Steve Ballmer has sized up the Vista market – less than a month after it was launched - and decided sales have already been affected by the Johnnie Depp factor (aka software pirates). You see, what’s happening is Vista is rocking in places such as China, India, Brazil and Russian to the point where demand is outpacing supply. So, the only way to satisfy the needs of consumers is selling them pirated copies of Vista. Okay, maybe that theory is probably inaccurate/fictional but Vista’s disappointing showing out of the gate does suggest the following: 1. a vast majority of PC users see no reason to upgrade; 2. more people are exploring the idea of moving to Mac (a trend that anecdotally seems to have some merit) or Linux; or 3. Vista is an upgrade so consumers are happy to wait until they buy a new PC before embracing it.
It is fascinating to see the Microsoft PR machine start spinning so soon after the launch of Vista. It’s quickly becoming apparent that it’s a good product that has little traction with consumers – at least in the short term. The trick for Microsoft is doing what it can to manage the situation with analysts, investors and consumers. The last thing Microsoft wants to see is Vista start to look like a dog even if it is better than XP in many ways. After all, perception is everything and Vista’s initial buzz ain’t that hot.
3 Comments
I tried to purchase a copy of XP last weekend and came back from the big retailers with empty hands. In one downtown store I found a display box back way behind the Vista hype and took it to the counter to be told that Microsoft had pulled all their stock of XP.
Personally, Vista stinks of ME, but with less bugs.
You just have to appeal to the techies these days when it comes to operating systems. They are the ones that review the product on websites, they are the ones that make suggestions, and they are often ones that like to blog about tech related items.
The rest of the public has been reading the posts and reviews and seen the warnings that it isn’t compatible with many software products right now, drivers are at a premium for hardware, there are no really big features other than eye candy, and the public is willing to wait for their next pc to have it.
I just think that Microsoft dropped most of the horsepower behind the product when they got rid of WinFS and the other items. I think they should have probably waited a few more months if it meant they could get some additional worthwhile features in it. Even if they were under pressure to release it.
Oh and I forgot to mention…. flip3d… please, I am not a mac guy but I have seen way better animation and eye candy from mac when it comes to that type of thing (I wonder if Microsoft got the idea for Flip3D from a product like Mac’s Time Machine restoration tool. Hmmmm)