Microsoft has ruled the computer world in the 90's right up until Mac OS X came out. Until that point, they called the shots, they decided what was good and bad. IE was the most liked browser in comparison to Netscape and AOL.
Then Apple released Mac OS X. For the first time, an OS wasn't just useful, it was beautiful. Shortly before, Apple started releasing computer with colours, moking their beige PC counterparts.
During that time, Microsoft released Windows XP which, at the beginning, got a lot of hatred. Then they got working on Windows Longhorn which was supposed to be XP's successor. But when they saw how popular Mac was becoming, they scrapped it and started from scratch which made Vista come out 5 years after XP... and fully slowed down and buggy.
They managed to get things right 3 years later with Windows 7 but then they acted like they were calling the shots like in the 90's and thought "We'll make this OS that's aimed entirely at touch screens!". So they took the very good product that was Windows 7, removed the start menu and button (!!!) and changed the desktop from the center of the OS to a plain app thinking people would just adapt... but people get confused when their browser gets updated and looks a little different... so imagine a whole OS!
Again, they realized they made a mistake that they tried to fix with Windows 8.1.
Sadly, the same pattern applies with Xbox Music on Windows Phone 8.1. You had a great music player called the Zune. From Zune to the Music+Video hub, they lost functionnalities (gapless playback, FM radio, etc.). But then Microsoft decides they want to add functionnalities on Xbox Music more often and include streaming so, again, they scrap the whole thing and start from sratch and they release it in the wild fully buggy and slowed...
Microsoft should really stop scrapping things and starting over. Everytime it takes immense amount of time to correct and they're always set back after their competition. Sometimes it's the best thing to scrap and start over indeed... but if you do that, you have to make sure the product you're putting out is superior to the previous one and your competitors... not worst.
Then Apple released Mac OS X. For the first time, an OS wasn't just useful, it was beautiful. Shortly before, Apple started releasing computer with colours, moking their beige PC counterparts.
During that time, Microsoft released Windows XP which, at the beginning, got a lot of hatred. Then they got working on Windows Longhorn which was supposed to be XP's successor. But when they saw how popular Mac was becoming, they scrapped it and started from scratch which made Vista come out 5 years after XP... and fully slowed down and buggy.
They managed to get things right 3 years later with Windows 7 but then they acted like they were calling the shots like in the 90's and thought "We'll make this OS that's aimed entirely at touch screens!". So they took the very good product that was Windows 7, removed the start menu and button (!!!) and changed the desktop from the center of the OS to a plain app thinking people would just adapt... but people get confused when their browser gets updated and looks a little different... so imagine a whole OS!
Again, they realized they made a mistake that they tried to fix with Windows 8.1.
Sadly, the same pattern applies with Xbox Music on Windows Phone 8.1. You had a great music player called the Zune. From Zune to the Music+Video hub, they lost functionnalities (gapless playback, FM radio, etc.). But then Microsoft decides they want to add functionnalities on Xbox Music more often and include streaming so, again, they scrap the whole thing and start from sratch and they release it in the wild fully buggy and slowed...
Microsoft should really stop scrapping things and starting over. Everytime it takes immense amount of time to correct and they're always set back after their competition. Sometimes it's the best thing to scrap and start over indeed... but if you do that, you have to make sure the product you're putting out is superior to the previous one and your competitors... not worst.