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Microsoft tries to find its 'wow'
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Digg thisA giant human billboard on a frosty January morning marked the long-anticipated mainstream launch for Microsoft's two flagship products--Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007.
"The 'wow' starts now," the software maker promised. However, response outside of Redmond was more muted. Reviews for the software were decidedly mixed, while consumer demand for Vista remained tepid, prompting some computer makers to bring back Windows XP, while other PC makers started including XP discs in the box with Vista machines. Microsoft also agreed to let big-name PC makers sell XP longer than originally planned.
The company also missed its goal on the business side, with business uptake for Vista roughly on par with that of XP in its first year. Microsoft had hoped to see an adoption rate double that achieved by XP in its first year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft continued to move ahead with its "Live" services push. On the Windows Live front, the company finally hit send on a new version of Hotmail that was years in development. After spending much of 2006 launching a range of disparate services to see what stuck with consumers, Microsoft attempted to unify and refine many of the tools it launched over the past year. It also began opening up a bit about its longer-term plan to offer developers the ability to build their own applications on top of core Microsoft services such as storage and authentication.
On the Office Live front, Microsoft moved beyond small businesses and in December started testing Office Live Workspace, an online tool for viewing, storing, and sharing--but not editing--Office documents.
Even as it looked to find ways of taking its existing software online, Microsoft continued to branch into new areas. In May, the company took the wraps off its surface computing effort, a product that it had worked on for years, in uncharacteristic secrecy.
In business computing, the software giant continued its move into telephony. In October, the company released its Office Communications Server, a move that put the company in competition with Cisco System and others in the "unified communications" market.
Microsoft was also busy on the acquisition front. In March, it bought Tellme Networks.
That deal was followed up by the company's largest-ever purchase, its $6 billion bid for Aquantive, an online advertising company that few outside the industry had ever heard of. Late in the year, the company beat out Google to take a stake in Facebook.
During the year, Microsoft also continued to strike deals with the open-source community, including agreements with Samsung, Fuji Xerox, and TurboLinux. However, the company continued to raise the hackles of the Linux world, particularly with its claim that open source violates 235 of its patents. 
2007 Highlights
Windows chief bows out
special report As Vista hits store shelves after a long five years, Microsoft veteran Jim Allchin heads for retirement.
Microsoft turns to telephony
Company veteran Jeff Raikes talks about how Microsoft plans to make its big investment in telephone technology pay off.
Topics
Vista for the masses
special coverage After long delays, Microsoft is finally releasing the Windows update to consumers. See all of News.com's stories and more.
Hotmail redesign: Too Hotmail to handle?
special report Microsoft embarks in a years' long redesign of its Web mail program only to find most of its users like things the way they are.
Microsoft to buy Aquantive for $6 billion
Spending spree on advertising companies continues, as the software giant issues a rejoinder to Google's plan to purchase DoubleClick.
Microsoft hopes Milan table PC has magic touch
Years in the making, company's new tabletop computer is controlled entirely through touch--there's no mouse or keyboard.
Microsoft to extend Xbox 360 warranty
Software maker says it's seeing unacceptable number of repairs; investigation finds several factors could lead to hardware failures.
Microsoft's 'Cloud OS' takes shape
Once ethereal, Microsoft's plans to try to replicate its desktop position on the Web are starting to become clearer.
Microsoft and Facebook: The $240 million poke
Microsoft taking a stake in Facebook, as well as gaining the right to sell ads for Facebook internationally.
Windows Live hits the toddler stage
In an interview, Windows Live exec Chris Jones talks about what the 2-year-old is up to and comments on another youngster--Apple's iPhone.
At software giant, pain gives rise to progress
special report Security practices at Microsoft have been transformed since threats like Slammer and Blaster first wormed their way onto the scene.
Additional Headlines
Making sense of Redmond's $6 billion buy
Mystery surrounds Microsoft's virtualization flip-flop
Microsoft looks to improve its name game
Gates still has long to-do list
I maintain IT systems for health care providers and I see two interesting trends:
One is the total lack of support by practice management systems a year after launch. When asked about Vista support last month, 4 out of 5 vendors replied No!. The 5th? We have one doctor's office that reports he has our client running on Vista, but we won't support that PC if you do the same. The hospitals that I have to interface Dr.'s with, such as for PACS systems or VPNs, are also strongly resisting Vista hoping it 'just goes away' like Windows ME.
Two, the doctor's and staff I support range in age the full spectrum from 'just out of college' to 'could have retired 5 years ago'. The younger set, as in <35, are interesting in that barely a single one of them owns or uses MS Office and many avoid IE at all costs. A large percentage own Macs or are considering one. Just yesterday one clinical staff says to another "MS Media player sucks, I use WinAmp" and another chimes in about a player in AIM. Anyhow, I can see a revolution happening here. Give the younger set a smaller device that does what they want, does it well without the problems and overhead a legacy Microsoft product brings with it, and the full Microsoft PC is history faster than MS could ever rewrite or fix Vista.
money grab. Vista was a major Windows upgrade that MS was
unable to achieve.
It's OK, but that's about all I can say about it. Will I use it? Nope.
We're staying with XP while we move to more Macs & Linux PCs.
Other than that I agree with most of what you wrote. The day of
the big honking desktop has peaked. Ten years from now, I
seriously doubt MS will be the powerhouse they are today.
Twenty years from now, I doubt if the name Microsoft will mean
any more to the average computer user as Cisco does today.
need for it is much less. XP was the first release of Windows
that unified the business and home versions of Microsoft's
operating systems into a single product that brought the
stability and features of the NT line to the home user. XP gave
quite a bit more bang-for-your-buck over Windows 9x and
even 2000 that selling it was pretty easy. Unfortunately, the
need for Vista is much reduced which is testament to how good
XP was at the time in as much as Vista failed to achieve the
goals that were set for it.
The other problem that Microsoft faces now that it didn't face
when XP was released is that the competition is now getting its
act together. Apple is no longer the joke that it was even in the
early 2000's and Linux is making in-roads into Microsoft's
territory.
Personally, I was very happy to pay for XP at the time because it
promised a much more robust computing environment than I
had with Windows 98SE because that was important to me. With
Vista, however, I honestly can't find anything compelling enough
to make me want to buy it so the only way I would use it is if it
came with a new computer and ran OK. This brings up the
important question: once you've mastered the basics of
implementing a good OS, what do you do that will enough to
make a new version sufficient that people will pay for it?
Eventually (if not already) people will decide that Windows is
"good enough" already and just not want to pay for it again so
Microsoft will need a new source of income.
This year will be a deciding factor really in how Microsoft handles the new age. They won the OS war once and the question is can they win again, can they pull off the same victory twice against newer and better prepared competition. This is something that remains to be seen, but either they will raise a fight like Intel and beat to a without a doubt assurance they are the best software maker around or they will slowly fade. It all comes to quality and if they are willing to put the work into it to make their products what people expect.
As for the Windows Media comment, I would agree that its a common thing for people to go to other players, but for the most part, this is true with even Quicktime and such, people just don't use players that come standard anymore unless they have too, because better ones do exist.
I use both XP and Vista at Work but only because I have to support it. The only thing I can say that is positive about Vista is that they did do an excellent job on the total redesign of the TCP/IP stack as it is much faster on the network than XP. That is the only positive thing I can say about Vista.
Face it, it's a consumer OS. You don't need all of that junk getting in the way of productivity. If you are in an enterprise then you are pretty much already protected. Vista is trying to protect the user from the user and that is lame.
In the xp campaign, they showed lots of close ups of the os as it helped people get their computing tasks done. They also ran more frequently.
I haven't seen a vista commercial lately, but I've seen plenty of "I'm a mac, I'm a pc" commercials.
Maybe Microsoft should do what Apple is doing and actually advertise their product more. They want to show us the Wow, then SHOW US THE WOW!
windows, but I don't think anyone made the connection to Vista.
The trouble is, Apple can run ads because they've been getting
good press on their products for the past few years.
MS can't say the same. The only good press they have gotten
says that Vista or Office 2007 is NOT a 'must-have' upgrade.
And that's in the midst of some harsher criticism.
I don't see how hard it was to simply ad DirectX effects to the GUI instead of all their so called improvements, and modifications to EULA scheme.
I've seen better features in windows 3.1 and instead of the super+tab they had a cascade feature that had more function.
See, the problem my coworker is having is that she is trying to edit a simple word doc but apparently all the built in MS auto stuff (to supposedly help her) is actually hindering her work.
She's spending more time fighting with word than it would have taken to simply rewrite the document. That's not a productivity improvement, so you have to wonder why we spent $250 on a product that actually making our work harder.
Now I suppose some word expert might have gotten the job done quickly, but how many of us have time to become word experts? and as she just told me, you just get to the point where you know how to use office and they put out a new one and change it all around.
So at the end of the day, you have two people sitting here wishing MS would stop "improving" office. That's all I really have to say...
Open Office much better, you can record and playback Macros in Excel in 4 different languages, not just VBA.
Microsoft has to stop being predatory on its consumer base {forcing us to upgrade and removing compatibilities}, start giving us the the things we want and not the things that their "market research" tells them we want.
Microsoft, quit treating paying customers like idiots.
This sort of thing is a great example of Microsoft thinking it knows better than you what you want/need. Hence the annoying 'help', like 'clippy' and other auto stuff meant to help the user. I hear my boss screaming from the other room at least once a day, too, complaining about Word.
That and the new Office doesn't 'autocorrect' any differently then the old, so she must have been swearing all along? Or is this simply made up?
You don't need to be an expert to use Word, and use it well. Spending a little time (and I mean a little) to learn the tools you use on a daily basis really makes sense.
My new MicroSoft Mantra. STFP. Solve The F*^#ing Problem.
big differences between the two companies, is that MS wants
you to do it the MS way, wheres Apple allows you to do it your
way.
Yes there are lots of examples contrary to that statement in both
OS's, but generally, I think it's true.
I use both OSX and XP, and still fine XP gets in the way of work
all the time.
So I guess their marketing slogan did success after all... sorta.
/P
Apple is going through the same thing with Leopard. Glitz, glamour, no real content change. Not enough to warrant going to a new OS.
I don't really see any company releasing revolutionary products at this point.
Having used DOS and windows machines for almost 25 years, I really didn't want to waste all that acquired knowledge by moving over to a mac or linux, but that's what's happening. I have one system that runs Vista, and if it was the only system I had to use every day, I will have a stroke, so I will not buy any more of them, as strokes are bad for you.
MS has just become another giant company, with no ability to innovate, which must convince consumers to buy their products, rather than sell products that people want to buy. They have a lot of inertia, but eventually that will all be overcome by indifference and disgust.
What is it that would give you a stroke?
Lots of people say it sucks but what of the system makes it suck?
I know personaly I had slow down issues on boot and shutdown. But that turned out to not be Vista related (at least for me)
Is it IE7?
Is it DRM?
Or is it they dumbed down so many things that it now takes more mouse clicks to do something simple? (Until you figure the shortcuts?)
Was it bad hardware as in my case with the 680i?
No matter how many people call Microsoft idiots, it comes back to this, they are not, they have some of the best and brightest working there and if anything that is their downfall, they have so many people who are computer savvy that they are almost incapable of building a OS for those not, and when they try you get Vista.
Honestly they should have listened to the crowd that matters the most to them as its what kept them afloat for many years, the developers.
MS basically has no more "wow" than IBM did, back in the days when MS was "cool".
Let the flames begins.
Seriously, there is no "Wow" factor in Vista, just an incremental
update that leaves you wondering both where all the time and
effort went to and why really you should pay for it. There's little
doubt that Vista will replace XP but this will come through
upgrades of hardware rather than people upgrading the OS on
their current PC because there is almost nothing to justify the
cost.
Vista is also not XP. When XP launched it was a revelation -
stable computing at home and that in itself justified the
upgrade from Windows 9x. XP was so much better than
Windows 9x that people wanted to upgrade but with Vista that
isn't the case.
MS really needs to release a bloatfree base OS like the Linux distros with all the added functionality as addin packages, so those of us interested in a lighter, faster performing workstation can get our fix.
Since my goal is speed + reliability, Vista has nothing to offer me over XP in either department. And since my livelihood doesn't rely on imposing DRM on the innocent, I have no reason to shill for Vista.
No wonder manufacturers everywhere are giving downgrade options to customer so they can get back to XP which is at least stable and kind of usable.
Hilarious.
And it's not your father's Oldsmobile. To make that analogy stick the car would have to burst into flames and kill all the occupants a mile and a half from the dealer's lot.
Roberto
Mac=Slick and Pretty interface refined. Winning over the users that want easier to use software
Linux= Pure utilitarian. But, they are taking that easy utilitarian market with newer more friendly distributions. Could have already put a huge crunch on Microsoft if they were more organized and combined several good distro features instead of having hundreds of variants.
For instance new computer users when faced with pop up warning messages in vista may think. What does that mean? Are you sure? Maybe not.
Power users will say ugh this is annoying get out of my way. Are you sure? H*ll yes now move!
This also is bad for them that they bent over backwards to kiss Big Entertainment's butt by sticking much more DRM on the whole OS. Customers learn from experience that when DRM doesn't work right they are the ones going to get burned because neither Microsoft nor Big Entertainment care when your fancy new dap dies and all the content is lost. You are S.O.L.
I did not like XP at first, but it had nothing to do with performance. I hated their "disneyland" GUI make over.
On top of this, Microsoft isn't exactly advertising Vista heavily. When is the last time you saw a competing ad for Vista? I've seen plenty of "I'm a mac, I'm a pc" ads, but no ads showing what vista can do for both the home user and business users.