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Interestingly, though, it was not the first time Microsoft had talked about the technology. But when the company had done so a year earlier, it was under the name "Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere," which just didn't excite people the way Silverlight did.
The improved moniker was no accident. For the past two years, Microsoft has put in place a concerted effort to improve its product naming, an effort that is just now becoming publicly visible with the introduction of products like Silverlight, Popfly and the new Surface tabletop computer.
"I'm very pleased with the progress we've made in a relatively short amount of time," said David Webster, the general manager of brand strategy for Microsoft. The software maker hired him away two years ago from naming expert Siegel+Gale, where he was a managing director.
In recent months, Webster and team have held in-person seminars and offered Web-based training on how to come up with better product names. The group also put several dozen posters around campus with a box of Band-Aids and the caption: "You wouldn't call it Wound Healer 2.0."
The company has a rich history of products with names that are excessively wordy. Arguably one of the most convoluted monikers announced by Redmond (though thankfully later shortened) was its appellation for the mainstream 64-bit version of Windows XP: Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems.
Its woes in product naming and packaging are legendary both within and outside the company. A popular video has made the rounds on YouTube outlining what Microsoft might have done if it had been tasked with designing the iPod's box. Instead of the minimalist carton that Apple came up with, the video ends up with a text laden container for the "iPod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition with Subscription."
It later emerged that the video was done by people inside Microsoft.
"It was the packaging team trying to make a point about design," Webster said.
In fairness, when Microsoft did come up with its iPod rival, it gave it a distinctive name--the Zune--and included a well-designed box that shared many of the attributes of Apple's popular packaging.
The company is still trying to use its Windows and Office brands where those make sense, Webster said, though the company is also trying to brand new technologies with new names, with the brand group now working directly with Microsoft Research to brand technologies even when they are in their earliest incarnations.
Still, when it comes to names, there are still some mouthfuls coming out of Redmond. At its Worldwide Partner Conference recently, Microsoft was touting the benefits of its Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), a collection of tools for businesses to manage their PCs.
"I think there's an opportunity for us to get better in naming some of the products," Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said during an interview at last week's conference in Denver. "I mean, we just have a lot of products, and we're building a lot of products. So that puts a lot of pressure on making sure you can be consistent."
Turner also noted that the company has to go through an extensive process to make sure that its desired names are available in all the places Microsoft sells its products. "And so there's a whole legal process that goes into naming conventions," he said. "But, you know, I think it's fair to say that we could do a little bit better job in that area."
It's also a matter of getting the message out to hundreds, if not thousands of people, scattered throughout the company.
"There are a lot of marketers at the company," Webster said. "They are at various levels of sophistication when it comes to how they think about naming."
The Windows Live group in particular has come under fire for labeling multiple products with the same name and constantly shifting things around. The memorable Hotmail became Windows Live Mail, only to finally settle on Windows Live Hotmail. Another product, then known as Windows Live Mail Desktop, moved in to quickly scoop up the name Windows Live Mail.
See more CNET content tagged:
brand strategy, Microsoft Silverlight, brand, general manager, Redmond
functionality, and positive customer experience are not among
them.
home basic - no aero, for cheap computers (those costing 70% less than an apple)
home premium - for home use, no active directory
business - for businesses, no multimedia
ultimate - has everything
Really when you think about this, it's no harder than the XP Home/Pro setup. Maybe that was hard to some people, but then I don't know how those people managed to tell the difference between the NT line and the DOS based Windows versions either.
When one thinks of those big cats, it evokes certain feelings of aggresssivenes. Fearsome. Best of all, it rolls of the toungue. Which one can not readily say for: Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems.
For example, the latest OSX includes: Spaces, Time Machine, Fast User Switching, and a few others. Jobs hailed these as great new features, but he failed to mention that these have been in XP since 2001.
Another example is the sidebar. Apple people claim MS stole this for Vista. What they didn't state was that this came from Konfabulator. Heck, even OS/2 had a sidebar in 1992!!!
OS X, great - but OS 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5? Not Apple's best naming work.
1. Have you noticed some of the graphics are hard to see?
2. Have you noticed how zipping and unzipping is extremely slow? XP is much faster. So does that constitute a downgrade instead of an upgrade?
3. Did you notice Defrag has no detail screen like XP had? I consider that a downgrade and not an upgrade.
4. Nero does not work need to buy new version.
5. VirtualDrive 10 and under does not work need to buy new version.
6. 128 Meg Nvidia add on card did not work needed to buy another one.
7. Several JAVA related programs did not work. I cannot replace.
8. Sign Language program did not work. I cannot replace. (This was important)
9. My EXPENSIVE Dreamweaver did not work. I hope my workplace will replace it.
10. My disk labeling software (The favorite one) did not work. There was no replacement as of yet.
11. MS Internet Explorer was highly disfunctional. I ended loading up Opera.
12. I was upset that I could no longer put "Control panel in MyComputer (Now called Computer).
13. Unable to temporarly turn off System Restore (There are good reason for this function)
14. I really hate all those open folders. (Really who cares whats in a folder to see page ends sticking out)
15. I cannot run OCR Software from previous version of windows. I had to update me Brother Laser printer drivers only to find that it will not do OCR. This was very important to me and was the reason I bought this printer late last year. I went to the OCR website "Nuence Scansoft" to see if they have an update only to find that purchese a new version for 150.00.
This is all I can think of to this date. But I did spend hours trying to get things to work. You should have seen all the error codes (Over 400) listed in task manager. (Its still still there after a hard find and you can no longer get to it with the three finger salute.)That was having this computer for just two weeks. The gadget bar and Areo effects have already gotten old to me after all the problems I have been confronted with.
If you are a vista user please add you gripes and see what kind of list we can compile here!
Second, there was a list of software that doesn't work and Nero is at the top of the list. Any effort to educate yourself on the upgrade process would have dug up this little info nugget.
I seriously doubt IE7 didn't work out of the box and you were forced to switch to Opera.
90% of your problems are from 3rd parties anyway. Anytime you upgrade anything from any vendor you should always check for compatibility -- especially if it is important to your daily work. Hello common sense?
Apple and Nvidia were all over the media for not having their software ready to roll with Vista. How could you possibly not know that your Nvidia card would not work? These companies took some flack for this since Vista was available to developers in various forms for a year or so. Your Nvidia card should work now, they released updated drivers a couple of months ago.
When Apple switched to OS X, they kept a "Classic" version of
the OS on board so all your old programs continued to work. It
was a seamless transition for me. When they switched to Intel
chips, their Rosetta software allowed the Power-PC chip software
to run along side and you'd never know it. Now, any Universal
Binary software runs on both chips. I can also run Windows on
my Mac Pro laptop with Parallels software.
Sorry to hear about your woes. Not sure why Microsoft wouldn't
try to make the transition smoother. Relying on 3rd parties to
keep up is one thing. Providing a great user experience and a
smooth transition is another.
Notice, no belligerence. But I do expect some in comments to
my post.
-btw - I suspect you would have found the 'Program Compatibility Wizard useful - http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/99a95df6-04e6-46eb-bb65-6404cd215e641033.mspx
but about the defrag problem, I believe the background defrag much more user friendly...
not to mention people didn't upgrade their Windows based PC since Windows 98 came out...
Microcrap does not get it and never will.
It is about usability and security.
Rephrase your comments in an adult manner and you may find people taking your word more seriously.
Thanks.
Here's an "oldie, but a goodie" that is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUXnJraKM3k
gave it a distinctive name--the Zune--and included a well-
designed box that shared many of the attributes of Apple's
popular packaging"[/i]
...and yet it failed. Why?
1) it was locked down to ONE operating system, and ONE format.
2) It was weighed down with DRM to the point of near-
uselessness.
3) Nobody wants a 'wannabe' selling at (nearly) the same price -
for the same amount of cash, they want the real deal.
4) Word got out that MSFT makes each user pay a 'sin tax' to the
RIAA per unit sold, on the assumption that users are naturally
'criminals' (to use the RIAA's point-of-view on illegal sharing).
5) The one hit on the hardware was the lo-rez screen.
The Zune's hardware was fairly solid (albeit the screen was
inferior to iPod's - physically larger but at a far lower resolution).
The WiFi transfer was actually a nice idea.
The failures lie in its software and pricing scheme.
MSFT can't simply assume that inertia will sell their stuff. It's
time they actually did innovate, and not just say they do. The
Zune (and Vista) proves that they cannot.
/P
The Zune's simply an ugly brick and clunky. I wouldn't own one.
Vista- well, time will tell on that one. I've seen the number of service calls to rebuild/repair/reinstall the OS on XP drop dramatically on those same systems now that Vista is being used. I can't argue with that sort of result. If it makes the system more reliable and the end users have fewer issues, then I'm good with it. Less work for me to deal with.
I mean, let's face it, while there are media players out there that work very well and have just as many or more features as iPods, it doesn't have the name recognition nor the clever marketing...
1. Also, being locked in to one OS is a bad move of Microsoft's part, I agree. However, it is iPods that need Windows to be popular, not Zunes that need Macs to be popular. That said, cross-platform would be great for me since I use a Mac and I want to try a player other than iPods.
4. I doubt many average home users know about the RIAA tax on the Zunes. In fact, most home users probably don't even care... After all, if people despised the RIAA the way you and I do, did then Top 40 radio stations would meet their demise.
Personally, I like the Zune hardware, but the software totally sucks.
it starts on Madison Ave...
Careful, the uneducated MS fanboys are going to call you a troll.
- It's because of Apple
- by technewsjunkie July 20, 2007 2:43 AM PDT
- It is.
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