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Microsoft Encouraging OEMs to Beautify Computers
Grooves writes "Microsoft has shipped a 'Vista Industrial Design Toolkit' to PC manufacturers, meant to
encourage them to design computers that are more visually appealing. From the article: 'From color palettes to suggestions about how the power and reset buttons should appear, the kit basically describes Microsoft's vision of what a Vista PC should look like. The look features accelerated curves and purposeful contrast, among other qualities.' The report goes on to say that Microsoft wants 'PCs to be objects of pure desire.' Sound familiar? It's hard to see budget-conscious OEMs stepping up to this."
I desire my PC to be pure of spyware, security flaws and unstability.
MS is just trying to grab a few sales away from Apple at the expense of the OEMs. Why not? MS doesn't have anything to loose on this one - the OEMs are the ones taking the risk.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Would you really want to take design suggestions from MS? I can't think of anything they've designed (on their own) that looks like I'd want to put my name on it and sell it.
It's true that Apple attracts a certain "I don't know what" kind of person. Apple's success, however, is not based on its cosmetic appeal. Apple offers much more beyond just its good looks. It's like Apple and and its users signed up on eHarmony and found each other. If Vista is stable and easy to use, then MS won't need the glitz and glamour to attract customers since they already have a majority of the customers. MS will only have to retain customers, which it can do with a great Vista release.
...after 20+ years Microsoft finally "gets it" or at least half of "it"? Oooh shiny wins with consumers every time. Apple knew this when they made the first Macs. But Apple also knew the other half of the equation that MS is still not getting: "just works".
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
This is yet further evidence of how MS have forgotten and broken their business model. They rose to prominence on cheap commodity hardware -- they empowered users and manufacturers alike to use whatever they wanted to get the job done, at a time when NeXT, SGI, Apple and Sun were competing to lock customers in to shiny, proprietary, non-serviceable hardware.
Hard to believe that even the most fundamental lessons from MS's years of success can have been forgotten -- but there it is.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
You know that I'm fighting the urge to make a Goatse comment right now.
Anyway, I am glad that Microsoft is fighting against beige box syndrome. Computer makers seem to think that painting their 'puters black instead of off-white is what consumers want. I disagree. The important thing is that all designs are durable. My wonderful Sony Clie NX-73V failed because of a broken power switch. I would be ever angrier if that happened to my prettified computer.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Oh, sure. After all, we know how unbelievably gorgeous Lenovo laptops are.*
Actually, I suspect that this, more than anything else, is a sign of just how concerned Microsoft is that Apple is about to eat their lunch. The "beautify the box" message is inteneded as a point of product differentiation, but the only other product in this space who is doing better than Microsoft here is Apple. Unless you know of a company who is making really attractive Ubuntu boxes. (And if so, please let me know. I have a birthday coming up.)
* I should note at this point that in my previous job I administered a lab full of IBM ThinkPads. They were absolutely monster workhorses, and I have nothing bad to say about them. I mean, other than the fact that I was stupid and didn't set BIOS passwords right away, and as a result lost one laptop to some MBA student thinking he'd be cute and setting a boot password. Whoopsie.
Somehow the phrase, "Microsoft-approved" seems to be heading in a direction that I never thought possible. Not only will software writers have to conform, but now PC manufacturers should worry about how their systems look, just because they *might* be used to run Vista? What arrogance. Some things never change.
I'm not sure I agree with the "Be like a Mac!" comparison. For most PC manufacturers, having their own "look and feel" has been part of what has given them a strong brand name. Sure, Microsoft wants to grab some of that brand recognition beyond just the bootup splash screen (and the desktop look and feel), but I also think this will create more than just brand recognition for Microsoft -- I believe it will also produce an interesting "playing field" for companies beyond the Big Four (Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq, Toshiba). Consider the smaller OEMs and white box companies -- by providing a standardized look and feel, this will open the door of opportunity for many more companies. Sure, the big guys probably don't WANT this (they want to keep their look and feel in order to keep their branding strong), but it could create a new competitive atmosphere by giving smaller companies a foot in the door to compete on the look and feel front.
I've always loved third party cases and keyboards and monitors moreso than the Big Four for the same reason that I've always liked clones -- they've pushed the envelope before the big guys did. The downside is that the clones never seemed to sell well in the corporate environment nor in the newb home environment; the clones were just powerhouse sellers for us geeks. By having Microsoft "dictate" what they want to see, we may actually see more third parties offering competition to the Big Four, which in turn could see prices drop a bit more, which could push more legal Microsoft products into the fray.
All around, there are some Mac-branding similarities, but I don't really think that is Microsoft's desired goal to miMac (mimic the Mac, in my vernacular). I think it is just a good idea that will help the little(r) guys, and still give the big guys a chance to offer different products that the market can choose from.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with Apple, so just stop with all the "Apple just gets it" lines. This has to do with selling PCs to the XBox crowd.
1) Make Vista look like a video game (shiny-shiny)
2) Make OEMs design toy-like cases.
3) Marketeer magic/witchcraft (insert probable goat sacrifice here)
4) PROFIT!
See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
Macs don't have reset buttons. 'nuff said.
I prefer the beige box, let your creativity loose and paint it whatever color you want. I would always prefer to mod and customize the looks of my PC, and this is really only possible on a "blank slate" beige box. The pre-modded systems that oems sell are just horrid looking for the most part.
Its kind of like why people enjoy decorating their rooms/dorms/etc with posters and other such junk: they want their living space to be an extension of themselves and their personality/interests. The PC is just another extension of this.
For some pretty nice looking PC's, check out Virtual Hideout's cool case gallery
I got nothin'
If anything has "boy racer" looks, it is Alienware et al. Apple designs may not be for everyone, but they are generally clean and simple, while the "boy racer" look is anything but. Case windows, cold cathode tubes that flash in time with the audio, LED fans, and gaudy paint-jobs are more in the realm of PCs than Macs.
/usr/games/fortune
Those OEMs couldn't "beautify" anything if their life depended on it. If they could, they'd already do so. The best they can do is steal Apple's 3 year old designs.
Fewer cables -- particularly power cables and power bricks. Things ought to daisy chain. Also, the computer ought to be able to power off devices when not needed (think external peripherals).
Lower electrical power -- I'd like to be able to reel in consumption, slow down the CPU and power use when not needed. If drives took less power, you could run them off some daisy-chained juicier USB2 or FireWire.
Quieter machines -- one shouldn't have to sacrifice or pay big bucks just to knock 20dB off the sound output of the fans/drives.
Fast bluetooth -- or an equivalent thereof. Maybe something that would make sense with external HDDs, as well as cameras, camcorders, phones, etc. Monitors?
Cheap low-power monitors with decent color for video work would be nice too (the LCDs with the truest color are just too expensive compared to the CRTs).
After that, I'd put aesthetics -- which I don't care too much about since my PC's under the desk.
When I looked in my local Fry's add and saw that I can buy a brand new computer for $150, I realized that computers have become commodities.
Microsoft is in the precarious position of being too successful, where it has no where to go but down. Granted, the slow spiral downward will take time as a new breed of IT worker who is more UNIX/Linux savvy come into power, but the end is inevitable... Microsoft will fall from it's lofty position of 95% market dominance eventually... the only real question is how soon. Once that happens, Microsoft will have to start competing on merit instead of its past monopoly, which in turn will be good for everyone.
I don't deny that. Just saying that the cost of software is not the cost of duplciation, just as the cost of hardware isn't that of the raw materials and manufacturing.
I don't care what my computer looks like -- ugly can be covered or ignored. It is much more difficult to quiet or ignore a noisey computer.
Seriously, though, you have a point. I'm sure part of the reason Microsoft would like PC makers to do this is to make the hardware look different if it's running Vista.
Most PC users don't upgrade their operating system. They upgrade their computer. But how does the world know that they're running Vista? It's same old dull boring box. Most people can't tell a new computer from an old one, so most people wouldn't know that you bought a new computer with a brand new operating system on it.
So, come June, if I walk into three friends' houses and they all have funky-looking brand new computers, I'll probably ask why. If they have new but dull-boring looking computers, I may not even notice and I certainly won't be asking why.