News of the retail push also follows just a day after Microsoft began running the first of its highly touted ads featuring both Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, which reveals a non-confrontational approach to matching Apple's own duo of John Hodgman and Justin Long: the 1:30 routine only mentions computing towards the very end and includes just a single Windows logo as a sign of Microsoft's plans. A stream of the ad is available below.
This ad is very subtle and twisted, just like the situation. In my opinion, the ad is beautiful because it shows us the Truth, even though I don't believe anyone on the M$ side of the fence is aware of the truth.
Here's how I see it: The point of the ad is that Bill Gates is genius, with a Jupiter sized intellect. They have to make this point in marketing because it's not clear at all to us the consumers. So they'll hit us over the head with the message that Gates is a genius and the proof is that he's made so much effin money.
So the ad campaign will apparently cost hundreds of millions to tell us that Gates and Vista are genius. Unfortunately, as any junior college literature student knows, we have to be SHOWN these things and it doesn't count if we're only TOLD. The campaign will scream at the top of its lungs that the emperor has a gorgeous suit of clothes, but Apple has already shown us, and will continue to show us, that the emperor is naked.
(The fact that the naked emperor is wiggling his butt cheeks at you in such a disgusting way is proof that their marketing matches the quality of their engineering.)
These are death throes we're watching. It's not pretty. If you're compassionate, perhaps it's sad. But to everything there is a season, and M$ is history.
I have admiration of the Bill and Melinda Foundation work. Gate's is a good guy in that regard. The campaign should focus on that, maybe with a percentage of sales going to the cause. The geek style ad just isn't appealing. Gate's can deliver an impressive interview when talking about the Foundation, but he's doesn't perform well as a comic.
I find the ad extremely sad. Like a farewell message from a tyrant. They're old, they're tired, and they're letting go. And they make sure you consider the alternatives right now before the ship really sinks.
I just think it's telling that my 58 year old father who has never once owned anything with an Apple branding, couldn't stand their OS, and hated Steve Jobs, just bought his first Apple computer (MacBook Pro), bought an iPod nano for working out, and is replacing his WinMo 6 phone with an iPhone next month when his contract is up.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, he used to work for Microsoft for 10 years!
Over the years I've seen countless IT professionals (Microsoft-certified tech support men and women, paid as such by Fortune 200 companies) who labored for hours troubleshooting users' Windows issues. These were often in tightly controlled corporate environments, free of games, Flash, even computers with security against addressing removable media. There were high-end virus protection systems in place so secure you couldn't get emailed a .PDF file from a co-worker. Some of them even blocked internet altogether. They poured over MS Tech Support CDs, pushed all the right patches and ran test utilities. They ran upgrades to the OS and applications only after thorough corporate testing and training. Computer hard drives were nuked upon delivery and cloned from known and tested images to limit any possibility of problems.
And these poor guys frequently would have to give up, shake their heads and tell the user he was on his own until they could get him a new or different PC. These were in the offices of multi-billion dollar corporate giants with billion-dollar IT budgets, and these IT folks didn't take reducing worker productivity over PC problems very lightly. It's their career to know and support Windows.
Now can you imagine the quality of the support and advice you'll get from an MS "Guru" at a store counter? These poor fools will have to deal with people who have no firewall protecting their always-on budget-priced Vista box directly connected to the cable modem. People who never dumped the demo-ware installed on their desktops. People who open email from senders they don't know, and give out their bank account password. People who surf the net for free porn without virus protection. People who use AOL on dial-up for email. People who want a free parallel-port printer that came with their 1996 Micron Pentium desktop to work with Vista. People who thought a $319 eMachines desktop/monitor/printer set-up was a smart investment. Every imaginable computing nightmare in the Windows universe, day after endless day...
I think I'd have to rank the poor bast@rds taking a job as a MS Guru right up there with the white lab-coated women pushing makeovers to overweight matrons, and selling on commission.
Now can you imagine the quality of the support and advice you'll get from an MS "Guru" at a store counter? These poor fools will have to deal with people who have no firewall protecting their always-on budget-priced Vista box directly connected to the cable modem. People who never dumped the demo-ware installed on their desktops. People who open email from senders they don't know, and give out their bank account password. People who surf the net for free porn without virus protection. People who use AOL on dial-up for email. People who want a free parallel-port printer that came with their 1996 Micron Pentium desktop to work with Vista. People who thought a $319 eMachines desktop/monitor/printer set-up was a smart investment. Every imaginable computing nightmare in the Windows universe, day after endless day...
I think I'd have to rank the poor bast@rds taking a job as a MS Guru right up there with the white lab-coated women pushing makeovers to overweight matrons, and selling on commission.
(just partial quote from zanshin)
And all you mentioned only fielded by geeks with a fraction of the knowledge of any IT tech. No IT Tech would touch this job with a 10' pole so what's left ...? Those that don't know enough to know they should never have applied for the job
As usual MS think all they have to do is copy Apple to succeed.
Comments
You are an old dork, Mail sets it self up and FireFox is drag and drop. Thumbs up for still trying though, I don't plan on doing anything at 70.
Mail did NOT set itself up.
There is a known problem with Firefox downloads after upgrading to Leo. two mac plist files have to be deleted.
News of the retail push also follows just a day after Microsoft began running the first of its highly touted ads featuring both Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, which reveals a non-confrontational approach to matching Apple's own duo of John Hodgman and Justin Long: the 1:30 routine only mentions computing towards the very end and includes just a single Windows logo as a sign of Microsoft's plans. A stream of the ad is available below.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
This ad is very subtle and twisted, just like the situation. In my opinion, the ad is beautiful because it shows us the Truth, even though I don't believe anyone on the M$ side of the fence is aware of the truth.
Here's how I see it: The point of the ad is that Bill Gates is genius, with a Jupiter sized intellect. They have to make this point in marketing because it's not clear at all to us the consumers. So they'll hit us over the head with the message that Gates is a genius and the proof is that he's made so much effin money.
So the ad campaign will apparently cost hundreds of millions to tell us that Gates and Vista are genius. Unfortunately, as any junior college literature student knows, we have to be SHOWN these things and it doesn't count if we're only TOLD. The campaign will scream at the top of its lungs that the emperor has a gorgeous suit of clothes, but Apple has already shown us, and will continue to show us, that the emperor is naked.
(The fact that the naked emperor is wiggling his butt cheeks at you in such a disgusting way is proof that their marketing matches the quality of their engineering.)
These are death throes we're watching. It's not pretty. If you're compassionate, perhaps it's sad. But to everything there is a season, and M$ is history.
... not
I think Microsoft Guru's will be seriously funny. Guru's, Skymarket, Vista, Zune
It's all pointing one way... ZunePhone!
(I'm glad I live in one of the 244 countries (or other sovereign states) worldwide where you cannot purchase a Zune)
I can see it now, Customer: "I have an issue with my printer not printing from MS Word; what can I do?"
Walmart greeter (I mean Guru): " well its your own damn fault for for buying a loser OS. quit wasting my time!"
Early Features of Win OS7:
Dock like menu.
Panels as opposed of Spaces.
TimeTraveller as opposed of Time Machine
Oh, and I forgot to mention, he used to work for Microsoft for 10 years!
Makes me wonder if somewhat at Apple's agency got a heads-up on that.
And these poor guys frequently would have to give up, shake their heads and tell the user he was on his own until they could get him a new or different PC. These were in the offices of multi-billion dollar corporate giants with billion-dollar IT budgets, and these IT folks didn't take reducing worker productivity over PC problems very lightly. It's their career to know and support Windows.
Now can you imagine the quality of the support and advice you'll get from an MS "Guru" at a store counter? These poor fools will have to deal with people who have no firewall protecting their always-on budget-priced Vista box directly connected to the cable modem. People who never dumped the demo-ware installed on their desktops. People who open email from senders they don't know, and give out their bank account password. People who surf the net for free porn without virus protection. People who use AOL on dial-up for email. People who want a free parallel-port printer that came with their 1996 Micron Pentium desktop to work with Vista. People who thought a $319 eMachines desktop/monitor/printer set-up was a smart investment. Every imaginable computing nightmare in the Windows universe, day after endless day...
I think I'd have to rank the poor bast@rds taking a job as a MS Guru right up there with the white lab-coated women pushing makeovers to overweight matrons, and selling on commission.
Now can you imagine the quality of the support and advice you'll get from an MS "Guru" at a store counter? These poor fools will have to deal with people who have no firewall protecting their always-on budget-priced Vista box directly connected to the cable modem. People who never dumped the demo-ware installed on their desktops. People who open email from senders they don't know, and give out their bank account password. People who surf the net for free porn without virus protection. People who use AOL on dial-up for email. People who want a free parallel-port printer that came with their 1996 Micron Pentium desktop to work with Vista. People who thought a $319 eMachines desktop/monitor/printer set-up was a smart investment. Every imaginable computing nightmare in the Windows universe, day after endless day...
I think I'd have to rank the poor bast@rds taking a job as a MS Guru right up there with the white lab-coated women pushing makeovers to overweight matrons, and selling on commission.
(just partial quote from zanshin)
And all you mentioned only fielded by geeks with a fraction of the knowledge of any IT tech. No IT Tech would touch this job with a 10' pole so what's left ...? Those that don't know enough to know they should never have applied for the job
As usual MS think all they have to do is copy Apple to succeed.
When I wear my Vista? Conquistador? shoes in the shower, do I have to wear Home? or Premium? black socks? And what about the churro?
Don't forget the antifreeze
Best... Commercial... Ever...
... not
I think Microsoft Guru's will be seriously funny.
Think of the fun we can have going to see the Guru and making up all sorts of fun questions
Let's start a thread for really good problems to ask them.
? if all we do is TALK about how bad they are
? if all we do is TELL everyone, how bad they are
? if all we do is ask folks "Did you see that MS ad"
then they have won a small battle - for now.
While that ad was totally random, I have to say I kinda liked it, though I still don't have an f'ing clue why Jerry started selling Bill shoes.
Will MS ever have an original idea?
Clippy!
Clippy!
Not too terribly funny YouTube video with Gilbert Gottfred as Clippy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB03aRifPLU
A look at MS Bob for those you never had the displeasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZegWedG-jk4
The best video ever!!!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AdFA6WWJ7E (you've just been rick rolled!)