« Microsoft gives bloggers a royal WinHEC treatment | Main | A Friday of rumours »
Microsoft gives users the finger
Microsoft thinks you are a redundant dinosaur if you haven't yet switched to Office 2003. They won't say it out loud, but that's the message they send with their latest marketing campaign for the productivity suite.
It's always nice when your vendor tells you he appreciates your business in such a clear way.
It reminds me of an advertising campaign that a cable company once ran. They showed people that looked their dumbest with the accompanying text asking the reader: "Or do you want to keep progress out?" Of course this made me run to the phone. Not to order their broadband internet or VoIP telephone service, but to tell them that I hate them too. And that I don't appreciate it when people say I'm stupid, especially when those people don't know me.
So, dear Microsoft, why don't you come over? Then you can learn that I don't need XML in my word documents. I don't need to build connections between my enterprise applications and Excel or Word. And even if I would want to, there are other ways that don't include your overpriced Office 2003.
Or maybe you mean to say that you think your product is too advanced and overpriced for me. Are you trying to tell me that I should take a look at OpenOffice? Now that's the smartest thing you've said in a long time.
April 28, 2005 at 08:27 AM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/24766/2357757
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Microsoft gives users the finger:
Comments
Brilliant observation, my own reaction to the MS Dinasaur ads was similar. What struck me is the arrogance of Microsoft calling users of ITS OWN PRODUCTS outdated, and ready for extinction. The ads seemed screechy, desperate ... and perhaps contained within the seeds of truth about Microsoft itself these days. With the OS competition getting increasingly fierce, Microsoft must be asking itself if it, like the giant dinasaurs who once ruled the earth, is due for a massive die off soon.
Posted-by: bruce m | 28 Apr 2005 19:29:47
I have to agree. My response was to send them the following comments:
I have to agree that business practice has evolved, and so have I, since you asked. At my last hardware update I discarded MS Office and went open source. I now feel much more secure in a MS Free environment.
Posted-by: Bill | 28 Apr 2005 22:17:59
Yes! Thats true. moreover Office has many features
Posted-by: sbikram | 29 Apr 2005 00:39:21
Microsoft's hold is getting weaker, there are much better products and an os's that has no need of their resource hungry and drive space gobbling software.Better still, no need to upgrade memory after each new office patch installed.Thank-you Linux and open source!
Posted-by: carel | 30 Apr 2005 08:30:44
Regardless of what you think of Microsoft, people with dinosaur heads are just plain disturbing.
Posted-by: george | 27 Sep 2005 00:09:38
Spanish
