Microsoft employees hold funeral parade for iPhone, Blackberry - Page 3

Well, since you asked...from the same photostream as the "funeral" photo:

Not to mention that Microsoft collects a "royalty" on every Android phone HTC sells.

That is so funny. I hope the media picks up on this.

As much as I pick on Apple, I hate Microsoft. They have done a lot of weird stuff to convince people they are hip and cool, but this is off the charts. If this company didn't have so much money, they would have surely folded by now. The company is run by idiots.

Wow I would kill and bury *myself* if I ever had to work for Microsoft. What a blight on Seattle.

Wow. There's hope for you yet.

Here you go.



Sorry, don't know how to attacch image.

Awesome

Just reading about this makes me feel like I have Ballmer's spunk all over me.

Welcome to the social!

As stupid as this is, if I have to choose between Microsoft and Google winning the mobile operating systems war, I'd rather see Microsoft take it. Google has gotten too powerful and is beginning to take over every aspect of technology, and I think they need to see a string of large failures to put them in their place and keep them from monopolizing every aspect of our digital lives.

They also did a Thriller dance. This is ridiculous.
Watch the video right to the end (if you can). Balmer appears right at the end
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft...iphone-hearses

When I first saw this post and the lone picture, I was simply dumbfounded. What da hell? Are you for real? Seriously? Wow… wow… simply wow. Who was the brainiac who thought this -- in any way -- would be a good idea? I literally fumbled for words.


I jumped around a few sites to learn more. I also clicked up the chain of referring sites, including "Carl J's" Flickr collection of 45+ pictures of the parade. It includes, of course, the RIP picture, as well as shots of a hearse or two.

However, after looking through the rest of the collection, I found it helped put the RIP procession in visual context -- a lone parade float in a chain of tributes, some of which are at Microsoft's expense. Note the old affixed cell phones and two stuffed and cooked turkeys riding aboard the beaten-up Windows Mobile 6.5 Mustang in cart. Its "Overhauled" banner suggests it's headed to the Chip Foose garage, for what follows this stuffed turkey mobile is a beautifully rebuilt black Mustang that's clearly undergone a bare-metal restoration.

The other pictures remind me of a local community parade; a bit of a pub-crawl or "social", as bdkennedy1 observed. A sea of smiles, singing and self-congratulatory pride. A corporately polished Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade it certainly ain't. Nor is it tight like a Rose Bowl marching band. More like a lot of people having fun and blowing off a whole lotta steam after passing a major development milestone (or finishing my school exams). No doubt when finished banging their heads against the wall, I'm sure MS PR teams won't sleep much this weekend while they prepare a response playbook. Release bad news on a Tuesday; good news on a Thursday; and, use Friday to bury a story.

If you haven't already seen the 45 pictures from Carl J, you might consider giving them a once over and see if it tempers your WTF. It adjusted mine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trioculus/


Did this RIP picture define the parade? I don't think so.

Could this be the defining picture? You decide, naturally.

Is it prophetic in some way? Time will bear witness… as, too, will AI.

Just a correction here.... Windows 7 is the best selling OS in history and totally dominates mac OS in terms on amount sold AND profit..... Microsoft still make a hell of a lot more money than apple - mostly from windows.

Ballmer, meet Karma.

If MS put HALF the effective effort into their products that they put into this stupid stunt, they would be burying their competition.

A fatally flawed concept on MS's part. They aren't taking a once-good car and restoring it, they're taking a Yugo and trying to "restore" it into a beautiful black Mustang. Good luck with that.

Anyway this smacks of pre-bankruptcy GM. "Yes we've built junk in the past, but we're much better today. Really, trust us.". Everyone knows how far that turkey flew...

I agree. As much as I like Google Chrome, and Google search, I don't like the idea of a monopoly in any industry. Competition is good, and when there isn't any, like when Microsoft rested on its laurels after "winning" the browser wars, we all know what can happen. These days, I hope that Microsoft knocks it out of the park with Internet Explorer 9. I hope that Firefox, Safari, and Opera continue to be successful, as well. I don't mind Bing competing with Google search, and if WinPhone7 is a success, then that can only help Bing.

It's the same reason I'm glad that Android, BlackBerry, Nokia, and even Windows Phone 7 exist, to keep Apple striving to innovate iOS. I hope that high-quality competition continues to exist in some format, in the mobile space.

wow. that photo in the article made me laugh

poor dumb bastards....

Better yet, they danced(?) as well.*

Well, one could say it was quite thrilling performance especially compared to the one they did at their store in Mission Viejo, California.

Not sure if it was done as well as the XBox Halloween party last year.** I had a problem trying to watch them.

Next, they will want to be on Glee.

*http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft...iphone-hearses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAXEVXvNz8
**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwhkaVv5KPk

I too am worried about Google. They make their money through advertising, which means they have all the wrong incentives when it comes to people's privacy. Apple has started iAd now which has me worried about them also.

And not nearly as well as the famous Phillipino prisoners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

I'm not sure which was worse, that stupid "funeral" or the "Throw your own Windows 7 Launch Party" video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cX4t5-YpHQ

Back in the '70s Steve Jobs was taking LSD almost weekly, but the most sober person at Microsoft today is higher than Jobs ever was.

From the insecurity-by-design architectures they build their products around to their lamer-than-anything-humanity-has-ever-seen-before marketing, Redmond just doesn't get it.

Actually ... as they say 'a picture is worth a thousand words' ... .. it is the single most accurate depiction of Microsoft development I have ever seen!

- A broken down sh*t box on a rusty trailer being pulled by something you can't see. -

It totally sums up the entire history of Windows development, Windows quality and Windows innovation (I know that last one is an oxymoron lol) ... All in one image! I love it.

p.s. Are there actually turkeys on the roof? OMG.

I never read that about SJ in the 70's, not doubting your word, I simply didn't know. Please can you post links to sources? Thanks.

One word for it: PATHETIC ...

Where is the value in the winmo phone?
MS doesn't TOUCH hardware so they won't have anything to do with your cell phone. From what I understand MS will just sit on its lazy a** and collect royalties from the cell phone makers. And those cell phone makers are the ones that will bare the brunt of the hardware cost in this game. They will have to generate various phones for different carriers and then market heavily to the geeks in order to get them to want a new phone every month.
This is already done for the Android crowd. Is it me or do any of you se this as a wasteful a** business model?
And the ones making the Android phones are the ones making the winmo phones. It will be the same hardware but a different OS. Looks like a conflict of interest to me. And the geeks that have Android are now suppose to switch to winmo phones?
I believe that MS wants a MS branded phone at this stage of the game just to get caught up in hype that these tech sites generate for the cell makers. Having a smart phone is like having a shtick. Like a sex tape.

Ha! I think its great! Look, windows7 needs to be very successful. And ms will license it very aggressively from the onset. Basically it will boil down to consumer choice. If winmo 7 is good, it will do well, it won't surpass Android, be half of iOS in the next few years...which would mean serious sales. Apple needs to be aggressive in being most carriers in every country they are in...other wise android will rocket past them.

From a personal standpoint, I think the funeral idea is great. I bet those employees worked night and day with corporate blaring on about how important a strong mobile presence is to the brand...so something like this is a great way to let off steam and build unity. I've not worked anywhere that did anything of the sort, even when most if the place was doing 16 hour days for 20+ days in a row. Quite honestly ms would be more fun to work at these days.

MS might not touch the hardware, but they have very high standards for the hardware that gets out. Every Win7 phone will have minimal requirements, including a 1 GHz processor, and an 800x480 multitouch display. It won't be a free-for-all like Android.


The business model of Android and WinPhone 7 are the same: Attract users to Google and Bing, respectively. The more people use their respective search engines, the better each platform can target advertising to everyone. Both Android and WinPhone7 are looking to make money off the backend. Microsoft isn't doing this for hubris and hype, like you think. This is an attempt to create a new revenue stream in the mobile age, in the vein of Android.


Handset makers have been making Android and older Windows Mobile handsets for a long time. There's nothing new here. Competition is good.

And like I said before, there is a market for this platform. This OS may become the de facto choice amongst medium to large businesses, if only because of its robust set of enterprise features, including best-in-class Office support. There's a lot of money in that market.

Like stink on a pile of u no what that Ballmer smell is unmistakeable.

RIM and Apple already have robust enterprise features. Who cares about Office support? Are you saying people are going to edit documents on a tiny phone screen? LOL. MS is really desperate if that is their marketing plan.

On the other hand, most businesses are full of clueless Microsoft drones who will in no doubt push for tighter vendor lock-in via more proprietary, super expensive, crappy Microsoft products because that is what they get told to do by the MS salespeople.

(sorry did not read all 100+ posts so may be repeating what has already been said).

Who organized this "funeral"? the same bunch that gets together on weekends to play Dungeons and Dragons and watch Harry Potter movies?

I have an extensive library on Steve Jobs, but I can't recall seeing your claim that he was taking it so frequently, or anything thing other than he had experimented with it.

Save Microsoft. Fire Bill Gates' college roommate.

Wonder when the board is going to figure out that Ballmer is an embarrassment?

This is exactly what I think Apple now needs as they're getting way too cocky for their on good. It'll burn a lot of peoples fingers but it would be good for Apple to realize they can't just slap together any old bit of technology, stick an Apple logo on it and charge a premium. Apple have way too much power as far as controlling tastes and trends, and that needs to be curtailed.

Stunts like this are a sign of desperation......Period....

The frequency of use (along with a description of a period in the early days of Apple in which he ate only carrots until his skin started to turn orange and freaked out friends suggested he balance his diet) was described in one of the older biographies published in the mid-90s. It's been a while since I read it so I'd have to dig it out of my archives, but if memory serves I believe it was "Steve Jobs, the Journey Is the Reward" by Jeffrey S. Young:
http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Journey-.../dp/155802378X

That he enjoyed LSD is widely known, as noted in his Wikipedia entry:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_jobs

I don't hold that against him. On the contrary, it merely puts him in company with Cary Grant, Thomas Pynchon, William Burroughs, John Lilly, Helen Mirren, Steve Allen, Anais Nin, Igor Stravinsky, R. G. Wasson, every member of the Beatles, John F. Kennedy, many high-ranking officials throughout the CIA, and even Bill Gates (for Gates see http://beginnersinvest.about.com/od/...lgatesint5.htm ).

The point here is that no matter how many psychedelics Jobs may have done in his youth, the easy availability of psilocybin mushrooms growing in the woods surrounding Redmond is all too obvious from Microsoft's antics.

As funny as the parade was it's nowhere near as funny as the reaction from a seemingly endless supply of losers that haven't worked out the parade was nothing more than a bit of fun. I have no idea how so many people manage to type with their heads are stuck so firmly up their asses!

You would think that when people saw the zombies they would pick up on it. Nope.

Maybe when the zombies started dancing to Thriller. They surely have to chuckle now... Nope

What about when they see Darth Vader riding a motorcycle? Ah... nope.

It's like the unwritten 11th commandment. "Thou shalt not take events seriously where Darth Vader is seen riding a motorcycle"

Actually I'm pretty Darth Vader riding a motorcycle is a valid response to most upset comments about this whole parade

Darth Vader can be seen here riding a motorcycle.

Calling this morbid is really over the top. Somebody call rewrite!