The Advert didn’t even have a decent go at Apple.

Get users to write or create ads and have an independant agency pick the best and improve on it.

Here’s my version of a good Microsoft Ad.

It’s January 29, 2007, the Day before Vista was first released. Our main character (let’s call him Dilbert, so you can imagine the sort of person he is) waits in front of the local computer store chain. The sun is just coming up, the store opens at 10, he’s been there all night, alone. As it ticks over until 10am a store clear flips the Vista advertising sign in the front window. It now reads come back tomorrow. Vista isn’t finished yet. He repeats the process the next day, finally gets his copy and eagerly rushes home.
Back in his gadget filled apartment he loads up his new software, only to be confronted with a message saying all his hardware it too old and he needs to upgrade it. Frustrated, he curses out loud “that’s it, I’m done with this, I am getting a MAC!’. A message flashed on the screen “Are you sure you want to do that, confirm or deny”.
The next day he’s in a MAC fanboy line with all sorts of funky design freaks for hours. The MAC & PC ad guys are there, and someone dancing like the person in the ipod Ad. He eventually returns to his apartment with his new MAC.
His apartment is noticeable emptier, as he’s had to sell half his stuff to afford the MAC. He plugs it in and starts to install his programming software and realizes none of it will run on the MAC, unless he installs Vista again (arrgh!).
He comes back the next day. All his gadgets and his shirt are gone. But he’s able to use his new MAC now with all his software.
12 months later he’s skinny and living on noodles and is now in just his underwear coding. He finishes his beta project and goes into the office to show his boss. He’s still in just his underwear. His boss has a windows system so he can’t run it. His boss asks him why he doesn’t use Vista. “The latest service patch fixes all those problems it had when it first came out.

The next week, He’s back in his apartment. He’s got all his clothes & gadget’s back and a new pc with Vista on it. He’s happily working away.
Tagline: “Vista – your view will change”

That took me about 10 minutes to think out while driving to work. Come on Microsoft, don’t be Big’n'Hard..

Your “Microsoft Store” idea is so ridiculous that it made me laugh out loud. What would the incentive be to make ANYONE go there when they would be able to buy any of their products cheaper anywhere else? Are consumers going to say to themselves, “Gee, I think I’ll go to the Microsoft store to listen to Microsoft’s marketing propaganda?” Then they would say, “WOW, look, there’s Microsoft Office, just like I have on my computer at work!”

You ask of Microsoft that they be pro-active, and then the rest of the suggestions are:

Hire a Steve-Jobs-a-like
Streamline your products like apple does
Open apple stores

The rise of microsoft was due to them leading their market. The may not have been innovators (like most large and diverse software companies, they aquired most of their best products from other companies), but they were good at marketing. They didn’t invent the word processor, the spreadsheet or the slide show, but bundling them together into Office was a brilliant piece of marketing.

I do think that maybe Microsoft should create a design think-tank. Hire some of the most exciting and innovative people in the field of interface design to capture that lead. Microsoft has always followed apple in terms of interface, but for a while (95 until os X 10.1 shipped) they were ahead.

To capture that again they would need to present some bold new style concepts.

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Get Free Digital Signage from http://www.MediaSignage.com

You sir, are an idiot. You are not allowed to post on the internet again until you prove you have a brain.

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

COPY APPLE

Linux for work, Windows for games OS X to laugh at

I recently saw the new commercials for Microsoft and was wondering what new “thing” they were going to be unveiling to the world. While I thought the commercials were funny and I liked the newest commercial poking fun at Apple, I am still left wondering, “What new technology are we going to get to see?”

I like both Apple (Mac) and Microsoft—I have two iPods and I only use Microsoft on my computer—but I agree Microsoft needs to find better ways of promoting their products whether through stores, like Apple, or another innovative means and simplify their features. I was very skeptical when I switched to Microsoft 2007 from 2003 but you have to admit when you get used to the newer version, they did a great job of massing similar functions into tabs.

I know I am going to annoy any die-hard Mac fans, and this might be because I don’t have much experience with the newer Macs, but I find them hard to use. I had one in high school and the technologies are obviously better now, but I lost so much information when converting papers and homework back and forth from my Mac to PCs at school.

It is interesting, in this new, got-to-have-the-newest-and-greatest culture we are building how people take sides. Microsoft sucks—No, Apple Sucks…how about its NEW, like it, it is what you wanted in the first place, right? I like both, I enjoy the benefits of both—I got what I wanted!

Honestly, that’s all Microsoft really needs to do. The reason Vista flopped isn’t Apple’s fault, its because Vista is a gigantic mess.

When Steve Jobs was hired back at Apple, they were a mess. He did two things: Focus and Simplify.