How does Microsoft need to change?

[shaanm]

So many products of MS have been unsuccessful. Vista,Zune, MS Money, Live, Expression Suite,Silverlight and xps. My question how does MS need to change in order to be successful. What should the put into Windows 7. How can they compete with Apple and linux. Any Thoughts?

 

[loup garou]

lol

 

[Modelworks]

stop worrying about backwards compatibility and start fresh.

 

[TheoPetro]

1) I want the product to match the marketing. If you tell me that outlook 2010 is going to be the absolute shit then it damn well better be.
2) Dont you dare create more than 2 tiers of each product. Make a budget one and a full featured one. I shouldnt need a chart thats 90% marketing bullshit to tell me which version I should grab.
3) Focus on the core functionality of the product and get that shit DOWN! before you start pasting bells and whistles all over the thing. I know you think "hey bells and whistles sell the thing" but youre missing the HUGE FUCKING PICTURE. If your brand image suffers as a result of you marketing a product to be what it isnt then in the long run (5-10 yrs) you will be watching your marker share plummet.

If they could handle those 3 things I would be a happy camper and probably only go with MS products for personal and business use. They cant seem to deliver substance so I have to go to other companies for ~50% of my software needs. If they could just deliver on their marketing they would solve a lot of problems.

 

[lxskllr]

Steve Jobs would sell his mother to be as "unsuccessful" as MS ;^)

 

[jjones]

MS should just cash out before their chairman and ceo go bankrupt.



For the sarcasm impaired, the above statement may contain sarcasm, either real or imagined.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

If WHS is any sign of where they are going, I have higher hopes.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: shaanm
So many products of MS have been unsuccessful. Vista,Zune, MS Money, Live, Expression Suite,Silverlight and xps. My question how does MS need to change in order to be successful. What should the put into Windows 7. How can they compete with Apple and linux. Any Thoughts?

More than 20 million copies of Windows Vista sold in the first month.
"While it?s very early in the product lifecycle, we are setting a foundation for Windows Vista to become the fastest-adopted version of Windows ever"

Thanks to the Zune 2 firmware update and the $89 deal, the Brown Zune is outselling every other player (flash or hard drive) on Amazon.

An estimated 4.4 million people were using MS Money in 1999
Cnet gives MS Money a score of 7.3, compared to 8.0 for Quicken. link

Live is the #1 chat program in the world, so I'm not sure what your definition is success is.

Expression and Silverlight are only 1 year old

XPS is a free document format, included with all versions of Windows, and the closest thing to competion is PDF which costs $450. Millions of people own XPS writer; almost nobody owns a PDF writer.

Microsoft Reports 27% Revenue Growth; Fastest First Quarter Since 1999




Things to improve:
Different versions of Windows Vista is ok, but different types of licenses are bullshit. Scrap the OEM, scrap the Upgrade. All licenses should be the transferable "retail" license, and they should have the OEM price.

Red rings is bullshit. The Xbox 360 should use a normal computer case and have proper cooling. People made fun of how big the original Xbox was, but it worked, didn't it? People bought it, didn't they? Also, Xbox 360 should use a standard PC hard drive. Selling hard drives for literally 10x their market value is bullshit. Oh and why the hell does Xbox live cost money? It's the same as MSN Messenger or Steam on the PC, but neither of those cost money.

All backwards compatibility should be through a "compatibility mode". Windows already has this feature, and it's a good idea. Keep going in that direction. Mac OS did the same emulation-style compatibility when changing from OS 9 to OS X.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
stop worrying about backwards compatibility and start fresh.

They can't do that without pissing off the business customers.

I think for th emost part everything except the core OS branch of Microsoft is going well.

 

[Snapster]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy

Originally posted by: Modelworks
stop worrying about backwards compatibility and start fresh.

They can't do that without pissing off the business customers.

I think for th emost part everything except the core OS branch of Microsoft is going well.

They can get around this by virtualising XP/Vista OS and that leaves them able to do what they want with a new OS. Given that we already use quad core CPU's with 6/8 core on the horizon it's quite feasible to dedicate one core to a guest OS.

 

[Czar]

Just make everything cheaper.... if you bought Vista Unlimited for $50 you would be more forgiving about where it fails than if you bought it for $400 or more. Plus just about everyone would buy a copy instead of pirating.