August is the month of punditry. With many workers on vacation—this year, many are unemployed or on unpaid furlough, too—tech companies tend to hold back big announcements. So news and blog sites have to fill the space with something, seeing as how there is less news. Five minutes before Midnight EDT, yesterday, Business Week posted analyst Jack Gold’s Windows Mobile-ending prediction. It’s Microsoft punditry at its scariest.
Is there some relationship between razorfish and stingrays? About the time I started to blog about Microsoft selling digital ad agency Razorfish to Publicis Groupe, a phone call came that a stingray had stung my daughter. So I raced north to Del Mar beach, where the wonderful lifeguards cared for my wounded 15 year-old. We’re back home, and I am, finally, ready to offer my intrusive opinion about Microsoft’s sale.
ZDNet blogger Ed Bott has some crazy notion that the Windows 7 upgrade chart is nothing more than a marketing blunder. But his reasoning is more complex than the chart. Has Ed never heard of Occam’s Razor?
Yesterday, I expressed my dismay about what the chart means in a commentary here and today in a Betanews story with response from analysts (They were less concerned than me). On Tuesday, Microsoft sent the chart to veteran tech reviewer Walt Mossberg in response to a query about upgrading to Windows 7.
In the interests of transparency and fair disclosure, I must make two of three confessions. Several people have asked, via comment, e-mail or tweet, whether or not my wife and daughter stuck with Windows 7. There’s appropriateness to responding the day Microsoft released the operating system to MSDN and TechNet subscribers.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps the same can be said of the right chart. The one below is so wordy I won’t have to write my usual 1,000-post. In reviewing the chart last night, I had one of those dreaded OMG moments.
How good is Windows’ security? Costco either doesn’t think much of it or perhaps wants customers to think more about it. Yesterday, while shopping at my local Costco, I was surprised to see that security was the biggest software category stocked. I mean really big.
TechFlash’s Todd Bishop did some good sleuthing of regulatory filings and turned up a so-called Yahoo escape clause to the Microsoft search deal. Two, actually.
But while they might comfort Yahoo that there is a way out of the deal, I promise you there is none.
We have low share, by the way, in the investor audience. I can see the Apple logos versus the PC logos. So we have more work to do, more work to do. Our share is […]
Late this morning, Betanews founder Nate Mook and I IMed about Google’s Chrome OS announcement. Our differing positions somehow fit oddly together.
Well, well, the Web is abuzz today with rumors that Microsoft may finally be prepping a Windows “Family Pack.” Some people preordering Windows 7 might feel gipped. Perhaps they should.Overnight, Kristan Kenny set off quite the ruckus about a possible Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack.
There are many measures of success, and some are less desirable than others. Windows is the standard by which cybercriminals measure their wares—eh, malware. Their devotion to Windows is testament to Microsoft’s success. The company should just accept the feint praise for what it is.
Microsoft claims that Windows is more widely attacked by malware than, say, Mac OS X because of volume; many, many more people use Windows PCs than Macs. The claim is great PR, because it kind of makes sense and is unprovable without Macs gaining lots more marketshare. But on closer examination, the claim is pure BS. Microsoft security experts know so, or they’re delusional.
S-o-o-o-o, US TV broadcasters aren’t alone pulling the plug on their analog channels. Microsoft is closing down channels 8 and 10 and folding some of their content into Channel 9. Someone at Microsoft thinks this is good marketing? It’s a great idea if the goal is for existing and potential customers to start switching channels.