Comments on: Microsoft: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

By: Michael Schaffner

Michael Schaffner — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:26:45 +0000

Excellent post. It really sums up well the situation that Microsoft has positioned themselves in. Timothy Totten’s comments are spot on.

Steve B., help us out here. Give us a reason to buy.

By: Timothy Totten

Timothy Totten — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:27:40 +0000

One of the biggest mistakes they’ve made is not having the “ahh” feature or explanation available. I’m not a techie (my computer is four years old and I’ve still only used 25% of the harddrive space) and I can’t figure out why I need Vista.
When I ask my tech-loving, computer geek friends to explain the advantages of Vista, they can’t. They mention the improved file browsing (now with MORE GRAPHICS!) and the fact that it looks more like the Mac OS. One blog mentions an improved Media Center. But improved how? No one will say.
New car models generate big sales (and buzz) when they do something different that can be explained in a few words. The Hummer H3 had good initial sales because it was “a smaller Hummer with better gas mileage.”
New George Foreman grills have “dishwasher-safe removable plates.”
Macs are “less susceptible to viruses” than their counterparts.
But what is Vista? Why is it better than XP?
Until Microsoft tells us, we won’t be buying it.

By: John Whiteside

John Whiteside — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:11:02 +0000

Well, this is the discussion that was floating around marketing blogland when it was released, wasn’t it? I think it’s actually a very important product – just not in ways that mean anything to users today.

The commenter you quote summarizes the whole issue nicely. XP is the Windows OS that made me stop using a Mac as primary computer – I actually find it (in UI terms) superior to OS X (a very personal preference, I know), and it gives me fewer problems than my last Mac did.

But I think MS was trapped on this one – after all the talk of “Longhorn” over the years, they probably felt like they had to make noise about it, no matter how little most real users were going to care.