Slashdot Mirror
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.
We want you to look more like a Mac.
Unless encased in Jessica Abla, it will never be an object of desire.
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.
After all, that's where everybody keeps their porn.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
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
"If you can't make it good, at least make it look good." - Bill Gates.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Sounds like Microsoft should try getting Apple to ship Macs with Windows.
Haiku for you!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Well they sell me boxes of instant grits to go with that Natalie Portman-shaped computer?
Where were you when the voynix came?
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.
unstability????
;)
by Stavr0 (35032)
You MUST be an editor of slashdot, right?
Introduction: How to Steal Back the Market from Apple - i
Getting Smart: Our new user interface needs some magic and copies Aqua -1
Making Titanium-looking cases from inexpensive aluminum -2
Preventing dual-boot -3
Wacky driver troubleshooting -4
Thwarting competing anti-virus makers-5
Understanding why we have so many versions of the same thing, and how to sell it -6
Learning how to shave like Steve Jobs -7
Appendix A: Stock options manual for new employees
Appendix B: Using your wife's PR company to kill everyone's love for you
Appendix C: Why Longhorn isn't a cheese
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
lose (verb): to not win
loose (adjective): slack, not tight
Come on, guys. English isn't *that* hard to get right.
"Skill shows through where genius wears thin." -Wittgenstein || Religion: uniting aviation and architecture.
Put nipples on the reset and power button. If you're going to reboot the POS everyday, why not get a little titty with it?
Trolls make great pets. Adopt one today!
...meant to encourage them to design computers that are more visually appealing.
It's a lot like the toolkit they shipped to DC lobbyists encouraging the govt to go easy a few years ago. No wait, that was cash....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
A number of years ago there was a brief trend of clothing that had been shot full of holes. People were selling jeans, t-shirts, jackets, etc, that had been shot with automatic rifles and such. Manufacturers of Windows PCs should try to bring that idea back. Aside from being an cheap and easy way to make a generic case look cool, it will save the buyer's valuable time (and ammunication.)
--- What?
Please make it close to the size of a laptop.
I don't want a another pretty but big object in my house.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
but I imagined pile of them sitting in a dumpster covered in penguin shit
Dear Microsoft,
It seems that you are doing a lot of things lately to tell me what I want out of your products. Vista's new UI, and now these fancy industrial design specs.
Guess what? I couldn't care less what the shape of my PC is. It is under the desk with my UPS, subwoofer and trash can. And I have no need for a fancy new desktop UI, especially one that takes resources away from what I actually want to do with my computer, like photo and video editing.
What I want is excellent software, compatible with open standards, for a reasonable price. You used to deliver this. When you delivered virtual memory and preemptive multitasking, you were ahead of Apple. Now you seem way behind. And also, I want you to support open standards so that I can use other products with others that haven't paid you a licensing fee, such as open source. I'm not a sheep to lock in. Hello Linux and OSX.
And your prices are far from reasonable. The fact that I can't transfer a OEM Windows licence from one PC to another is rubbish. The fact that you want $399 for the standard edition of office, which I have paid you for several times over the years is robbery. I was happy with the functionality of office five years ago. Why should I need to buy it again? Hello, Open Office.
I'm not a sheep, Microsoft. You used to be innovative. Now you are all about marketing. Its been fun, but we're breaking up!
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
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.
On one of my rare walks through Walmart yesterday, I noticed a DVD player for $34.00.
:)
It's hard to imagine that there is $1200 worth of electronics in the new Dell computer I just got at work. As cell phones and iPod-like devices become ever-more powerful at sub-$200 prices, it's going to cast an ever-more powerful spotlight on the PC market. I've thought for some time that we are on the verge of seeing PC's become commoditized like calculators.
This latest blurb from Mircosoft is an attempt to stop PCs from becoming generic commodities - because once they start to look like that consumers will expect them to be priced like that.
I already do.
Steve
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
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
I would submit that Apple finally "got it" when they started using standard DIMMs (versus proprietary), PCI-based graphics (versus proprietary), IDE drives (versus SCSI), USB (in addition to firewire), standard monitors, and now Intel CPUs.
proprietary | (protected by trademark or patent or copyright; made or produced or distributed by one having exclusive rights)
NuBus was an IEEE standard. The Mac RAM wasn't proprietary either. If my memory serves FireWire did not predate USB on the Mac platform either. I don't recall Macs with built in FireWire and ADB ports, so I'm not sure about the USB in addition to FireWire comment. small video adapters were available to plug VGA/SVGA monitors into the earlier Mac video port (which were also another Int'l standard, nothing proprietary).
While I see something in your point, your examples seem weak by comparison.
[UID-HeinzIntel]
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.
...that nobody's going to buy it because of the operating system.
As a starting point, I'd like to suggest designers read, "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink, and check out some articles at: http://www.danpink.com/. Furthermore, I suggest visiting IDEO http://www.ideo.com/ideo.asp. Pay special attention to their "method card" deck. Lastly (for purposes of this discussion) I suggest visiting http://www.mcdonough.com/# . The common thread in all this is DESIGN. William McDonough says that the need for regulation indicates a failure in design.
2 ,00.asp http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/ ) to really innovative interfaces ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_project http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/).
The design of the product goes 'way beyond just cosmetics. There is only so much you can do with an enclosure for a PC board, but there is LOTS you can do with the system as a whole. Case modding is just a place to start. Functional design improvements are being made in everything from the input devices ( http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,111201
The IDEO method cards are different from the "Creative Whack Pack" or "Thinkertoys" cards, in that they redefine the product design domain. The jobs of the future are going to be design jobs requiring both high creativity and high technical ability. If someone in India or China can do your job as well and cheaper than you, or if a computer can do your job better and faster, your job is obsolete.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
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.
I don't see a large mass of people falling over themselves to upgrade to Vista. Most are just happy with what they have. My PC is nearly 6 yrs old, but I have no need to upgrade. I'm not editing video, and the last game I was into in a big way was Doom. Cruise the web and read email about does it for me nowadays. Compared to the vast majority of the people I meet, I'm a power user that lives for my computer. So how do we get people to buy new computers (MS' biggest source of OS revenue), if they're plenty happy with the one they have? Make the box pretty.
There was a big push to beautify boxes just after Apple started their resurgance. It had an impact, but not a big one. People still looked for the same thing...the cheapest price. I don't know anyone who will buy a new computer just because the new one has a prettier box.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
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.
He never suggested buying a MacBook Pro or an iMac. Secondly Apple desktop computers will become available pretty soon and until they do become available and we have seen the specs let's not assume they won't have expansion slots and are guaranteed to have processors that suck ass because they are made by Intel. AMD makes powerful processors but contrary to popular opinion in some circles, the sun does not shine out of AMD's ass.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
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.
MS is a software company not hardware. Although, in the last decade it can be argued that the products only exist to give the marketing department something to do.
This "Industrial Design Toolkit" screams "we're afraid of Apple". MS obvisously wants to strongarm the OEMs into creating simulacrums of Apple's product design philosophy. It works for Apple because there's really only one person at the top: Steve Jobs. Never mond the fact that Apple hardware and software visually mesh, with the design itself being clean and elegant, if not minimalist.
MS plus all the OEMs will not be able to pull this off. Will Dell, HP, Lenovo, or any other OEM be willing to adhere to design guidelines that reduce or eliminate the recognizability of their products for the sake of the software installed on them (which is not their product)? Hell no. The next step would be for MS to require that all laptops have a light-up Windows logo on the back of the screen in order for the OEM to get reduced cost Windows licensing. The OEMs will laugh at that, and many lawyers will get rich off of the lawsuits.
The only way an industry wide hardware branding for Vista can happen is if MS outright buys the PC divisions of every OEM in existance, and begin to make themselves into a mirror of Apple. But, they won't do that, because a 400% margin on software (Office) is more profitable than an 8% margin on all the hardware to run Office. Of course, it's more than likely that they would completely botch this, and in 10 years there would be little left of the PC market.
Plus, this is just another seemingly innocent move which reveals that MS is very afraid that Vista won't sell on its own.
I'm not sure i'd want MS picking my color scheme, see the microsoft grovy wireless mouse as an example.
But i'm all for breaking away from the ubiquitous beige box. Granted these days it's the ubiquitous black box, but the point is valid. A computer is a household appliance not unlike your TV or your dish washer. People go out of their way to buy matching washers and dryers. Dishwashers are often sold with optional faceplaces to match the kitchen. And there is always a tendy color of the decade such as avacado or almond. If microsoft wants to go out of their way to create color pallets, more power to them. Odds are there would be one that is not too offencive. It would be nice to be able to at the very least get a matching monior, keyboard, and printer.
But most important, really most imporant I see is standarzing the size and shape and color of the power and reset buttons. This isn't an issue for slashdot users, but joe user and easily be confused with the placement of the power button. I'm not being insulting, you can spy them with ease if you look dead on but when the desktop moves under the desk, the only thing you can see is this round bit and this other round bit, where round bit could be sleep, reset, or off. And between the location and placement of power buttons on desktops, monitors, printers, well you can see where this would be an issue. This is one of those cases where it doesn't actually matter too much what the end result looks like, so long as there is something consistent. For example, no bugger knows how to turn on my canon ip5200 printer, they alway hit the silver button next to the unlit LED which is resume stop, or the button dead center which is the front cover release.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Me, I love the English language. I don't have anything against the French you know, but their language just isn't as developed. I dunno, English just has that.... je ne sais quoi.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Even if they get top-of-the-line architects to perfect the exterior, the software is still designed by Frank Gehry.
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.