Microsoft has never learned how to compete

[Jeff Wexler]

Microsoft has never learned how to compete --- try making "insanely great products" for a change.

 

The latest ads, surely in bad taste (and Microsoft has pulled the videos from YouTube today)

If the executive in the videos is intended to resemble Steve Jobs, then they would appear to be in very poor taste. It's not at all clear how the videos -- which don't ever explain how Windows Phone is better than iOS -- help Microsoft achieve its stated goal of getting users to switch to its platform.

 

http://youtu.be/avO5FXj7K-c

 

Microsoft gave this statement to The Next Web: "The video was intended to be a light-hearted poke at our friends from Cupertino. But it was off the mark, and we’ve decided to pull it down."

[Philip Perkins]

I think Microsoft has had terrible marketing practically always.  But it still competes very well (Windows OS, Office etc) and generates bales of cash.  

 

philp

[John Blankenship]

I don't know about bad taste, but it was definitely bad.

 

I constantly underestimate Microsoft... just when I think their advertising can't get any worse, they prove me wrong.

[Wandering Ear]

That video is terrible.

[Henchman]

Pretty much on the money though.

[Mirror]

Never thought I'd agree with henchman but I do on this one.  Offensive?  How's that, unless Apple is your religion instead  of just a computer co.  As far as the guy looking like Steve Jobs - How would that be in bad taste unless you put him in the same vain that the Muslims put Muhammad.

 

All in all it was an unexciting video but nothing to get worked up over. 

[soundslikejustin]

In the video, one guy is obviously Jony Ive (design) - blue shirt, very short hair.

The other one is referred to as 'T' - most likely Tim Cook.

Not offensive in that light, just a bad ad.

[Jeff Wexler]

It is fairly obvious that Microsoft realized these ads were in bad taste otherwise they wouldn't have pulled all 7 ads so quickly. What I find offensive is that the main guy that Jony Ive and the women are talking to is unquestionably supposed to be Steve Jobs --- the thinning hair patterned after Jobs, the thin neck and so forth, and Steve Jobs was already dead when this "meeting" was supposed to have happened. I know it is satyrical and all but I think it's disrespectful. Putting it in historical perspective, Microsoft wouldn't even be trying to sell a Windows phone today if Steve Jobs and Apple had never produced the iPhone.

[Constantin]

I think Microsoft has had terrible marketing practically always. But it still competes very well (Windows OS, Office etc) and generates bales of cash.

philp

I think the veryreason why we actually know the name Microsoft today, is because of very good marketing. In the past. They were ripping off (or licensing) other company's failed product's (which were perceived to be worthless) and accompanied that by good marketing strategy. Windows was never good, let alone better than the competition, but they did get a few other things right

[Philip Perkins]

Windows works fine for me, about as well as the current Mac OS.  They both have things that piss me off, and other things that are good.  When I say terrible marketing, I mean their sort of lame attempts to imitate Apple marketing and design.  

 

philp

[taylormadeaudio]

Kinda reminds me of Coke & Pepsi... ah, free enterprise : )

~tt

[Matt Brodnick]

 Microsoft wouldn't even be trying to sell a Windows phone today if Steve Jobs and Apple had never produced the iPhone.

 

I have to disagree. Windows Mobile and other MS based platforms have been around long before Apple considered entering telecom. Even the design of the first iPhone was largely bits and pieces from several other manufacturers' hardware and software.  

 

When it comes to marketing however, Apple is king. And that's really their main influence on the industry (and their customers)

[Marc Wielage]

It is fairly obvious that Microsoft realized these ads were in bad taste otherwise they wouldn't have pulled all 7 ads so quickly. What I find offensive is that the main guy that Jony Ive and the women are talking to is unquestionably supposed to be Steve Jobs --- the thinning hair patterned after Jobs, the thin neck and so forth, and Steve Jobs was already dead when this "meeting" was supposed to have happened.

 

I thought that was in unbelievably bad taste. The whole thing looked so cheap and crappy, I was sure it was some fan-made short, not something actually commissioned by Microsoft. The fact that the company actually did it is almost beyond belief. 

 

To me, the best way to sell a product is to tell us how good it is... don't just put down your competitor. That just makes you like like a whiney jerk. I can't even remember a time where Apple has shown a competitor's product in a sales presentation or a new product introduction. At most, they'd have somebody like Steve Jobs say, "we looked at the tablets on the market and decided they weren't good enough. So we at Apple did this." And that works. Don't haul out a Windows tablet and ridicule it directly. That's just tacky.

 

I always admired the sales tactics of Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes salespeople. You bring up a competing high-end car, and the salespeople will nod and say, "yes, that's a very fine car. But let me show you what ours can do." They never bad-mouth the competition; they always show respect.

[John Blankenship]

It's amazing to me how frequently people neglect to realize that if you put down a competitor's product, essentially saying "it's crap -- my product is better," that you've just told the world that your product is better than crap -- not a glowing recommendation.

[Johnathan Sessoms]

Both good, both bad. Now, if they combined....hmmm...

[Marc Wielage]

Both good, both bad. Now, if they combined....hmmm...

 

Given some of their recent decisions, we might get the worse of both worlds!