If Microsoft cared about Customer Experience
I'm planning some upcoming travel, so I thought I'd try out a netbook. The first think I do on a new computer is download the latest patches. There is something seriously wrong with the fact that it is taking ~1hr to download and update a brand new computer. I realize that means my experience is about a fresh XP install, but since netbooks account for a significant percentage of laptops purchased today, I think my argument still holds. If so many people are buying these machines, doesn't Microsoft want a good customer experience? Instead, I get an insane list of updates. Why can't they ship a version of the OS that includes all these updates? That I need to waste hours updating, just so that I don't get a virus the first time I navigate to a random site with unscrupulous advertisers, is crazy. It just makes me want to try Linux. Have you seen the latest Moblin release? Apple understands this. When I bought a new MacBook latop last fall, I was up and running with the latest updates in minutes. The few updates I had to install were fast to download and quick to install.
Microsoft really doesn't seem to act like a company that cares about the customer experience. They care about the corporate experience... maybe. Amazon only just started delivering new laptops with Vista this summer! They are not the only company that kept away from Vista until they had no choice.
Microsoft is seriously at risk of loosing market share if they don't give customers a reason to want their products. I don't want Windows; I use it because it is the only OS with the apps I need. Meaning, Windows is the only platform with a good Exchange client, aka Outlook... If OSX really does get a good port of Outlook, I'd prefer that in a heart-beat. For home computing I use a Mac. I bought my parents a Mac. I think Microsoft is a lot closer to loosing a chunk of consumer market than they realize. I think Windows 7 is the last gasp before the consumer marked becomes fully commodetized. Soon after that the OS will stop really mattering.
Microsoft is dangerously like the steel-mills and mini-computer manufacturers profiled in Innovator's Dilemma, yet Balmer pretends that it is 1999. Sigh.
Microsoft really doesn't seem to act like a company that cares about the customer experience. They care about the corporate experience... maybe. Amazon only just started delivering new laptops with Vista this summer! They are not the only company that kept away from Vista until they had no choice.
Microsoft is seriously at risk of loosing market share if they don't give customers a reason to want their products. I don't want Windows; I use it because it is the only OS with the apps I need. Meaning, Windows is the only platform with a good Exchange client, aka Outlook... If OSX really does get a good port of Outlook, I'd prefer that in a heart-beat. For home computing I use a Mac. I bought my parents a Mac. I think Microsoft is a lot closer to loosing a chunk of consumer market than they realize. I think Windows 7 is the last gasp before the consumer marked becomes fully commodetized. Soon after that the OS will stop really mattering.
Microsoft is dangerously like the steel-mills and mini-computer manufacturers profiled in Innovator's Dilemma, yet Balmer pretends that it is 1999. Sigh.
posted by derek at 8:15 PM
1 Comments:
The corporate I work at is about to rollout a company-wide default software upgrade to my laptop. I'm about to get IE7. YeeHaa. Yes, everyone is on XP and we're about to become 3 years behind on browser technology.
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