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Sony More Trustworthy Than Microsoft
DesertBlade writes "Forrester Research examined the trust that American households place in PC and consumer electronics. Sony, Dell and Bose all recieved a ranking of A+ while Microsoft recieved a C (I know most of you would say it is closer to a F). "Microsoft faces big consumer defection risk. One measure of consumers' dissatisfaction with Microsoft is seen in the 5.4 million households that give it a brand trust score of 1 [distrust a lot] or 2 [distrust a bit]. Compared with all Microsoft users, these at-risk users have higher income, are much more likely to be male, and are bigger online spenders.(see endnote 7) These households know they run Microsoft software but would be just as happy to leave it behind -- if they could." Does Microsoft face that big of a risk?"
Yep, I trust Sony. That's why I don't mind them installing a rootkit on my computer.
I don't much care for Sony nor Microsoft, but that distrust sort of falls by the wayside whenever the next Halo* comes out (or whatever your franchise of choice is). We tend to go with the evil we know and purchase as if we had no choice, even those of us that really ought to know better.
*Mock away. I like what I like. And more importantly, my wife likes it.
Anyway, its all 'Brand Potential' and 'Brand Trust' so its all tainted with the marketing veneer of bullshit. I've never worked out how marketeers can get away with 'statistics' that have so many holes they look like a lace dress - but a scientist delivers statistically valid climate data and 'there is too much uncertainty'.
We have a sick society
oh if only there were a way!
$META_SIG_JOKE
I think a C for Microsoft is just about right. They're a victim of their success, but it's a devil I know. Sony. They do the occasionally bat-shit insane thing. Rootkits, crazy crazy DRM, and all kinds of internal struggles. They've got Microsofts problems in addition to various factions being in competition with each other, some of those factions are competely ambivalent to the experience they offer the customer, and no surprise those are the high margin factions which frequently find themselves at the mercy of the volitile market they seek to dominate not understand. It's just impossible to know the devil that is Sony. If their new CEO can't get a handle on things, they're the one's in deep shit.
I disagree (that MS is closer to an 'F').
Microsoft is the ultimate 'C'. They have built an empire on being just good enough. I mean, a *lot* of very useful work is done on windows the world over, it can't be classified as an abject failure.... but man, it sure is lackluster.
Yup. The very pinnacle of mediocrity. That's the microsoft way.
They still have tremendous inertia in the marketplace. How long has it taken for the general public to have the same perception of Microsoft as a typical /.er? The biggest problem is that Microsoft has gotten people to believe that computers are inherently unreliable, unstable, and buggy - so that people EXPECT such behavior from any computer, not just one with a Microsoft OS or application software on it. As long as a large number of people expect crappily behaving computers, Microsoft's position is secure. In a similar manner, Microsoft has acclimated the business world to the idea that a standalone PC is incomplete without anti-virus, anti-spyware addons and a dedicated IT staff to maintain them.
On the other hand, businesses tend to hold onto computers and custom/favorite apps much longer than individuals do. Apple may have a shot of displacing Windows from household computers, as many people become more savvy about what they need a computer for, which can usually be covered by web browsing, email, document reading, picture viewing, video watching, and music listening, and are willing to pay a bit so they don't have to constantly tinker with their systems. I think replacing Microsoft in the enterprise world will be much harder.
Exactly what I've always thought - allthough I think Apple could blow away any market it chooses to enter.
To put this another way:
Apple chooses to enter only those markets it can blow away.
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How is it biased? Like you said, the general public does trust and buy Bose, hence the survey got them an A+. It was a study of USian attitudes towards different brands, it wasn't a test of sound quality or anything.
What's the problem? And who modded you up?
Being trustworthy is not the same as being trusted. Some companies are not worthy of trust, but recieve it due to the ignorance of consumers (and vice versa).
Agreed. I'm sure the main reason for the numbers favouring Sony over Microsoft is the fact that non-techies don't understand the phrase "rootkit", but they do understand the phrase "fuck, it broke".
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
The reviewer obviously never called Dell customer service.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
D'oh! Yes, I forgot Google. Pre-IPO, they would have been a shoe-in for the "can do no wrong" category, but recent issues over censorship and privacy means that their position there is a little tenuous. I guess overall though, we still love Google, don't we?
Cynics will notice that the headline is logically equivalent to "Microsoft even Less Trustworthy Than Sony"
Actually, that's a fairly standard business practice: don't enter markets you have no chance of success in. Maxim
Or to spin it a different way: Microsoft less trustworthy than Sony. :)
Get your own free personal location tracker
I find it ironic that Microsoft's core business is software which is probably what the grade is based on. It's ironic because hardware is one area which they have actually had quite a good track record. They make very VERY good keyboards and mice. I never hesitate to get one when I need a replacement. Their fingerprint reader works pretty well. And until they stopped selling it, their 802.11b wireless routers were some of the very few on the market that even my mother could setup and worked quite reliably. I honestly wonder why they haven't gone deeper into the hardware market. Maybe even into...dare I say it?...computers. Most of the problems with Windows seem to come from the fact that they have to deal with a nearly endless array of hardware in near infinite combinations running random amounts and types of software. If they were able to design a reference computer, I actually think there's a good chance it would run pretty well. It seems to me that they ought to be headed towards the same ground that Apple now occupies. Just my $0.02.
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
A thinkpad, surely the greatest laptops around. Sure they are now owned by Lenovo, but how many people know that little fact? And they probably still command a lot of respect.
As to Dell and Gateway, well, just goes to show you that most people are idiots.
I have considered building and selling my own PCs, so that when clients tell me they're looking for a new PC and ask me who I recommend, I can offer to sell them something good, because I really haven't seen a major OEM I can recommend in good faith.
Go for it. In fact, I strongly recommend that you do so! Put together PCs from OEM parts. (hint: MA Labs is a GREAT distributor) It takes a $1 screwdriver, a power outlet, about 15 Sq Ft of counter space, and a 3-day prepay for parts. In the US, give yourself at least $100-$200 in margin. (it's not about percentage of markup, it's about absolute value, because it usually takes the same amount of time to build/support a cheap-o PC as an expensive one) And, make sure you charge a reasonable fee for additional services. Your time is money, after all!
You'll probably make out on your very first sale. Wash, rinse, repeat, and in just a few years, with some hard work, you'll have your own bona-fide business. Then, you'll be an executive, a notable in your community, and you can join the ranks of CEOs and business owners all over the country who write off their vehicles, and pay others to punctually open the store at 9:00 AM while you saunter in around noon. You can complain about high taxes, the cost of insurance, and the IRS, while sitting at the airport waiting for the mechanic to inspect the airplane you're considering purchasing.
It really is that simple! It's the path I've travelled, and it was well worth it... (and yes, I'm about to buy an airplane)
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I'm another one of happy customers, although not very fond of Dell. We have 3 old servers, about 15 laptops and 400-500 PCs. Hardware works great, (less than) expected amount of failed parts get replaced the next day, help desk / sales people (India or Malaysia) are pleasant to talk with, knowledgable and they understand that they are talking with professional, so I never had to go through 'did you install the latest driver, have you rebooted' and similar crap. Few times they extended the warranty on the spot, when fault happened just after expiration date. We also never had any trouble getting machine to test before the order is placed or forced to get Windows preinstalled (apart from notebooks), since we run Linux.
I really can't fail them. Just superb.
Maybe not the "home computer" market... but go into just about any successful graphic design/advertising/media production house and you will see macs... everywhere. They're damned fine machines for content creation.
If, however, you also include factors like product quality and innovation then things look somewhat different. The Ohhhs and Ahhhs coming from the computer press every time Microsoft releases a new iteration of Windows are usually quite modest compared to the headlines you get when Apple does the same.
Which is utterly irrelevant - unless you're in the habit of judging a product by the size of its hype cloud. By your measuring stick, for instance, OpenBSD has zero quality and innovation, since there are no 'Ohhhs and Ahhhs coming from the computer press' when a new iteration is launched.
Still, if you meant Apple has blown away the computer market PR then your argument makes perfect sense.
Does it count as a boycott if you use a product without paying for it?
To Microsoft, using their products without paying is better than not using their products at all. One less Apple or Linux user is a win to them, even if they don't get money directly from you. Because you are a still helping create the "everyone needs windows/office/... to communicate" preassure, and some of those using Microsoft products because of that preassure WILL pay for them. Especially companies. Often a company will give "it's what everyone knows" as the reason for buying Microsoft products. And everyone knows because they have an illegal copy at home.
Microsoft knows this. Bill has said himself that a person using Windows without paying is better than one not using Windows at all.
5-10 years??? Not hardly. A 5 year old mac is pretty pathetic - I have 2 of them, a g4 500 desktop and a g4 500 titanium powerbook. Both are VERY slow, even with maxed out RAM and everything else. No WAY would I get another 5 years more out of them. Furthermore, OS X 5 years ago was REALLY buggy. You really need at LEAST 10.3. Wintel machines are the same way. After about 5 years, everything needs to be refreshed, but they DO last about 5 years. Hell, I used a P-133 for at LEAST 5 years before upgrading to a P3-500, which I used for ANOTHER 5 years before upgrading nearly 2 years ago to a P4-2.8. I'll easily get another 3 years out of it. Linux runs just fine and I have no interest in the DRM/TPM "All your base" loaded Vista.
First of all, you could make an argument that MS is at fault with the rootkit issue because of their own design decisions in the OS, and the complete failure to prevent these things from being so easily installed.
But, how can people complain so much about this horrible idea by Sony, when it the end it probably caused no damage as opposed to the mess that we have out there of virus and spyware riddled computers infected because Windows is not robust enough? At the end of the day, this rootkit is nothing compared to what Microsoft has allowed to happen to all the infected PCs out there in the world.
- sigs are for wimps.
Klipsch makes quality products that are equivalent to other mid and upper range speaker brands, along with Athena, Infinity, JBL, etc. They are certainly not the best of the best but they are priced what they are worth and sound good. Contrary to Bose, which literally sells $5 paper cone drivers for THOUSANDS, claiming "better sound through research", yet refusing to disclose their speaker's specifications.