People would actually come to me for simple PC problems. Everything in Windows universe just made sense to me. But as the software giant became more and more bloated, so did their flagship platform. This is how my love for them started to wane.
Do not misunderstand me. I love their products. But lately, much of what they do is uninspired. Zune is merely an iPod. It's a better iPod. The hardware is better. The software is better. It's better. But at it's core, it's just an iPod.
Simple. Elegant. Functional.
This is something iTunes has lost as it has aged.
Windows, though still infinitely better than Mac OS, is starting to look more and more like Mac OS. If I wanted a Mac, I'd buy a Mac. I don't want a Mac, which is why I bought a Windows 7 machine. But Windows 7 is taking a lot of cues from Mac OS, and they aren't good cues.
Windows 7 is trying to keep the powerful architecture that it's based on while trying to dumb it down for the average user. It's not working. Windows 7 is great. I love what they've done under the hood. It's allowed developers to do things that just aren't likely to happen on Mac OS. But the user interface, the part that I interact with, has been stripped to it's core, making it difficult to access that power underneath. I miss the Windows XP UI.
Microsoft is trying too hard to stay viable in a consumer market that, every day, wants and needs them less and less. This puts me in a place that feels awkward and has me looking to other companies for what I need and want. On one hand, I love Windows, but Apple's iOS has shown me that I don't need Windows for the day to day things. However, as I talk about in a previous post, iOS doesn't do enough. So, I'm looking to Google and their Android Honeycomb OS to give me that iOS simplicity while giving me that Windows freedom and power.
Ever since the N64 launched, Nintendo has had problems fulfilling all of my video game wants. Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy 1 and 2 are amazing. The Legend of Zelda offers me things that no one else has managed to match. But, sometimes I just want to shoot something. Sometimes I want to smash a car into a wall and watch it crumple under the kinetic force that has been created, and all in stunning HD. Nintendo isn't in that market, and they don't need to be. Sony tried to fill that market, and for me, they haven't done so well. Microsoft did this wonderfully with the Xbox 360. Xbox LIVE is unmatched and often borrowed from. XBox LIVE Arcade has almost single handedly created a market for downloadable games, something people mistakenly give Apple's iPhone credit for.
Windows Phone is a fresh attempt at entering an over crowded smart phone market. The UI is as simple as iOS and as powerful as Android. It's the best of both worlds. But Microsoft's slow, bloated business model has gotten in the way of shining. In my opinion, Windows Phone will be nothing more than a stain on the company in less than two years.
I bought a Windows 7 powered PC because this is a freaking mess!
Stop trying to be them.
I believe that Microsoft should abandon the consumer market with two exceptions.
The Xbox brand has somehow managed to escape the clutches of Microsoft's slow moving executives. Microsoft has the ability to maintain it's status as a video game juggernaut if they keep corporate hands off of it. Halo took the first person shooter and propelled it into the most popular form of gaming. Xbox LIVE is the standard to which all gamers look when glancing over online gaming solutions. Xbox LIVE Arcade is what Sony's PSN and Nintendo's Virtual Console and WiiWare/DSWare strive to be. It's the iTunes of digital game stores.
Zune hardware should be abandoned. Zune software and Zune Pass should be made available to other mobile platforms. Imagine the audience Microsoft would gain by making Zune available for Android, Blackberry, and Web OS. By simply making it available for Android, Microsoft would surpass Apple in that market and probably keep Google out of it or, at the very least, make it harder for Google to break into it.
Let me be clear. Microsoft should continue to supply individuals with Windows and Office. Individuals still need Windows. Android is helped a lot by having a traditional PC to interact with, though Google is trying to make it more and more independent of that. iOS isn't even functional without a PC running iTunes to hook it up to. But my mom, who just wants to check her email, listen to music (that she can get digitally these days) and surf the internet doesn't NEED a PC. Apple sees this. Google sees this. Microsoft sees this. Microsoft just chooses to ignore it.
Make Office available on those same platforms I mentioned above. Keep doing it on Windows and Mac, just also do it on a simpler OS.
The world is changing, and Microsoft is fighting that change in its core markets. I still like the company. They make great products superior to anything else out there. But these new markets and new challengers are moving too fast for the mega-company. It's okay to step back and admit defeat. The sooner Microsoft does this, the sooner they can continue to do what they do best. Windows is unrivaled. Don't make it look like your inferior competitor because he's enjoying a few moments of fame with a market that you aren't even in. Zune is great for all the things it does that iTunes doesn't. Stop trying to make it the next iTunes. Xbox 360 is fantastic. Let Nintendo do their thing. You just keep doing your thing.
So how do I feel about Microsoft? I'd have to say this is sort of a love/hate feeling. Compared to Apple, I love them. But the direction they're moving in is confusing and clouded by a lack focus. And so, I'm looking more and more to the company I've grown to love: Google.
2 comments:
One big problem Microsoft has that Apple doesn't is the complete lack of innovation. No one looks to Microsoft for what new software or products they bring to the market. Apple on the other hand (love or hate them) brings new innovative products and ways of interacting with technology to the market. Apple also has a knack of building hardware that is pleasant to use. The feel of the product in your hand and the visual aesthetic of the product. This is something the PC world has never really gotten. Microsoft as a business model sees something that works and is somewhat cool and buys it, this is how they have gotten to be so much bloat in their OS. They never started from scratch and tried to start from the beginning and make an elegant and useful product. Even their flagship software Microsoft Office was primarily purchased from another innovator. That in my opinion is their major problem.
Thanks for reading, whoever you are (I have my suspicions).
I think that, between the two posts I've written already, I've said most of what you mentioned, though I disagree that Apple brings anything new or innovative to the table.
Apple likes to talk about copy machines, but they're the king of copying. What they do is improve greatly on the product that they've copied and marketed it well, all while taking credit for creating it. It must be working, because you seem to think that they created these products and markets. The iPod isn't an original idea. The iPhone isn't an original idea. The iPad isn't an original idea. Those products are merely greatly improved versions of what they're based on.
That's not to say Apple hasn't created anything. I'm not familiar enough with Apple's entire catalog of products enough to make a claim like that.
I'm not saying Microsoft is innovative, either. They're a lot of things, but innovative isn't one of them. I'm quick to point out that Apple stole the graphical user interface and mouse from Xerox. Likewise, Bill Gates stole it from Apple (which I suppose is like stealing it from Xerox).
I could argue here all day, but I did that already in my previous posts, which you can find a link to at the bottom of the original article.
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