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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?"
I must say, I'm shocked, with all my personal experiances with them.
Yep, I trust Sony. That's why I don't mind them installing a rootkit on my computer.
Behind Dell, Gateway (?), IBM (!?)--who at home aspires to buy something from IBM?
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
Neither of which earned my trust truth be told.
Sony is obvious, but Dell, besides the lack of quality in certain parts (which could be directly correlated to cheap prices), loads their new computers with tons of bloatware - you have to sit there and remove programs for an hour to get the speed you expect from your new computer and then still, remnants are left.
This might be standard among the big boys in the PC industry, but last time I got a Mac - I was pretty amazed by the lack of crap (wonders if that will change with Jobs being part-owner of Disney)....
oh if only there were a way!
$META_SIG_JOKE
Well, they haven't exactly blown away the home computer market.
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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?
Not as long as most people are poor and stupid!
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).
I find these types of surveys useless. I've been running on the same install of winxp for the last two years. I've had no serious viruse and a little bit of malware. I don't find that the system runs any slower then it did the first day, although I'm sure it is, and I would give winXP, from my experience, a B. Having said that. My friends, who incidentally are in the same computer program as me and thus have the same technical know how, are constantly complaining about windows, how slow and crappy it is. I quite frankly don't know what their problem is. So saying that M$ should recieve a C is pointless, because if they asked people like me about it instead of people like my friends then they would do better then a C.
They don't even have to fuck up the technology that much. I mean look at the delayed Vista, its been five years and no one has been able to touch them. Microsoft knows that. That is why their software really only has to *just* work and *just* be useable enough. Their domination is based on that amazing business model they are in, nothing else.
The question is what are YOU going to do about it ? Are you going to keep paying the fee ? If you're an OS maker, are you going to work, not only on the technology, but on the all important business relationships, including working on disrupting MS's relationships ?
Exactly what I've always thought - allthough I think Apple could blow away any market it chooses to enter. ... as long as the market is "portable music players".
Or did I enter a weird alternate reality where there's a Pippin in every living room?
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.
Damn proles always throw surveys (and elections) out of whack.
I'm no huge Dell fan, but they do what they do well--they sell computers for cheap. But Bose, and to a lesser extent Sony, pretty much base their business on being overrated. Bose would go out of business if it sold its products on their merits, and Sony would certainly get a run for their money from many other competitors who currently have a much smaller marketshare.
English is easier said than done.
You can't easily hate Microsoft, because whether you like them or not, at some point you actually have to use their products. Sony, though, Sony is easy to boycott. Sony you can boycott, and loudly proclaim your boycott, without having to really expend any effort or make any personal sacrifices on your part.
Does it count as a boycott if you use a product without paying for it?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Or to spin it a different way: Microsoft less trustworthy than Sony. :)
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The main problem with Sony is twofold.
a) Quality, they centralized their support structures with desastrous results. In the past a vendor network was making the support, and they got high ratings in quality (just like apple still does) The centralized support saved them money but they now have a lousy support reputation which kills off their sales. The vendors are not very eager to push their stuff as well, due to low margins, while sony still has high prices so no incentive to buy their stuff over the price point either.
b) Sony media slowly kills sony electronics while small companies take over. Most of the idiocy hitting sony electronics came from sony media (DRM, strongly enforced region codes while chines play all under the sky players were sold for 50 bucks next), rootkits etc... This is all stuff coming from the movie division and is hitting the electronics division hard, really hard. The current event showint this is that their UMD disk now is partially declared dead as movie format, the UMD never could take over due to strongly enforced DRM and the price hike coming with it (Speaking of endless greed) which made it significantly more expensive than DVDs.
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.
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.