Analysts To Microsoft: Think More Like Apple

H ow many of you know about Window XPis Remote Desktop feature, or use Windows Messenger? Being that you are an Apple audience, your ignorance of these features is understandable (note that 1/3 of our visitors are on Windows machines), but that shouldnit be the case if you happen to run a PC with Windows XP. Whereas iPhoto is something most Mac users will readily recognize as a feature of Appleis OS X OS or Macs, Movie Maker just doesnit spark the same reaction for XP from people; and thatis a problem to Microsoft.

The Associated Press is running a story in which Microsoft execs openly complain about the marketing of many of XPis features, and that the strategy behind creating and marketing XP could have been done better. Even more interesting is that the story also cites analysts who say that Microsoft could have been more like Apple as to how it creates and advertises XP features. Hereis an excerpt from the Associated Press article appearing in the Washington Post Intelligencer titled:

Jim Allchin, Microsoftis group vice president for software platforms, including Windows, said he thinks customers arenit using gadgets like Windows Messenger and Movie Maker because Microsoft hasnit done a good enough job telling people about them.

"I donit think weive marketed it very well," he said at a dinner with journalists Wednesday in Bellevue, near the companyis Redmond headquarters.

Allchin said he was "very frustrated" to find that more people havenit embraced technologies including remote desktop, which lets people access their own computer from another computer, and a remote assistance option that is designed to help people solve computer problems more easily.

...

"Too often Microsoft tries to create new behavior, which carries an inherent barrier to selling it because youire asking someone to do something they havenit done before," (Industry analyst, Joe) Wilcox said.

He compares it to Microsoftis rival Apple, which introduced products such as iPhoto based on familiar things, such as photo albums. Microsoft could have done a better job building on familiar experiences, he said.

Another problem, Wilcox noted, is that while Apple used catchy names like iPhoto, Microsoft has stuck with cumbersome product names like Scanner and Camera Wizard.

Thereis more in the full article at the Washington Post Intelligencer.