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Microsoft reported telling journalist not to mention or use Apple products!


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Microsoft reported telling journalist not to mention or use Apple products!
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Miko
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
 
2009-12-10, 15:26

Came across this and was truly taken aback! At a recent Microsoft event a reporter was praising the iPhone for its simplicity and ease of use. and apparently they were told not to mention the "A" word or use their products while attending the conference.

I find this shocking from a company to tell you what to do, say or use while attending an event. Granted I heard that MS covers the accommodations, but damn if I'm going to let someone tell me what to do or say.

http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-r...-be-named.aspx

Last edited by Miko : 2009-12-10 at 16:34.
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Bryson
Rocket Surgeon
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
 
2009-12-10, 15:30

It seems more likely that the employee actually worked for Samsung, not Microsoft, but still.
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curiousuburb
Antimatter Man
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2009-12-10, 15:37

Thou shalt not have any predictive assistant other than Clippy or BOB.
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Mugge
Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
 
2009-12-10, 15:38

Well, boo hoo! Guess someone is feeling the competitive pressure.

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Banana
is the next Chiquita
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2009-12-10, 15:42

Comments are weird....

"I love my Macbook but hate iPhone!"


Astroturfing?
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bassplayinMacFiend
Banging the Bottom End
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2009-12-10, 15:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by Banana View Post
Comments are weird....

"I love my Macbook but hate iPhone!"


Astroturfing?
There's 3 or 4 of these comments now.
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Banana
is the next Chiquita
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2009-12-10, 15:53

Yeah, I already saw those when I posted... that's why I thought it had to be astroturfing...

I suppose it's possible there are some people who dislike iPhone but to have them suddenly converge on a random article that happen to be about Microsoft putting gag order on any mention of iPhone? Seems too convenient...
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addabox
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
 
2009-12-10, 15:59

Yeah, and the standard anonymous internet Apple bashing technique of "I'm a big old Mac head, so I certainly have credibly when I say Apple product x sucks."

And of course for comments on an article about the MacBook Pro, the same people can say "I love my iPhone, but Apple's computers are ridiculously overpriced and underpowered."

That which doesn't kill you weakens you slightly and makes you less able to cope until you're completely incapacitated
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DMBand0026
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2009-12-10, 16:17

I hate to nitpick and possibly derail the thread, but I have a hard time letting this one go.

When you’re startled by something, you’re taken aback by it. When you’re reminded of something from your past, you’re taken back to that time.

Just FYI


I'm not Microsoft's biggest fan, but it seems odd even to me that they'd go so far as to ask/tell someone not to even mention a competitor's product. Microsoft doesn't even make a phone (yet.) I'm not saying it didn't happen, it just seems really out of the ordinary. Way to discourage healthy competition, Microsoft.

Come waste your time with me
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Moogs
Hates the Infotainment
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NSA Archives
 
2009-12-10, 16:24

Not even remotely surprising IMHO. If the Market share battle had started four or five years ago, Apple would be kicking their ass all over the place. The only saving grace for MS is they had a 15 year lead / entrenchment. But now Apple's ecosystem of products has changed the game and convinced a lot of converts, as well as first time buyers. Happy Holidays Ballmer... you douche.

...into the light of a dark black night.
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Miko
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
 
2009-12-10, 16:36

@ DMBand0026 thanks and "fixed" I should have caught that.

Last edited by Miko : 2009-12-11 at 10:42.
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curiousuburb
Antimatter Man
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2009-12-11, 08:16

Analyst: Microsoft "Losing the Fight for Consumers"

Quote:
Originally Posted by NYT
...
“Except for gaming, it is ‘game over’ for Microsoft in the consumer market,” he said. “It’s time to declare Microsoft a loser in phones. Just get out of Dodge.”

Regardless of Microsoft’s performance, amid the rise of Apple’s iPhone and phones using Google’s Android software, it seems unlikely Microsoft will heed Mr. Anderson’s advice. The smartphone is becoming the innovative hub of software development and applications, far more so than the personal computer. If Microsoft loses in smartphones, Mr. Anderson noted, “It is pretty grim. Those applications are going to move upstream.”

The underlying problem, Mr. Anderson said, is cultural. “Phones are consumer items, and Microsoft doesn’t have consumer DNA,” he said.

“Walk the halls at Microsoft and you can see it is not a place that gets consumers,” Mr. Anderson said. “Just as if you walk the halls at Google, it’s obvious it is not a place that gets the enterprise world.”

... continues ...
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dmegatool
Custom User Title
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: At home
 
2009-12-11, 08:58

Depends on how you do things too.

If you arrive at the Microsoft event with a 8 feet square Apple sign and yelling how great Apple is... But I guess that's not the way it happened.

Dave Mustaine :"God created whammy bars for people who don't know how to solo."
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Miko
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
 
2009-12-11, 10:42

@pscates I saw that and thought it was rather witty no need to delete it, I wasn't gonna start anything, but it you better duck when I see you!

And thanks everyone for proofing my post, AN is a much more grammatically correct place now.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2009-12-11, 10:47



Yeah, it might've been witty. But not really necessary in the big scheme of things. I was just being silly.
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DMBand0026
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2009-12-11, 10:56

That's why I didn't hit you

dmegatool, I get what you're saying. I can understand wanting to discourage people being zealous in that way about another company's product, but it seems like the guy was just giving a positive review of it. It's not like he was there to sell the thing. I just don't get this at all. Microsoft is really as backward as I think they are if they don't even allow discussion of competitor's products at their events.

Come waste your time with me
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curiousuburb
Antimatter Man
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2010-02-05, 17:53

Former Exec laments "Microsoft's Creative Destruction'

Quote:
...
Microsoft has become a clumsy, uncompetitive innovator. Its products are lampooned, often unfairly but sometimes with good reason. Its image has never recovered from the antitrust prosecution of the 1990s. Its marketing has been inept for years; remember the 2008 ad in which Bill Gates was somehow persuaded to literally wiggle his behind at the camera?

While Apple continues to gain market share in many products, Microsoft has lost share in Web browsers, high-end laptops and smartphones. Despite billions in investment, its Xbox line is still at best an equal contender in the game console business. It first ignored and then stumbled in personal music players until that business was locked up by Apple.

Microsoft’s huge profits — $6.7 billion for the past quarter — come almost entirely from Windows and Office programs first developed decades ago. Like G.M. with its trucks and S.U.V.’s, Microsoft can’t count on these venerable products to sustain it forever. Perhaps worst of all, Microsoft is no longer considered the cool or cutting-edge place to work. There has been a steady exit of its best and brightest.

What happened? Unlike other companies, Microsoft never developed a true system for innovation. Some of my former colleagues argue that it actually developed a system to thwart innovation. Despite having one of the largest and best corporate laboratories in the world, and the luxury of not one but three chief technology officers, the company routinely manages to frustrate the efforts of its visionary thinkers.

For example, early in my tenure, our group of very clever graphics experts invented a way to display text on screen called ClearType. It worked by using the color dots of liquid crystal displays to make type much more readable on the screen. Although we built it to help sell e-books, it gave Microsoft a huge potential advantage for every device with a screen. But it also annoyed other Microsoft groups that felt threatened by our success.

Engineers in the Windows group falsely claimed it made the display go haywire when certain colors were used. The head of Office products said it was fuzzy and gave him headaches. The vice president for pocket devices was blunter: he’d support ClearType and use it, but only if I transferred the program and the programmers to his control. As a result, even though it received much public praise, internal promotion and patents, a decade passed before a fully operational version of ClearType finally made it into Windows.

Another example: When we were building the tablet PC in 2001, the vice president in charge of Office at the time decided he didn’t like the concept. The tablet required a stylus, and he much preferred keyboards to pens and thought our efforts doomed. To guarantee they were, he refused to modify the popular Office applications to work properly with the tablet. So if you wanted to enter a number into a spreadsheet or correct a word in an e-mail message, you had to write it in a special pop-up box, which then transferred the information to Office. Annoying, clumsy and slow.

So once again, even though our tablet had the enthusiastic support of top management and had cost hundreds of millions to develop, it was essentially allowed to be sabotaged. To this day, you still can’t use Office directly on a Tablet PC. And despite the certainty that an Apple tablet was coming this year, the tablet group at Microsoft was eliminated.

... continues ...
Or maybe because an Apple tablet was coming, the MS group was eliminated.
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2010-02-05, 18:05

I've long considered Microsoft a dream rebranding assignment but at their core they're beyond saving. They have a massive cultural problem that the above article only begins to touch on. They've lost the phone, which all but guarantees the loss of the future consumer market. They'll move into enterprise, with mixed success. They're essentially the new IBM, only without the pretty ads.
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