Editorial - The Microsoft "Wow" Factor || The Mac Observer

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Editorial - The Microsoft "Wow" Factor

by , 11:55 AM EST, January 31st, 2007

Microsoft's slogan for the Vista launch was "The "Wow" starts now." Let's see how that worked out.

On Tuesday the New York Times published a story about the Vista marketing barrage we can expect from Microsoft and how it has drowned out the competition. But the real story behind the story was a photograph in the article that, well, wowed me.

The photo of interest is not the obvious one, the skyward looking shot of the dancers on the wall. Rather, it is an innocuous looking group photo of Microsoft's industry partners further down the page on the left.

In this photo we see Microsoft's major industry partners on stage with Ballmer: Kevin Rollins from Dell, Sean Maloney of Intel, Hisatsugu Nonaka of Toshiba, Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro Devices and Todd Bradley of Hewlett-Packard.

There is a convenient link that enlarges the image so that one can see, in detail, how wowed these partners are.

With the Microsoft banner prominently behind the men, their expressions look more like depression and resignation to me. Judge for yourself.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Tiger Posts: 945 Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:56 pm Subject: you nailed it

Either their bored, or constipated. Either way, they're not wowed.

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Close Name:stuartea Posts: 327 Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:58 pm Subject:

MacDailyNews said it a lot better with one caption yesterday : )

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/12473/

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Close Name:MOSiX Man Posts: 552 Joined: 20 Jun 2001
Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:04 pm Subject: Absolutely!

But I would also say that they look bored. Probably bored to catatonia, from hearing and having to regurgitate the same pro-Longhor... er, Vista rah-rah, for the last five years.

Seriously, though. There is absolutly NOTHING left in Vista that has any 'wow factor' left in it. All of the features that were truly compelling have vanished into the realm of vaporware. Even Microsoft's pitch men are having a hard time keeping a straight face while trying to express excitement over Vista.

Anybody notice that, when asked about how Vista compares to Tiger (or Leopard), the big guns at MS are now spewing even more obvious BS, to try and bury the questions?

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View Name:Guest
Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:07 pm Subject: How words change...

Close Name:stuartea Posts: 327 Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:11 pm Subject:

I thought it meant World of Warcraft?

Quote
Guest wrote:
Once upon a time "gay" meant jolly, happy et cetera. Will we see how "wow" has changed into its opposite in the near future with the Wow-factor of Microsoft? Seing these men, one might wonder...

Hello, we are PCs!

Take a peek at the new Geek Culture cartoon

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Close Name:horvatic Posts: 99 Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:40 pm Subject: There all sleeping...zzzzz..zz.zzzz.z.zz.z.z

I would say the Wow is more like a snore in that picture. With a little depression added in for good measure. They have blown it, and they know it. Vista is already looking like a failure with all of it's stupid EULA's and killing legal licenses of XP. Won't let users run virtual either. I think they know that there headed for the firing squad and that's kinda the way they look as well. They better change there EUlA and these limitations or they won't be selling much more than what they did on the first day.

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View Name:Guest
Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:41 pm Subject:

View Name:Guest
Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:40 pm Subject: Just what is the new logo?

Close Name:Ilgaz Posts: 16 Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:44 pm Subject: Wow is already taken :)

WoW is World Of Warcraft, it is called WoW. Each time MS says "Wow" people will recall World Of Warcraft.

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Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2049 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:17 pm Subject: Another possible explanation

Perhaps the execs looked that way because they had to listen to Gates' whiny voice.

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View Name:Guest
Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:38 pm Subject:

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