Book of the Month

Shuts and Failures

by Michael Maiello

In Confusing Turn of Events, Microsoft Appears to Be Cool Again

by artappraiser 10/27/2012 - 1:16 am

By Kevin Roose, Daily Intel @ nymag.com, October 26, 2012

[....] here are photos from the New York launch of Microsoft's Surface tablets and its Windows 8 operating system yesterday, which appear to show sentient, well-informed humans in a state of excitement about Microsoft's new products: [....]

When did this happen? Seeing a joyous throng of cosmopolitan techies frothing at the mouth over Microsoft products feels like seeing your 1998 Airwalk shoes on a Fashion Week runway, or hearing Weird Al at an Ibiza rave. It's even weirder that, per TechCrunch, some of the Microsoft fans were displaying Apple-fanboy-like behavior, such as waiting in line for a voucher that entitled them to a future product [....]

Read the full article at http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/microsofts-confusing-popularity.html

I liked the comment calling Apple the "Leni Riefenstahl of technology".

I don't recall Microsoft going through techland like Sherman through Georgia or Islam under the First Caliphate.

If you think of Google killing off media's advertising revenue, Apple using the patent system like an anthrax threat, and Facebook holding your nearest and dearest hostage for primo bucks, you realize Microsoft is just quaintly nostalgically corporately evil, not Über-evil. 

(after the suits against Samsung where having soft corners is grounds for a team of billion dollar lawyers - oops, too bad that juror prejudiced the court and it'll all be thrown out - and Apple's mocking court-ordered "apology" in the UK this week, Apple is flushing it's reputation down the Zuckerberg toilet - there's elite and then there's spoiled and petulant, and there's a shark's worth of difference - Tim? Tim Cook? you listening?)

I mean, Steve Ballmer is too much a parody of himself to be scary - he can't even make his revenue targets, more the loudmouthed guy at the BBQ talking Lions vs. Packers.

And well, those surface tabs do look cute as do a few other Win8 devices. After all, no one can really tell if I have an iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 unless I wave it at them, and iPads are so 2011, and the mini is just a wannabe mini-Me oops, I mean here. Mars Needs Women new compelling consumer electronic devices at an attractive price point to show your friends and purchase before Christmas season.

 

by PeraclesPlease 10/27/2012 - 2:32 am

I think it's too late for Microsoft to get back to cool, but just as Gates handed openings to Apple that Jobs stepped through, Apple could cede the initiative to Microsoft if it tried.  I doubt that will happen, because Microsoft is so hideously mismanaged, where Apple is more driven by tech people and has been nimbler.  We'll know more 3-5 years after Jobs.

by Articleman 10/28/2012 - 3:43 pm (re: PeraclesPlease)

When was Microsoft ever cool?  

That never was part of their business plan.  Microsoft beat original Apple by targeting the business and education markets where standardization is a feature, not a bug.  Remember that they teamed with IBM early on when IBM was still the go to company for business operations technology.

by EmmaZahn 10/28/2012 - 6:18 pm

Latest Comments

more