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Microsoft Wants to Project "Cool" Image

Posted by michael on from the it's-cool-to-get-viruses dept.

rocketjam writes "C-Net is reporting that Microsoft is working to get their products placed in popular TV shows like Fox's "24" and HBO's "The Wire" as part of a push from executive Jim Allchin called 'cool form factor'. Like MacDonald's recent hip-makeover marketing efforts, Allchin wants to engender a hip, consumer brand image for the company which is largely perceived as an enterprise software company. Microsoft would like to capture some of the cachet that Apple Computer has among the fashionable and Hollywood tech elite."

5 of 568 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft paying for what's free to Apple by questamor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple have appeared, without payment or request, in thousands of productions. From 24 to Seinfeld, to just about any stock photography that has a laptop in it, it's Apple Apple Apple all the way. I think it's curious Microsoft need to -pay- to get their products in this same position.

    And as much as I'm a mac lover, it's amazing how LITTLE benefit it's done Apple. What's our market share now? :P

    1. Re:Microsoft paying for what's free to Apple by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I think it's curious Microsoft need to -pay- to get their products in this same position.


      Take a look at a Mac: the computer case itself and the desktop. Now take a look at your average Windows box.

      Any questions?
      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  2. Re:About time... by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It already has the street cred it deserves.

    It's just trying to get the street cred it craves.

    It's important to make sure it doesn't get it. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make sure it doesn't. This message will self-destruct in 15 months.

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  3. Re:About time... by darien · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's just trying to get the street cred it craves. It's important to make sure it doesn't get it.

    Thankfully, Microsoft's success in having become 'the establishment' will make it very hard for them to acquire street cred. That sort of perception tends to attach to rebels, free-thinkers and high performers, not monolithic institutions. While it's true that MS itself has shown breathtaking contempt for the law, using their software is not going to make you a rebel without a cause; it's going to make you a sheep without an alternative.

  4. Re:Cool can't be manufactured by j0e_average · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some things are "cool" for no other reason that they run counter to the mainstream. Apple has a throng of devotees partially because they aren't Microsoft.

    Add to this the fact that Apple produces kick-ass products and you can see why they remain cool. They've demonstrated that they aren't a passing phase.

    Microsoft can pay all of the money in the world and still not (and won't) buy that kind of following.

    Plus, you don't see Apple pushing the issue with DRM and all of that other bullshit. Once again they are counter (cool) to the mainstream (dud).