Microsoft: That Windows 8 “New Coke” Analogy Is Silly

Microsoft: That Windows 8 “New Coke” Analogy Is Silly

May 12, 2013 at 3:14 am PT

Will the launch of Microsoft’s forthcoming update to Windows 8 next month be the company’s “New Coke” moment? Is its rumored plan to revive the traditional “Start” button it killed when it debuted Windows 8 a massive and humiliating reversal of course, following an ill-conceived reimagining of the company’s flagship product?

Not according to Microsoft.

According to Microsoft, Windows 8 is a good product that’s steadily improving, and recent suggestions by the media that it is turning into a “New Coke”-style disaster are pure sensationalism. And in an unusual company blog bost, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of corporate communications, dismissed them as exactly that, suggesting they favored “hyperbole” over “nuanced analysis.”

“Windows 8 is a good product, and it’s getting better every day,” Shaw wrote. “Unlike a can of soda, a computer operating system offers different experiences to different customers to meet different needs, while still moving the entire industry toward an exciting future of touch, mobility, and seamless, cross-device experiences.”

Microsoft Responds to Windows 8 Critics - John Paczkowski - News - AllThingsD

 

[Rickkins]

I just think there's no justification to some of these complaints at all.

So what if you need to use a 3rd party program? If its a legit, reputable program what's the big deal? I've used 3rd party programs for what I consider to be important stuff for years. There's no problem here. Here's a list of 3rd party programs you probably shouldn't use because of your objections:

Adobe Reader
Adobe Photoshop
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Open Office
ITunes
Steam
VLC

That's just off the top of my head. Those are bad. Their 3rd party programs.

This is a totally manufactured issue. Even if Microsoft 'fixed' all of your personal issues, you'd just find something new to carp about.

Personally, I have only ever used windows, any windows, as an operating only.
None of the built in crap does a job better, or even as well, as my so-called third party apps.(with the exception of say note & word pad.) Ms media player... you have got to be kidding me, biggest spaghetti ever....

etc...

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Years ago my buddy and I started a short-lived company that collected data of automobile traffic. Then we started creating an interpreter. Then we got into our very first OS. It really wasn't our idea. We actually bought an OS and kept ameliorating on it for by this time we got fairly good at writing code. We actually hardly came up with anything new. We just mimicked our compitition. We started selling our product to OEMs. We got lucky and hooked up with a really big OEM.

In the mean time, we had a few friends that were computer hobbyists who built a computer and found funding and eventually started selling computer hardware and software. Their machine actually ran the very first "killer app" and they were the first with a GUI. They actually broke the record for being the fastest growing IPO ever. We thought the GUI thing was an excellent idea so we came up with our own in 1985. That was a year after our friends introduced theirs. Because we had that partnership with that big OEM we were able to gain 90% of the OS PC market fairly quick.

Through the years we introduced more products and services. After awhile my buddy got sick and had to resign. He eventually sold a lot of his shares. I continued to hire and surround myself with some very intelligent and creative people. The company became very big. At one time I was the richest man in the world until the Feds came after me for what they thought was monopolizing because I bundled some software with my OSs. What an ordeal that was!

So here we are years later after creating many OSs. The company and I decided to evaluate ourselves again and came to the realization that perhaps we should mimick our competition once again because our PC OS market flatlined and we started looking to other markets. We created another GUI that is more touch centric and finally got into the hardware business with a few Pads because consumers are demanding more mobile products such as this. Our buddies made a fortune off of theirs. Geez! We didn't think they would sell so many! And that phone! We created some apps to work in that interface and asked some people if they'd like to do the same. We opened a store to sell them. We figured our competition was making money at it so we basically mimicked the idea. Again, we never really never came up with much new except the idea that we're trying to get this system to work across multiple devices as to become familiar to our customer no matter what device they're using. We think this is one better than our competion.

Oh! I wanted to mention those two fellas that started that search engine company. Man! They made a fortune and are butting into ours and our buddies' turf too.

There are a lot that like our new ideas, especially our investors, but some desktop PC users that aren't taking too well to them, though. They don't think it works well on a their machines because we've made our original desktop GUI 2nd fiddle to our new one, evaluated our collected data & changed our menu system to our new GUI, moved some things around, and added some features just as always. Wow! You'd think we were pulling their teeth out! They can continue to do their thing just as they did in the past. Was it too much of a change for them? Shocking perhaps? Don't like us seeking new markets? We thought we were always fair with our prices. What can it possibly be? We don't really undersatnd what their squabble is. Perhaps we should hire some of these people while they know it all?

Oh well. We know we'll be selling and supporting our older OSs for quite some time. They can stick with those if they don't care for the new one. We know that not all move to the next OS and that some OSs sell better than others. In the mean time, we'll continue honing our new ideas > strike that! > their ideas just as we've done in the past 30 or so years. Nothing really new going on here.

 

[legacy7955]

There is a huge difference between the New Coke and Windows 8.

The New Coke was withdrawn or drunk in a very short time and disappeared completely, but Microsoft cannot make Windows 8 disappear nor solve the fiasco it means for the whole structure of the product, the connected products and the whole company at the end.

Windows 8, as expected and predicted by all of us, is the mother of all marketing fiascos.

The solutions are VERY simple and would be NO effort to achieve for MS.



a. DEFAULT BOOT TO DESKTOP

OR

b. Default boot to metro





Heck that even solves the start button/ menu complaint.




Of course allow the user to change that default boot at any time he wants.

 

[SIW2]

I don't see how.

Boot to desktop saves one annoying click.

There is still a need for an ergonomic method of accessing control items/drives/recent items/programs in the desktop - without that much loathed start screen coming up.

 

[pparks1]

I don't see how.

Boot to desktop saves one annoying click.

There is still a need for an ergonomic method of accessing control items/drives/recent items/programs in the desktop - without that much loathed start screen coming up.

My experience radically improved when I booted straight to the desktop.

 

[SIW2]

I expect MS will do that in 8.1.

It is something that reduces an annoyance slightly, but doesn't prevent them from pushing users into the MS clouds.

Not clear if they are just paying lip service to the customers wants, and instead relying on their continued grip on the oems and lower priced devices.