Microsoft Bring Plans Forward
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In September 2008 I predicted that Microsoft will have to launch Windows 7 in 2009 rather than the expected 2010 release. The recent news is that I was right and that Microsoft themselves appear to agree. As a result they’ve apparently brought their launch schedule forward to 2009 in order to have Windows 7 on the shelves for Christmas of that year. One recent report indicates that they want to have Seven ready to go final retail by around June 2009, as suggested by a presentation at WinHEC. Thusfar they’ve stuck to their guns and remained determined on a release-date somewhere in early 2010, or "When it’s ready".
Now that the suggestion is out that the actual release to manufacturing will be 2009, it indicates that either the development team are happy with progress and/or ahead of schedule; or that Seven will be another rush-job that’s substandard, underdeveloped, doesn’t work properly, and requires a number of service packs to make it stable: Does that remind you of anything? Vista perhaps? To be honest, though, I suspect the former; that the developers are on cloud nine and the development program is rockin’. The pre-beta as well as the public beta1 release of Seven has already flooded the p2p networks, and people so far appear to like what they see. Maybe Microsoft are bouncing back, having learned huge lessons from their Vista fiasco? Remember the flak that was encountered by the softies when they launched Vista in January 2007? They missed Christmas, they missed the moment when the money flowed; in fact they missed the boat altogether. This annoyed the PC vendors, manufacturers, and the like. Also there was the issue that, due to M$ keeping quiet about the hardware requirements of Vista, there were very few compatible drivers and virtually no recently-developed compatible hardware. In this author’s opinion the only way for Microsoft, provided that they play their cards right this time, is up. ———————————————————————————————- Fire Your Computer Technician!A computer technician spills the beans and makes available the knowledge he has charged clients hundreds in service fees for. |
Microsoft News from the PDC
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I’m only going to touch briefly on Microsoft’s cloud computing platform that they’ve revealed at their Professional Developer’s Conference will be called Windows Azure: It sounds too complicated, and to be frank, details are still to sketchy to make any decent report on it yet to my mind: Having said that; Mary Jo Foley of ZDnet has made an outstanding effort to make something out of the intense mayhem of the Microsoft version of cloud computing, and I suggest that you read her article which can be found here. The softies are revealing more about Windows 7 today and are releasing the first pre-beta code: It’s reported to include many new features including a better desktop and user interface, multitouch controls, improved boot-time, USB drive encryption, among other things. Microsoft admitted in so many words that it had made a mistake with Vista: "The ecosystem wasn’t ready for the release of Windows Vista," said Windows senior vice president, Steve Sinofsky, who then went on to list a small catalogue of Vista-related failings. Sinofsky cited the decision to change the underlying Windows version number to 6.1 rather than version 7 as a sign of its intention to ease the task of upgrading. (See this article on PCMech.com.) "If it works on Windows Vista, it’ll work in Windows 7. The move from Vista to Windows 7 we expect to be seamless." He said. It was also indicated that Windows 7 would perform well "…on a netbook with only 1GB RAM.": Does this mean that the system requirements will be less than Vista’s and more like XPs? It appears to hint that this may be so, and if so that is definitely a step in the right direction, away from the bloatware of Vista. What Microsoft refused to disclose, though, is how many different versions of Windows 7 there’d be, and also the cost of the operating system. (Please don’t have more than 3 or 4 versions: Vista was a joke with all of its many version; only a couple of which were any good!) Microsoft still refuse to provide details of a final release date for Windows 7. They’re probably being cagey this time round: Last time with Vista, development took a lot longer than originally intended, but to stick to the announced target as much as was possible, to save face, and to satisfy the whining customers; they released too early despite being well behind schedule, and gave us a buggy mess of underdeveloped faulty codebase that took everyone by surprise as well as losing a lot of their existing customer base. I don’t think they want to make such a massive balls-up this time around. What do you think? Are they just being more careful, or could they be having secret development problems? Addendum See the BBC’s news coverage of the cloud-computing race.Click here.
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The Worm Turns on Apple
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This article was written for posting on a site that I write for, or for posting on this blog; one or the other. Due to increased workload it was overlooked and never posted by the other site, and due to my illness at the time, which had me flat out in bed feeling like death warmed up, it was never posted on this site either Although the fire’s gone out to a large extent regarding this post, I though that I’d rather post it than waste it. Please remember when reading it that this post was originally meant to be published on or around 30th September 2008: > Contrary to popular opinion; Microsoft may have not yet pulled the plug on the Gates/Seinfeld advertisment series. According to Gizmodo.com:- "From a trusted Crispin Porter source, we’ve learned that some sites have jumped the gun and that the Microsoft Gates/Seinfeld ads have not been axed. It’s true, Microsoft apparently asked the agency to focus on the new "I’m a PC" spots. And it’s true, the agency has gotten plenty of "I don’t know what this means" response in their measured statistics of the Gates/Seinfeld ads. But no one has pulled the plug on the dynamic duo just yet." There are more Seinfeld/Gates adverts in the pipeline then: That’ll come as a relief to Apple; who thought the Softies might be about to produce something that would be more effective in countering the successful Apple advertising campaign. But according to other reports; Microsoft are ready to step up a gear after their ads which have got everybody talking about Microsoft. In the next series Apple’s strategy is ripped into with a Microsoft engineer resembling a character in Apple’s ads appearing with the words “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” The renewed campaign carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls”. Microsoft intend to turn Apples own tables on them; by using the image of the PC that the Apple ads have attempted to generate – but against Apple. It appears that Seinfeld has no further part to play in the forthcoming advertising campaign; at least initially and for the foreseeable future; although Bill Gates is set to remain very much a player, along with Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra, and singer Pharrell Williams – These stars play regular PC users who confirm their happiness at running PCs utilising Microsoft software. (I really do hope that they’re not still trying to convince the public that Vista is any good though; otherwise the new ads will be about as effective as a Windows ME salesman giving away a pound of apples with every purchase.) Also starring in the Advertisments are 60-plus other Microsoft employees (Including and extra to Bill Gates.) – An unusual example of how; in a few cases, being company-employed can make you rich – all of whom publicly display their email addresses: Spammers take note. Microsoft want to take back the initiative from Apple and be positively realistic about the benefits of the PC. Apple have tried with some success to negatively caricature the PC; but Microsoft want to reverse this without dragging Apple through the mud. If it works it could strengthen the flagging dominance of Microsoft as a market-leader possibly; but having said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating – Microsoft are going to have to ensure that Windows 7 is a markedly better than and totally bug-free operating system compared to Vista; which is still being compared to ME as a total flop. Advertising agency Crispin Porter; who produce the Microsoft series of advertisments ,appear to have thus-far acted true to form by first getting everybody talking prior to the main thrust of the campaign designed to reverse the tactic used by Apple of PC mockery whilst glorifying the Mac. What do you think about this strategy?
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The Worm Turns on Apple
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Contrary to popular rumour; Microsoft may have not yet pulled the plug on the Gates/Seinfeld advertisment series. According to Gizmodo.com:- “From a trusted Crispin Porter source, we’ve learned that some sites have jumped the gun and that the Microsoft Gates/Seinfeld ads have not been axed. It’s true, Microsoft apparently asked the agency to focus on the new “I’m a PC” spots. And it’s true, the agency has gotten plenty of “I don’t know what this means” response in their measured statistics of the Gates/Seinfeld ads. But no one has pulled the plug on the dynamic duo just yet.” There are more Seinfeld/Gates adverts in the pipeline then: That’ll come as a relief to Apple; who thought the Softies might be about to produce something that would be more effective in countering the successful Apple advertising campaign. But according to other reports; Microsoft are ready to step up a gear after their ads which have got everybody talking about Microsoft. In the next series Apple’s strategy is ripped into with a Microsoft engineer resembling a character in Apple’s ads appearing with the words “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” The renewed campaign carries the theme “Windows. Life without walls”. Microsoft intend to turn Apples own tables on them; by using the image of the PC that the Apple ads have attempted to generate – but against Apple. It appears that Seinfeld has no further part to play in the forthcoming advertising campaign; at least initially and for the foreseeable future; although Bill Gates is set to remain very much a player, along with Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra, and singer Pharrell Williams – These stars play regular PC users who confirm their happiness at running PCs utilising Microsoft software. (I really do hope that they’re not still trying to convince the public that Vista is any good though; otherwise the new ads will be about as effective as a Windows ME salesman giving away a pound of apples with every purchase.) Also starring in the Advertisments are 60-plus other Microsoft employees (Including and extra to Bill Gates.) – An unusual example of how; in a few cases, being company-employed can make you rich – all of whom publicly display their email addresses: Spammers take note. Microsoft want to take back the initiative from Apple and be positively realistic about the benefits of the PC. Apple have tried with some success to negatively caricature the PC; but Microsoft want to reverse this without dragging Apple through the mud. If it works it could strengthen the flagging dominance of Microsoft as a market-leader possibly; but having said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating – Microsoft are going to have to ensure that Windows 7 is a markedly better than and totally bug-free operating system compared to Vista; which is still being compared to ME as a total flop. Advertising agency Crispin Porter; who produce the Microsoft series of advertisments ,appear to have thusfar acted true to form by first getting everybody talking prior to the main thrust of the campaign designed to reverse the tactic used by Apple of PC mockery whilst glorifying the Mac. What do you think about this strategy?
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Why Microsoft Must Launch Windows 7 in 2009
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When Microsoft launched Vista it was to fanfares and promises of a new age of excellence dawning: The problem was that they missed the boat by a mile and landed in dangerous waters. There were problems with the final beta release in 2006 which they attempted to address in the hope of a pre-2007 launch date: As the end of 2006 loomed; however, Microsoft were still desperately struggling. By the time everything was supposedly sorted the holiday season was over Unperturbed by this setback; Microsoft went ahead with the launch in the early part of 2007; but in their last-minute rush had overlooked many major issues which hadn’t been properly patched or remedied in the final retail release. It wasn’t until 2008 when Service Pack 1 was launched in its own final retail release that these bugs were patched and remedied to a reasonable extent; yet despite this the new operating system was still buggier and slower than its predecessor; Windows XP. People were starting to describe Vista as the second ME by this point; and despite Microsoft’s determination to press ahead – withdrawing sales of XP in June 2008 by the major system builders – the Microsoft following revolted by using the downgrade facility made available wit6h Windows Vista Business and Ultimate to revert their Vista installations back to XP. Still others abandoned the Microsoft camp altogether and defected to Linux or Mac OS*. All-in-all the entire shenanigan was a complete embarrassment for M$; who still have the egg on their face to this day. And today, with an entirely new openness and more user-interactive approach to development from Microsoft; Windows 7 looms on the horizon. The softies originally set a release strategy for 1H 2010 for the new operating system; however Bill Gates let slip on numerous occasions, hints of a possible 2009 release schedule. What would happen if M$ were to wait until 2010 to release 7?. They’d miss the holiday season again; and with their current reputation in tatters thanks to their late production of the best promotion campaign for XP ever; namely Vista, Microsoft need to get as many copies out as fast as they can immediately, following RTM of the final retail release; or those people expecting another damp squib – Which will I expect be a sizable percentage of those in the firing line of the new release – will prefer to either stick to their new Apple computer purchased at Christmas or in the January sales; or stick to their newly-downloaded Linux distro and not bother paying for another possible disaster of an operating system. Although Windows 7 is currently billed by the supergeeks as ‘Vista that works with a few extras added’, it is surely going to come under close scrutiny from the online geek community; particularly the bloggers. If it’s not up to scratch I see people such as Michael Arrington; and possibly even the likes of tech bloggers such as David Risley; both of whom are converts from Windows to Mac, dissecting and analysing every last wrinkle and bug that Microsoft didn’t remove prior to release. In all honesty I sincerely believe that Windows 7 will be make or break for M$; and following the recent fiascos it’ll not just have to be good but it’ll have to be particularly good in order to convince the critics that Microsoft still have the wind in their sails to keep the profit in their sales. To read more on the current latest news on Windows 7; see what What do you think: Has Vista doomed Microsoft to an uncertain future dependant upon the success or flop of Windows 7; or will the current downturn in the software giant’s fortunes be just a blip in an otherwise gently-upward trace of success? Please do leave a comment. |
Microsoft Set to Let the Cat out of the Bag Re. Windows 7
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Microsoft says that it will be giving us a primary view of Windows 7 in October: It will be providing concise technical previews at the Professional Developers Conference on 27 October and also at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference taking place in the first week of September.
Microsoft is reported to be taking an “open and honest” approach to the operating system’s developments; unlike it did with Vista which was cloaked in secrecy and hit an unprepared market. Maybe the softies learned something from the disaster they called Vista? This time round they’re taking an open discussion approach to get as much feedback as they can before the next chapter of the Microsoft o/s saga is released: So much so, in fact, that they even have an Engineering Windows 7 blog.
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In contrast to the Vista fiasco, this time they seem to be taking a different approach with Windows 7, in order to make sure that there is a reasonable degree of confidence in the product.
Windows 7 is expected to be released in 2010; although it would make more sense to release it in November 2009 in time for the holiday season in my opinion.
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