into something like the iPhone?
For all their talk about being compatible with our whole life I have yet to see any part of Microsoft's business that is compatible with any part of my life.
Can't make this stuff up.
"XP was eventually stable enough to be used as a primary system."
"Brooks positioned Windows Vista as the preparation for the as-of-yet unnamed Windows 7, which will build on the foundations created by Vista. 'When you make the investment into Windows Vista, it's going to pay it forward into the operating system we call Windows 7.'"
Wow, This is a VP of marketing, and the best things he can say about the last two major product upgrades MS has delivered is "It was eventually decent enough to use," and "It may suck, but we're going to use it as a basis for our next big upgrade, so please buy it so we can pay our programmers to deliver more of the same in a few years."
You just cannot make this stuff up.
Mr Brooks
Thanks for the laugh!
right
"Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life."
shouldn't that be your microsoft life? i don't see windows media for mac. try to watch some live sports that only use it on a mac.
iway or the highway? this from the anti trust company? who is this moron?
new tagline
Vista...It doesn't suck...that much...anymore...we hope...Oh God Please Upgrade Balmer's Getting Crazier by the Minute!!!
Re: right
I have no problem watching live sports using Windows Media formats. Maybe you just need to get the right plug-ins.
And when Apple keeps their iPod ecosystem closed to any other players, it's called a good thing to better the user experience. But MS doesn't make WMP (which, even if they did, most mac users wouldn't even touch anyway, and blast for being fugly or non-standard or a bunch of other stuff they normally lash out with), and they're called 'closed'.
yeah, and---
MacDonalds has sold over a billion hamburgers. What their point?
Fake Security
Microsoft's security warnings are all fake in that they are not triggered by real potential for danger, they are triggered by what you are doing.
OS X requires authentication based on where the installer is writing files, while Vista requires it if you are running a file named setup or install. OS X does not require authentication if the installer isn't attempting to do anything dangerous, Vista does.
OS X warns you if it is the first time you run a file that you downloaded from the internet, and gives you the URL where it came from. Vista can't do that. Instead, it warns you about the theoretical danger of every file, even if you created it yourself two minutes ago.
Office but not Vista, but still illustrative: I even got a warning from Word's mail merge about the dangers of opening an Excel file that was already open!
I heard of a developer who created an install file that wouldn't trigger Vista's security. All he had to do was name it Fred instead of setup or install. I haven't tried it, but I'm prone to believe it.
Vista might otherwise be very secure, but it is very insecure about its security, constantly popping up faux security dialog boxes to warn me of dangers, real and imagined. It's a waste of time and it keeps me from doing my work. Microsoft's appear to think that it's protecting me by keeping me scared. That's not good, because I have to watch my blood pressure.
Vista reminds me of the preface of the 1548 Book of Common Prayer. It explains that they simplified the service books because with the old ones, there was more business in finding out what to do than there was in doing it after it was found. Microsoft needs to catch up to the 16th century by doing to Vista what the Church of England did to its service books.
Vista imposes an immense amount of overhead on me. It distracts me with its self-congratulatory dialog boxes and wastes my time by requiring me to go through nuisance dialog boxes for nearly everything I do.
Vista might be wonderful, but I don't care. It is like driving down a road with too many traffic signs and signals. I'd rather take a different route that doesn't give me a headache. I tried Linux, but I don't speak Modern Geek. So I settled on OS X.
Vista isn't even up to the 16th century, but OS X takes me right back to the 1980s: I sit up all night playing on my computer because it is so much fun.