Why is Microsoft's Image still tainted?

Bright Chen

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WpCentral feels like a zen garden, where I can get away from the hate of a company I admire and would love a career in.

Windows Phone and Windows 8 are children of a company that has learnt a harsh lesson from Win Vista, Internet Explorer 8 & down (10 is awesome) and some other blunders. People in the tech industry are so MEDEVIAL sometimes: 'Oh, you can't be allowed to enter my land...because your great-great grandfather's brother's wife's cousin's second sister has defied the king for dropping a fork while dining at his palace' That's how the media, the devs and many consumers are treating Microsoft. Windows Vista sucked...so EVERYTHING ASSOCIATED WITH MICROSOFT sucks. If you follow the news, Google, Apple and Adobe have replaced Microsoft as the bullys on the block. Google offers paid ads in search, Apple sues the **** out of companies while still copies without blushing, Adobe FORCED creative minds into their creative cloud system, FORCING them to pay monthly for a fundamental suite of software needed to work.
I know as a fact that thousands work for Microsoft, in them hundreds of smart and bright minds work to create a better world for YOU, they work their arses off at the drawing board, whilst still enjoying themselves in inventing, and what they get? Haters. If you tell Microsoft that they are a **** company who has no right to exist, you are insulting creative minds who might actually be more smart, intelligent...more...sane and humane than you.

Yeah...That's how I feel while reading the Forbes' article on how Windows Phone is failing. I don't like hating, but justified loathing of certain company in a sane manner is perfectly acceptable, Microsoft just happens to drill itself into my soft spot in the last two years. It changed the world, it got cocky for a decade, tried to fix itself but the world isn't helping. Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 now shines as my devices' main platform, because I love what Microsoft has done.

As a sidenote, I have not forgotten Nokia. Nokia's image as a falling innovator just saddens me. Unlike Microsoft, who I have distanced myself from in 2007 for obvious reasons, Nokia's name just radiates experience, iconic and yeah, 3310, and my first mobile as a nokia, whose name I have sadly forgotten, my first smartphone a nokia x6. Nokia has my respect to still innovate when half the world has given up. Nokia managed to still shock.

So, what do the folks say? Why is Microsoft's image still tainted, even after the rebranding in 2011?:
 

martinmc78

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You want to see hate check out eurogamer.net - anything they publish on anything MS does gets absolutely smashed in the comments by Sony or Apple fanboys. Have never seen anything like it.

Personally I think all the hate comes from fear mixed with a pang of jealousy. MS are really starting to get their sh*t together and I don't think people can take it. W8 is a beautiful OS that is a joy to use on touchscreen, WP8 follows suit. The surface RT and Pro are without a shadow of a doubt the 2 best tablets in their respective classes from a styling and usability standpoint and with the upcoming xbox one about to revolutionise home entertainment. I don't think people can stand it, their beloved iproducts, android toys and Sony's console effort are all about to be found wanting by a company many had written off as one that just pumps out enterprise software.
 

WP7_Genius

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I just think its too many people holding on to the past. Windows mobile has tainted peoples image of it and they think WP7/8 is the same when its not. I like WP8/W8 even though people miss the start button and a few other things I think if more people gave it a chance and realize they are not who they used to be then it would greatly help with sales from a phone perspective. I have been into ATT and Verizon stores and no sales person I speak too even mentions WP just try to push iPhone and Android and say how lame Windows is because everyone raises a stink about apps. I advise all friends and family WP over iOS or Droid. Some listened and some didn't.
 

Chregu

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Everybody liked or at least respected Windows 7, however many people don't like Windows 8 which was just incredibly rushed. Windows Phone 8 is more or less in the same state as Windows Phone 7, but had Zune replaced with the terrible X-Box music and updates are disappointingly slow. Everything regarding the X-Box One presentation was just one incredible PR disaster. Personally I bought Office 2013 just because of the new Outlook, but it was either worse or equal to Office 2010 so I switched back.

Microsoft releases good products and I use a lot of them, but personally I'm obviously still quite critical. Why should anybody change his or her mind who really didn't like Microsoft in the first place?
 

ag1986

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You want to see hate check out eurogamer.net - anything they publish on anything MS does gets absolutely smashed in the comments by Sony or Apple fanboys. Have never seen anything like it.

Personally I think all the hate comes from fear mixed with a pang of jealousy. MS are really starting to get their sh*t together and I don't think people can take it. W8 is a beautiful OS that is a joy to use on touchscreen, WP8 follows suit. The surface RT and Pro are without a shadow of a doubt the 2 best tablets in their respective classes from a styling and usability standpoint and with the upcoming xbox one about to revolutionise home entertainment. I don't think people can stand it, their beloved iproducts, android toys and Sony's console effort are all about to be found wanting by a company many had written off as one that just pumps out enterprise software.

1. W8 is nice on a touchscreen but it doesn't actually do anything special apart from that. This was cocked up in usual MS fashion by allowing it to be launched on non-touchscreen PCs. And people's one touchstone of the Windows UI, the Start button... you all know that story (note that I use and like W8, but most people don't like change in their tech).

2. From a price perspective, I think not. Again, the majority of consumers want to consume content on a tablet and the iPad is a cheaper and possibly better option there. I personally have no use for any sort of tablet.

3. Re: xbone. See: marketing, Microsoft, cockup of same. It does not matter what a product can or cannot do; what matters is what people think of it. This is one core truth that MS has never grasped in several decades.

What I really fear is that in this misguided effort to be an entertainment, mobile and generally hip company, MS will lose sight of what made them their billions - the enterprise and OEM sectors. OEMs are pissed enough with MS' Surface efforts. Enterprise is increasingly looking towards reducing IT costs and many are looking to things like OpenOffice, Linux, Chrome OS and Google Apps, realising that not every employee needs a Windows/Office 365 installation costing several hundreds of $ a year per seat.
 

jmerrey

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people still associate Windows with viruses, slowness, and crap probably

I've been part of the IT business for many years. This quote is right on the money. You wouldn't believe how many businesses want to go to Apple because "they don't get viruses". We've had so many requests for ipad integration into their businesses now as well. We did a big lunch and learn for W8 tablets a while back. Once they learned that the Surface ran full Windows, you could almost feel the energy in the room die out.

People associate Microsoft with work, slow computers, and viruses. Right or wrong, it's an impression that is ingrained in the general population's head.

Another note. You want to know one of the reasons, other than absurd market share, that devs won't come to W8/WP8? There is a whole generation of users who grew up hating MS. Many of those users are now developers.
 

Sanjay Chandra

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People don't like MS because they always screw things by taking extremely bad decisions.

Xbox One and Windows 8 are proofs for that.They took very bad decisions but now reversing them back (change of xbox one related policies or bringing back start button)Good example of bad decision is recent Skype update which came earlier to other platforms.

Windows Phone 7 (2012) is another great example of something in recent times.

Zune is a medieval example but wp7 isn't.

They make good products for sure but fail miserably in execution.That's where Samsung , Apple exceed every single company.Nokia is good but not as good as what competition is doing.

Difference is Apple had guts to change competition but Microsoft doesn't.Steve Jobs hated mobile flash support but finally Adobe gave up and Apple won.MS took bold decisions like Apple did but they all got backlashed miserably one after the another.
 
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inteller

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only the dumb money still bashes Microsoft and there is a lot of dumb money out there. 10% return YoY? I'll take those numbers all day long. Nokia will be doing the same again soon.
 

despertador

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+1 on the Zen garden point. I avoid talking about Microsoft on other sites just so I don't get bashed and get biased hate. It's so annoying.
 

techiez

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even though WP8 is the best mobile OS out there for its innovative and simplistic design, fluid n responsive, it is a beautiful OS no doubt, but there are LOT of points pulling WP down and even though MS/Nokia are working on it but then even the competition is not sitting idle so ideally MS should move much faster but it is lot slower than what is expected. Take an example of Whatsapp for WP, the app is still no where close to how it works in Andriod / IOS, people who use this regularly would surely be frustrated, there are lot other examples like these.
some might say it is not MS problem but developer's problem but in the end OS would suffer, and I think its reasonable to say that though WP8 is an amazing OS it is quite behind the competition.
as for OPs point on MS image being tainted, they are responsible for it to some extent, take for example the case of WP7.5, what they did with WP7.5 would definitely cause its image to be tainted and they are only to be blamed for it.
 

jmerrey

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Missing apps, implementation (or lack) of apps, etc in their mobile OS has very little to do with Microsoft's tainted image. The general public has no clue that it's missing a native Instagram app, or doesn't have a notification center. In all actuality, the general public doesn't even know much about what OS they are using. Ask 1000 typical Samsung Galaxy S owners what OS they have, and the majority answer is "galaxy." They aren't buying Android, they are buying Samsung. They aren't buying iOS, they are buying Apple. Again, I'm speaking in generalities, but it's true. This being an enthusiast forum, we notice what's missing, what can be improved. The public doesn't.
 

squire777

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There are many ignorant, lazy people out there who just like to follow the crowd and not think for themselves. Most MS articles over the net get flooded with stupid comments about BSOD, Kin, Zune, Viruses etc. Some people don't know what they are talking about while others just troll on purpose. I mean the average Linux user knows his tech well but still makes stupid comments about Windows and BSOD comments. Not to mention they will always write M$ and wish everything in the world was free to mooch off.

When Android was small there was this feeling among the Android community that things were going to be done differently than Apple was doing. At that point it looked like it would be hard to ever catch Apple so there was no reason to get caught up in sales figures. Once Android went mainstream it felt like the community had been taken over by kids who wanted to do nothing more than get in pissing matches with Apple fans about how many handsets they have sold, how many cores their phones has, how big their screen is etc. Android fans now do the same with WP and BB fans. I don't know why Android fans are so insecure about any kind of competition.

I don't think MS will shed its negative image anytime soon, especially with Google blinding people with BS about how they are about the people.

I think the best thing for your sanity is to not read comment sections on any website.
 

xandros9

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Sounds like the reasons I stopped using Android. Just saying, is all.

Android really is the new windows, in so many ways.

but Android has heck-of-a-lot-better image.

Microsoft still is that old fat guy in a suit that waddles wherever he needs to go and is not hip at all.

and it's still cool to crack BSOD jokes right? You know, to roll in upvotes?

</s>
 

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