I'm not feeling the love Microsoft.

[Dan12R]

Trust has been destroyed over the past 36 months, that's for sure. And it's been destroyed for the most important customers any business can have: The loyal "evangelical" customer.

With the cancellation, lack of announcements, or announced slow death of Windows 10 Mobile, Kinect, Groove, the basic Surface line (Surface 3 being the last entry), and Band, people are losing faith that if they buy a Microsoft product and invest in that ecosystem, they'll be taken care of as long as the customer chooses to be in that ecosystem. And for those who went all in with Microsoft, they've been beaten down quite a bit.

I'm a former Microsoft MVP and it's been my reputation both personally and professionally as someone who's going to recommend the Microsoft solution and is going to try the latest Microsoft product. This is no longer the case. I don't have a Windows Mixed Reality headset because I have no faith that Microsoft won't abandon it a year from now and I've wasted my money on hardware and apps that are useless now. I won't buy movies on Movies & TV anymore because I have no faith that Microsoft won't announce tomorrow that they're ending the service and I'm potentially out the money I invested.

And all of this presents an issue for Microsoft on the enterprise front. For example, I used to work for a school district that went all in on Google for their whole infrastructure. Students use Chromebooks. Google services are used extensively. I watched the whole decision take place. The whole time, Google had an advantage in the decision making process. They had that because the people who made the decision by and large used Google products at home. They knew them. They liked them. They wanted to use them at work too. In that enterprise decision, everyone else had an uphill battle because the decision makers liked Google at home.

Even from my own perspective, I'm now super cautious about recommending any Microsoft solution at work. It's going to reflect poorly on me if I make a recommendation, we run with it, and they abandon it. I can't give any details, but I can say that very recently at work, I recommended a Microsoft solution, Microsoft bailed on it, and now we're having to do a bunch of rework and it's costing the company money. It made me look foolish professionally.

And I continue to be cautious in regards to any future Microsoft products. The rumored Andromeda device should be an easy "Shut up and take my money!" for me. All the smartphones I've used in my personal life have run Windows and I love it. I believe it will be an awesome device, but I'm hesitant to purchase a roughly $1000 device and then watch Microsoft bail on it before end of life.

I can't help but wonder if Microsoft accounted for these sorts of drawbacks when they made all of these decisions.

 

[gold-stars]

MS is still invested in the consumer space it's just so inept and incompetent in this space it cannot get people excited about it's products.

They release things will bare minimum support and think that people will flock to them, they wont, MS is not a company that has that kind of respect or loyalty. MS has to spend money, a lot of money to compete against others and needs people who are in touch with the relevant consumer spaces who understand what gets them excited.

MS is also held to a very harsh first impressions standard due to the nature of it's old business, MS cannot afford on consumer products to release early and hope it can evolve the product to success.

 

[naddy6969]

“This is quite simply, the most important post here.”

Well, I wouldn’t go THAT far.

But seriously. Agreed on the age thing. Once you get a little bit older, things like what phone you use and where you buy your coffee tend to lose significance.

But all of the drama, all of the wailing here. Like the whole world revolves around what “mobile ecosystem” you use. People “standing their ground”. Others claiming “if there are no more Windows Phones then I am done, I will get a flip phone”.

Uh huh, right. If I can’t get a G.E. stove, then I am done cooking. Does that make ANY sense at all?

This is the whole point of competition. The planet is awash in phones and stoves. If you can’t find one of either that you like, then you simply aren’t looking hard enough.

 

[anon(7929613)]

View attachment 138565

Dear Microsoft! Please stop treating people on Windows 10, you know, THE OS YOU MAKE as 3rd class customers.

2017 was a kick in the teeth for a lot of Microsoft fans.

At least they should be honest to the consumers. Constantly changing stance is not a hallmark of a great company.

 

[Korfuntu]

Let's face the facts. Satya Nadella has determined that it is much easier to add some more servers and disk storage to the Azure infrastructure to fuel more cloud revenue than it is to be a player in any market where a few cajones would do wonders. Microsoft's follow-through on products is non-existence. For a huge corporation, with fingers in so many different pies, Microsoft finds it IMPOSSIBLE to concentrate on more than 2 or 3 product initiatives at a time. The landscape is littered with the bodies of Microsoft products (hardware and software) that started out to great fanfare, only to be relegated to the Black Hole of Neglect, to languish for a period of uncertainty before being unceremoniously given the "bum's rush" out the door. The Zune, Kinect, The Band, Windows Phone, the list goes on and on.
How many developers, OEM's and users will trust Microsoft to put forward a concerted, fully-funded, fully-supported new product line that everyone can count on to be there three years later? How many people will tire of buying Microsoft products, only to have to abandon them in favor of a competitor's product, often on a competitor's operating system?
My patience with Microsoft is wearing so thin, I can read newsprint through it. I'm at the railing, ready to jump ship. Will Microsoft change course and give me hope so I don't take the leap. I fear not.

 

[silentintrigue]

But the problem is, that the customers vote with their dollars. And you employees in the company that use the enterprise are buying apple and evil google and amazon at home. These little people at home take their dollars and vote with them. And Microsoft is losing mind share. People may use Windows at work, but that is not translating into MS mind share at home. More likely what will happen is those same employees will say to their employer, "why are we not using Chromebooks since we are all using google". They can make the shareholders happy in the short term but if they damage their customer base, it won't help them in the long run.

 

[Ian_Superfly]

https://open.spotify.com/album/2uwStVVagtbBvvFSVgcuCk

This might come in better: https://open.spotify.com/track/3PsDox1j73vVabjBNQCw8N?si=qNxNa2BcQTi1a5Z0US8vmQ

 

[beman39]

I don't know why some of the posters are bringing "LOYALTY" into the equation which loyalty has nothing to do with it! It has to do with liking/choosing/preference to use MSFT products (insert reasons here) than using the alternatives (insert reasons here) and has nothing to do with loyalty.. what is has to do with is MSFT choosing to not give any love or gigantically ruining it for its customers who just prefer to use their products and forcing us to switch to alternatives which we don't want to do and honestly we SHOULDN'T be forced to do so, but MSFT is so incompetent and short sighted or just to stupid to see that they're shooting themselves in the head let alone foot. dropping all these important "things" or to save money and make shareholders happy at the expense of its customers is just REALLY BAD BUSINESS etiquettes and really bad business sense. to me its down right shady... sadly I'm starting to get a bad taste in my mouth about "all things MSFT" MSFT will eventually go the route of the dodo birds.... and I directly blame Satya Nadella and the shareholders...

 

[Brett McMicken]

Plus, Think of how long Microsoft has been around! We're not talking about a two year old company...

 

[Great deal]

Some people have invested a lot of money into MS, perhaps too much, they have every right to hold their feet to the fire. What is clear is that Microsoft is a company that just doesn't care.

 

[smartass1379]

I have ditched Microsoft Ecosystem and have jumped over to Mac and Apple products. People who don't feel the love have two options 1. Stick to Microsoft and continue to be disappointed or 2. Jump ship to something that is going to make you happy. Unfortunately, Microsoft is not a consumer oriented company and to be honest I much prefer my Macbook Pro than my Surface Pro 4.

 

[Jean Camilo]

YES! Because of the forgetfulness of Windows Phone I am being forced to use Android. THAT'S INHUMAN!

 

[ChrisHistorian]

Kinect has to be seen in the overall context of which it was created.

Both Sony and Microsoft tried to imitate the Wii and hope their devices sold as fast as the Wii. Both corporations eventually learned what many gamers (including me) who purchased a Wii quickly learned. Other than a few launch games and party games like Just Dance, the Wii became everybody's second or third console, behind their PS and/or XBox. In other words, the technology was a gimmick rather than something long lasting. Sony killed motion controls for the PS3 before Microsoft axed Kinect. It can be argued that even Nintendo is getting away from the motion control gimmick because the Switch is clearly not designed to optimize motion controls.

As Windows Phone, the argument seems to always be "they weren't marketed correctly!" The iPhone still gets people to line up on launch day and the first Android phone (HTC Dream/T-Mobile G-1) beat Microsoft to market by about two years. Microsoft threw buckets of money at Windows Phone over the past seven years and consumers decided they didn't want them. It's irrelevant whether the devices or the OS were better than iOS or Android. Those two platforms established brand loyalty well before Microsoft. Brand loyalty matters, especially with iOS users. Microsoft didn't have much chance with Windows Phone in the first place.

As for Grove, again, it doesn't matter whether the service was superior to Spotify. It launched in 2012, *six* years after Spotify. What Microsoft attempted to do is to get Windows and XBox users to use Zune/Grove/XBox Music when in fact the customers who used a streaming music service were already using one that they liked. The same incorrect "marketing argument" that's used in support of Grove can also be made for Tidal, and should he be dumb enough to launch it, Kanye's rumored streaming service "Yeezy." Tidal's probably going to go out of business sometime in the first half of 2018.

The complaint here really is about the fact some consumers saw their devices/services they liked get axed. That happens! I don't like the fact a majority of people obviously don't want 10-13" e-readers with stylus support so the Sony device ends up costing $900. That's not Sony's fault. The market just doesn't agree with my tastes so I have to pay more to get what I want or adopt a "this a good enough" position and get something different that does some of what I want.

 

[David Parody]

Where is the love?

Ive just swapped to Pixel2 from my beloved 950XL as the eco system was not providing the apps I need to work, installed MS Launcher on Android and does a good job but not the same and after forsaking Google Assistant for Cortana I now find myself putting Google Assistant on as my default .... why Microsoft, why have you shunned me?

 

[Geminus]

Microsoft is becoming a solely enterprise company would be a more accurate description of what Mr. Nutella is attempting to do.

 

[Geminus]

And what do you think generates the profits shareholders, myself included BTW, love? Customers!!

 

[Geminus]

You start a company as a private enterprise; if and when it grows and becomes a successful one you can go public and have shareholders if you decide to do so. If then you change your mind you do as Michael Dell did it: buy back the shares on the market.

Bottom line: it is not true that "there is no business without shareholders" and besides Dell, Cargill and IKEA just to name some are proof of this.

 

[Geminus]

These is the same thing that people were saying when Excel and Word were launched in a World dominated by Lotus, WordPerfect and QuattroPro… nothing is written in stone.

 

[anon(50597)]

“This is quite simply, the most important post here.”

Well, I wouldn’t go THAT far.

But seriously. Agreed on the age thing. Once you get a little bit older, things like what phone you use and where you buy your coffee tend to lose significance.

But all of the drama, all of the wailing here. Like the whole world revolves around what “mobile ecosystem” you use. People “standing their ground”. Others claiming “if there are no more Windows Phones then I am done, I will get a flip phone”.

Uh huh, right. If I can’t get a G.E. stove, then I am done cooking. Does that make ANY sense at all?

This is the whole point of competition. The planet is awash in phones and stoves. If you can’t find one of either that you like, then you simply aren’t looking hard enough.

It does make for entertaining reading though.

 

[Snapperlicious]

I have ditched Microsoft Ecosystem and have jumped over to Mac and Apple products. People who don't feel the love have two options 1. Stick to Microsoft and continue to be disappointed or 2. Jump ship to something that is going to make you happy. Unfortunately, Microsoft is not a consumer oriented company and to be honest I much prefer my Macbook Pro than my Surface Pro 4.

Fortunately, people have a lot more than 2 options. It's sad that you think you only have two. Here's the issue, and I think it's the issue for many of the people on here. I don't like the way Apple treats their customers either. They force you into all their overpriced products, because they don't want to play nice with others. Yeah I get why they do it from a business sense, but that doesn't make it ok for me. I choose whatever allows me to stay as open as possible, so I continue to have choices. I left Apple a few years ago because I didn't feel they provided me choices. They choose everything for you whether you like it or not. You want an apple watch with an android phone, tough, you want an iPhone and iMessage on your PC, tough. I have a mix of brands and products, it all works well together, and I am not missing out on anything. I have an Android phone, Android tablet, multiple Windows PCs, Sonos for music, Echo voice assistants, various online services, and it all works well together. The best part is I can replace any one of these products at any time if someone makes a better product for me.

People need to stop trying to be loyal to companies that only want to be loyal to themselves. Companies like to provide a false sense of loyalty to keep you around, but all they really care about is how much money you give them. That's fine with me as long as I have a choice on who to give my money to.