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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week
10/01/2008 In the
valley of the jolly – ho ho ho – green giant ..... If you
remember that song by The Kingsmen you must have gone to high school in the
early 1960’s, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest too. Music has
changed a lot since those days of innocence, and even who the green giant is
has changed. Back then
the green giant was the advertising mascot for the vegetable producer Libby
foods, but now the green giant - or big green - has come to mean Microsoft. And
things are not so Jolly in the valley of today’s Green Giant ... It’s founder Bill Gates has left the company to become a full
–time philanthropist – and kudos for him for becoming the modern
Andrew Carnegie of his generation. But
Gates’ 2 recent tv commercials for Microsoft’s Vista – aided by
comedian Jerry Seinfeld – have left people scratching their heads about
the effectiveness of the ads, and why Microsoft – known to many as an
aging techno-company past its prime– would tie themselves to an aging
comedian - past his prime. I thought
the first ad was funny – showing Gates buying shoes in a Shoe Circus
mall shoe store, and when the salesmen asks him “Are you a shoe circus
clown club member? “ Gates
says “Platinum” and show a picture of himself as a very young
even nerdier looking Bill Gates, taken when
Microsoft was just starting out - in Albuquerque New Mexico.
But
Microsoft’s other online project – The Mojave Experiment
– available online on a Microsoft
site and also on Youtube - has industry watchers also scratching their
heads. The
Mojave Experiment is an advertising effort by Microsoft to ask people what
they think of Windows Vista, when they don’t know that it is Vista. Instead its introduced to a group of supposedly regular people as
“a new Microsoft operating system” and these people are soon oohing and ahhing over all the
features. These
people had previously rated Vista an average or 4.4
– but they rated Mojave almost twice as high – at 8.5, and then
at the end of the demo they’re told that Mojave actually is Vista. I guess
this is supposed to prove that Vista has such a negative reputation that
Microsoft has felt called upon to defend it in this manner. But this ad plays
into the hands of the Apple ads which show the young hip cool looking guy
who’s an Apple user, against the totally nerdy dweeb who’s a PC
user, and into the theme that Apples are easier to use than PC’s
– especially PC’s running Vista. Apple has
always has a small segment of the pc business market, but it’s
introduction of its music Ipod and cellphone I-phone have helped Apple to
increase its overall market share, and to attract more and more young pc
users. Microsoft’s
Zune music player is an also ran, and Microsoft hasn’t exactly
dominated in cell phones either. So rather
than defending Vista you’d think they’d be putting their efforts into
better products that work better and do more. We’ll
have to see what the post-Gates Microsoft does. |
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For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2008 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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