Is MS moving too slowly or just not doing enough news-worthy stuff?

[bsayegh]

I usually read forums like WPCentral and Engadget to get my tech news. I have a WP, use a Windows PC, and am generally invested in the Windows ecosystem.

It seems like every time I check Engadget (or any other non-MS-specific tech site), all I see is "Google is doing this, Google is doing that, another Android tablet is out, Google Glass used for something"... and so on. I don't blame Google for making moves, more power to them.

I hardly ever see anything out of Microsoft. Maybe I will see a review for a new laptop or something, but I rarely see that much in the way of actual news. It seems like they aren't doing anything. Maybe they just take too long to make decisions or release updates? Maybe they aren't taking enough risks (aside from the huge windows 8 thing). It could be a bias toward Google, but I don't really get that impression. It just seems like MS isn't doing enough right now.

Does anyone else get that impression?

 

[radmanvr]

Microsoft reminds me of a company called Blizzard Entertainment. They both either move slow or are very tight so that no news or leaks are reviewed until everything is ready. The keywords to remember are soon™

 

[bsayegh]

Microsoft reminds me of a company called Blizzard Entertainment. They both either move slow or are very tight so that no news or leaks are reviewed until everything is ready. The keywords to remember are soon™

Nintendo is similar, and while I can understand the logic, its also a problem. There isn't enough buzz going about their products. The idea that a company doesn't want their idea to get stolen is kind of silly these days. When you release a product or some new tech, it takes like a week before another company announces a similar product. I think its better to create buzz and give users a reason to be excited about a company and its products.

 

[gsquared]

Microsoft is a very big company servicing many different areas. If you were to collect all of these in one location you may be very surprised at how much "news worthy" information they release. As far as WP specific. This website has no shortage of information that gets released daily.

If you are looking for a grand slam everyday of the week I think you will remain disappointed.

 

[stmav]

I have the RSS app on my WP set up for Microsoft news and Windows Phone news. There is no lack of articles and information coming in daily. Some good stuff on Lenovo and Vizio products this morning. Maybe you should ask Engadget why they can't seem to find as much news as other writers and sites do.

 

[bsayegh]

Microsoft is a very big company servicing many different areas. If you were to collect all of these in one location you may be very surprised at how much "news worthy" information they release. As far as WP specific. This website has no shortage of information that gets released daily.

If you are looking for a grand slam everyday of the week I think you will remain disappointed.

I don't need a grand slam every day, but maybe a base hit? Its true that they are a huge company and are involved in many different businesses, but that is all the more reason for me to expect more news. WPCentral does a great job of reporting on their phones, but what about new ideas and productions and innovations?

An example is that right now the biggest selling point for the Surface Pro is that it can run native Windows programs and is essentially a tablet with the capabilities of a laptop. I have heard recently that both Apple and Google are working on tablets that work similarly (although with their own respective platforms). When I hear news like that, I would expect MS to announce something new an interesting that they intend to add to the Surface Pro 3 or an upgrade to the Surface Pro 2 that should keep it ahead of its competitors. I know its still early, but this is just an example.

There isn't a ton of buzz about Surface or Windows 8 tablets to begin with, but now their competitors are coming out with products that will most likely blow it out of the water in terms of sales. This would be the time for MS to defend the fort and offer some information on why their products are leading the way and not being left behind.

 

[Shouvik Mazumdar]

Well see , MS at one point of time was almost becoming irrelevant in the fastly moving mobile landscape. It however woke up , did everything in its power to rise as a phoenix and you know what it did. It really did a good job , but how good is good enough ? So to answer your query , MS is doing good but the problem is MS is not doing anything radically different. Most of it is already done by some one else , so probably editors dont find them news worthy


I do have a popular crib against MS. Their PR agency is not doing enough. They spent dollars in advertisements which have limited reach. For example I wont spend $ in making a video about chromebook but instead divert the resources in earning favorable reviews from the websites. Dichotomy is , it is unfair to influence reviews and MS in that way is doing a clean and neat job.

So alternative is , do a product blitzkreig. For example Windows Phone 8.1 could have been released in 2013 Q1 instead of the three not so big GDR updates. I understand they make sense but come on , if you are coming late , if you are struggling to make a mark , you have to do something right. So deploy more folks , get the updates quickly , give more options to change the theme colors. You can argue that MS got the app gap right , so how much is actually enough ?

Thats my personal view. I love everything MS , but there are certain thing it just doesnt get right

 

[bsayegh]

So alternative is , do a product blitzkreig. For example Windows Phone 8.1 could have been released in 2013 Q1 instead of the three not so big GDR updates. I understand they make sense but come on , if you are coming late , if you are struggling to make a mark , you have to do something right. So deploy more folks , get the updates quickly , give more options to change the theme colors. You can argue that MS got the app gap right , so how much is actually enough ?

Its NEVER enough. They should be getting it all out there as much as possible. I am okay with the idea of waiting a long time to release an update if the update is huge and something that you absolutely have to get right. There will probably be aspects of 8.1 that make or break the OS, and I want them to take as long as they need to get it right. But not everything needs to wait for 8.1. They can still make small but noticeable updates and improvements over time. Windows 8 needs some good press, and the more information people have about what is being done to improve the experience, the better.

They need to start coming up with unique ideas. Start selling Kinect as a separate product that can control things in your home without requiring an xbox. Make some changes to Windows Phone that make it the leader. Live tiles, while cool, are rarely used for anything THAT interesting, and while I like the way I can configure my home screen, I think they need something bigger to bank on.

Im sure they have some ideas up their sleeve, but being tight lipped about it hasn't helped them at all. They don't have to explain the hows and the whens, but at least the whats and the whys.

 

[HeyCori]

Well it's the holidays so not much is going to be announced. That's why CES is happening after everyone finished their holiday shopping. However, the WP 8.1 update is taking much longer than anyone thought. Though to MS's credit, if the rumors of the WP, WinRT merger pan out than it's understandable why it's taking so long. Carriers are also partly to blame. Why did MS develop a stand alone Xbox Music app? Because Xbox Music is baked into the OS and any update would have to get carrier approval. Considering carriers are only good for about 1.5 updates a year MS can't waste an update on just their Music app, so now they have to make a separate app which takes away time and resources from other more important stuff.

 

[gsquared]

And we finally get right down to it ("Its NEVER enough"). I don't think it would matter what MSFT did, it would not satisfy you.

Tell ya what bsayegh. Why don't you go apply to MSFT and make sure you tell them how bad of a job they are doing during the interview and that you would do better. I'll put my money on the interview being ten minutes or less.

 

[bsayegh]

And we finally get right down to it ("Its NEVER enough"). I don't think it would matter what MSFT did, it would not satisfy you.

Tell ya what bsayegh. Why don't you go apply to MSFT and make sure you tell them how bad of a job they are doing during the interview and that you would do better. I'll put my money on the interview being ten minutes or less.

I don't mean they have to ALWAYS be releasing new info, but they do need to do it more consistently. They need to keep the excitement up about their products. Nobody even knew when they updated the Surface hardware recently. That sort of thing should be in the news! Most of the tech sites I read were surprised that MS basically snuck the update in without anyone knowing.

Microsoft is still stuck with their old marketing PR philosophy. They are so worried about their IP that they are missing out on the opportunity to make people interested in their products. If they have an ace up their sleeve, they should at least hint at it so people know that its worth looking forward to.

Im not saying I could do a better job marketing, but apparently Google and Apple do a better job of marketing. Those are the ones they should be worrying about.

 

[Chris_Kez]

I get what the OP is saying, and I agree that MS needs to push their PR department to get out more buzz, but a lot of this is perception (which becomes reality) and a lot of it comes down to corporate mission.

First, you need to separate 1st party/"corporate" news from 3rd party/"partner" news. Both Apple and Google (just like MS) tend to focus their communications around a few key events each year (a developer conference and a few consumer-focused events to announce product/service updates. MS also participates in IT stuff that gets almost no coverage. Outside of these events you hear relatively little directly from any of these companies.

The Apple and Google events capture more attention because they have a much larger presence in the mobile world that tech blogs and mass media tends to cover. Similarly, they generate a lot more speculation and rumor-mongering that fills up the tech blogs. This coverage is not necessarily proportional to the amount of work or innovation happening at these companies- it is a function of consumer interest and sites wanting to generate hits.

In terms of what they're actually doing, it's not that Apple and Google are innovating every day while MS stands still. I might argue they're actually doing more than Apple or Google. MS just re-invented and continues to update the world's most popular desktop OS. This far outpaces what Apple has done to change OS X (though there are clearly a lot of issues with Win8). MS just released the most innovative gaming console ever. They've taken huge steps to move Office from a desktop product to a cloud-based service (and a touch-based relaunch is imminent). They're doing a ton of stuff with Azure that no one ever hears about. Windows Phone has gotten three updates since launch (albeit relatively small ones; and clearly WP8 is still well behind the competition) and will see a major update this Spring. Clearly MS is doing A LOT. Apple and Google are tech "darlings" whereas MS has a reputation as either the "evil empire" or the "productivity" software company that you use at/for work. Google gets a lot of press for obviously cool stuff like self-driving cars or weather balloon mesh networks. Meanwhile MS has a very advanced R&D function that is probably the largest in the world but almost no one hears about it. MS just can't seem to proselytize or productize their research. If you pay very close attention you will hear snippets of what is happening but MS definitely needs to get more of it into public view.

3rd Party/"partner" news is really where the disparity is. The explosion of iOS and Android has created a huge developer, accessory and experience ecosystem. 3rd party devs and manufacturers are out doing all this new stuff with iOS and Android but not with MS. And that's why you get a steady stream of news about new uses for iDevices or Android devices (and lots and lots of new Android devices themselves). On the MS side, you get very little in the way of news that doesn't come from Redmond. You get Nokia announcements, a smattering of WP news from other manufacturers, and then large heapings of laptop/desktop (and now a little table) news around CES or the introduction of a new chipset. You'll notice most of that is hardware-related. Very few people are using Windows, Windows RT or Windows Phone as a software platform to develop "cool" new experiences that are going to rack up stories on the major tech blogs. Paul Thurrott wrote a great article last week about this, noting that the biggest danger facing Windows is simple indifference. People just don't especially care about Windows. They're looking at Android and iOS to deliver the next generation of digital experiences.

Sorry for the long-winded answer. I guess I'd say MS does need to do a little more, but more importantly they need to get other folks to do more with Windows.

 

[Chris_Kez]

If they have an ace up their sleeve, they should at least hint at it so people know that its worth looking forward to.

Again, I get what you're saying but it just isn't that easy to do. And what exactly should they hint at? Planned updates to Windows and WP are routinely leaked well in advance (e.g. Cortana, Notification Center, touch-based Office apps for all platforms, development of a "single" Windows store, the merging of Windows Phone/RT, etc. etc. etc.). IIRC an entire Xbox road-map got out a little over a year ago.

Directly sharing stuff that is half-baked or only exists as a vision is a huge risk. They risk creating expectations they can't meet, or incensing consumers who freak out over any perceived change (and when you talk about something like Windows and it's billion users you can expect a lot of bad press any time you do anything).

Despite my arguing all the reasons why they can't/won't generate more news, as a WP fan I would LOVE to hear more from them- and I hope we see a move away from the "shut up and ship" mentality. How about a "describe and deliver" mentality instead?

 

[bsayegh]

I totally agree with what you are saying, Chris. I have heard of someone of the cool ideas they come up with in R&D and never do anything with because they cant monetize it. It sucks because a lot of times I will hear about something and then get let down when it basically disappears.

There is a lot of apathy toward MS. They are viewed as the evil empire (all of the tech empires are equally evil, its a business after all) while Apple is viewed as ground breaking and artistic and Google is viewed as slightly edgy and is the most powerful internet company. I actually think that perception would be helped if they would speak more about their cool R&D stuff that doesn't go anywhere. As long as the company LOOKS like it is trying to do something new, people will take notice. Google does that all the time. A lot of things they have produced will probably never be profitable, but are still interesting and give people that impression that Google is the future and MS is the past.

Im glad they mentioned Cortana, but that is hardly exciting. Siri is terrible. I haven't used the Google version much, I can only hope it is better. With the WP voice commands I can open an app, search the web, call someone, or text someone. It isn't the most amazing thing in the world, but it works well. I use those functions fairly often while I am driving. The only thing that I really feel like is missing is the ability to play a song through voice commands. Having Siri read the weather report is nifty the first time you hear it, but how often do people REALLY use that?

Also, Cortana is just another thing that someone else came up with and not MS is late to the party. Its great that they are catching up to their competitors, but that's all Cortana is going to do. Same thing with the Notification Center. Its great that they will have it, but it should have been a while ago.

Im getting on an off topic rant now, sorry about that. MS's main issue right now is public perception, and I think they can do a lot to fix that. They need more of a presence. I hear people talking about the next iPhone or Google Fiber or Glass, but all I hear about MS is how bad Windows 8 is.

This is from the perspective of a person who likes MS and enjoys their products. I want to see them succeed but I feel like they are taking the wrong approach. They are like what Nintendo is to gaming. Nintendo is the most silent company I have ever heard of. You don't know about anything they are doing until it was released a week ago. They got overtaken by competitors (MS, ironically?) and arent willing to change enough to compete. MS CAN compete. They have the products, the talent, and the consumer base. I think being more open would help them greatly.

 

[jomarr]

I think Microsoft is moving at the right pace.

Windows Phone 8 was a step in the right direction.

Windows 8, admittedly I wasn't too keen on the release, RT as well (I still find RT a tad bit useless right now since there are Full Windows 8 tablet with a great price). But now I think Windows 8 will eventually be adapted by a lot of users. The introduction of Full Windows 8 tablets at the same or cheaper price range of Android and iOS counterparts is in my opinion a great way of selling Windows 8 to the public. The key is NOT to force them with your product but to offer them justifiable alternatives. Soon enough Microsoft will have a very stable ecosystem and a decent pecentage of market share for both Windows 8 and WP8.

Hopefully by the end of 2014, all of my devices are on Windows 8. My phone is currently a Lumia 920, My laptop is Windows 7 and my tablet is a Nexus 7. I HOPE I have enough to get into Windows 8!

 

[ramonq619]

I can't wait for wp8.1 that will be very big news. It will just eclipse everything apple and Google when it gets announced

 

[bsayegh]

I can't wait for wp8.1 that will be very big news. It will just eclipse everything apple and Google when it gets announced

I hope you are right about that. Cortana and Notification Center will just catch it up to Google and Apple. They need something new and innovative.

 

[stephen_az]

I usually read forums like WPCentral and Engadget to get my tech news. I have a WP, use a Windows PC, and am generally invested in the Windows ecosystem.

It seems like every time I check Engadget (or any other non-MS-specific tech site), all I see is "Google is doing this, Google is doing that, another Android tablet is out, Google Glass used for something"... and so on. I don't blame Google for making moves, more power to them.

I hardly ever see anything out of Microsoft. Maybe I will see a review for a new laptop or something, but I rarely see that much in the way of actual news. It seems like they aren't doing anything. Maybe they just take too long to make decisions or release updates? Maybe they aren't taking enough risks (aside from the huge windows 8 thing). It could be a bias toward Google, but I don't really get that impression. It just seems like MS isn't doing enough right now.

Does anyone else get that impression?

The impression I get is that you have 20 posts and they are all variations on a theme. As to whether there is any Microsoft news, I find it ironic that you are saying that on the day the Xbox One figures were released; just after the incremental release of new Surface Pro 2's following the release of Surface Pro 2 a few months back; just after (as well) very positive press on both recent Windows Phone releases and the status of Windows Phone 8; at the same time as an array of devices running Windows 8.1 are announced at a trade show. This coincides with what exactly from Google: a couple new phones, bad press over Chromebook recalls, and communities actually passing laws to ban use of Google Glass before it is even available.

Quite frankly, if any company is giving any impression of standing still it is Google. Apple continues to release products and/or at market their stuff creatively; Amazon continues to innovate in the affordable range of the market; and Microsoft has its own hardware (acknowledged as innovative even by those who are anti-Microsoft), growth in mobile, still untouched dominance in desktop/laptop OS across every manufacturers' product lines, and control of the office software market. Google in recent months has had (either directly or by proxy) several high profile litigation losses, a few mid range product releases, and Google Glass which they have been beating to death since before Windows 8 was even released. From my perspective, Google would be the definitive back of the innovation pack if it wasn't for the fact that BlackBerry is still around. They are also more and more regularly not the darling of the press in coverage - happens to everyone eventually.

 

[snowmutt]

This is why we have this forum, to satisfy those of us who need little "tid-bits" of information just to know our OS of choice is moving forward.

And really, isn't that what we worry about? Most of us already accept that by using WP, we are a little behind the curve in tools/apps/games then the big 2. We are obviously okay with that or we would be on Android or iOS. WP obviously offers me something in the user experience that offsets the loss of any first release games or apps on iOS or all the adaptablity and choices in hardware of Android.

That doesn't mean I am okay with it staying that way. I DO want it all- the fluid, dependable experience of WP with tools, options, hardware choices, and apps/games being released for WP right along side (or at least close behind) Google's and Apple's offerings.

Hence, the need for news, gossip, rumor, and just best guesses from my fellow WPC user. Would it be great if Microsoft kinda hinted at a tool of feature coming to WP 8.1 through the grapevine every couple weeks? Sure, but then they lose the "splash" when they have one of those presentation events like for the introduction of WP 8. That truly DID knock all other news off the tech sites for a nice long period. The L920, L820, HTC 8X and 8S all had great press and interest.

I am okay with that. It just blows chunks in between big parties.

Soooo.... anybody heard anthing cool lately about WP? I am willing to listen.....

 

[Muessig]

The latest news is that WP is currently out-selling sales of iPhones in 24 markets.