Vista Branding Confusing Even To Microsoft

Trotti Laganna writes "Lawyers are now arguing a case brought against Microsoft over Vista's marketing. The software giant is being dinged for allegedly not telling the truth when it put the 'Vista capable' logo on PCs that would only be capable of running Vista Home Basic. Case in point - even the software giant's marketing director Mark Croft was confused by the pre-launch campaign in the United States. Croft's explanation was that "'capable'...has an interpretation for many that, in the context of this program, a PC would be able to run any version of the Windows operating system". After a 10-minute break to talk to Microsoft's lawyers, Croft admitted he had made 'an error', and retracted his previous statement, saying that, by 'capable', Microsoft meant 'able to run a version of Vista'."

Comments

new acronym proposal: HINAL

[GroeFaZ]

He Is Not A Lawyer.

Re:Women's clothes sizes and Vista branding

[whoda]

"In other words, always buy one size larger than you expect to fit. Also, always try the pants on before buying."
Here's the problem:
I don't know what size fits and Microsoft won't provide a dressing room to try the software on.
Once purchased and opened so I can 'try it on' I can't return it if it is the wrong size.

Re:Certain?

[Neeth]

You could argue the other way round. A computer capable of running Vista, will run Vista, right? And Vista Ultimate is Vista, right? But Vista Ultimate can not be used. So you can't use Vista on a Vista capable computer. But the sticker says so.
Now, I agree with you that informing the consumers would have been nice. But would they have bought the computer when it said that it was only capable of running the most basic Vista?

Re:Certain?

[aaronl]

The point is that "Vista Capable" doesn't say "Vista Capable for a subset of the features of Vista", the implication is that if I buy a copy of Vista, it will work. This has very clearly not been the case. If you have a system labeled "Vista Capable" and go to the store, and buy six out of seven versions of Vista, it may not work properly.

Also, there *is* quite a bit of difference between Home Basic and Home Premium. This is to say that Home Basic is completely missing nearly every advertised function and feature of the platform. Home Basic doesn't have Aero, all the mobility support for laptops, SideShow, scheduled backups, fax support, DVD Maker, Movie Maker, Media Center, and a bunch of other things. Vista is advertised as supporting all of those things, with no mention of version distinction outside of tiny small print.

Even if you to their web site, and browser the Vista pages, it is misleading. There a pages dedicated to footnotes, exceptions to system requirements, an A-V list of poorly documented version differences, etc. I still haven't found a page that describes what the "Core Experiences of Windows Vista", which they continually mention, even are.

In other words, Microsoft seems to knowingly mislead consumers. They were aware of the differences, and did not adequately inform purchasers of it. They certainly appear to be misleading through deceptive labeling and advertising.

Re:Women's clothes sizes and Vista branding

[revengebomber]

Dressing Room.