Microsoft Invents $1.15/Hour Homework Fee For Kids

theodp writes "Microsoft's vision of your computing future is on display in its just-published patent application for the Metered Pay-As-You-Go Computing Experience. The plan, as Microsoft explains it, involves charging students $1.15 an hour to do their homework, making an Office bundle available for $1/hour, and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun. In addition to your PC, Microsoft also discloses plans to bring the chargeback scheme to your cellphone and automobile — GPS, satellite radio, backseat video entertainment system. 'Both users and suppliers benefit from this new business model,' concludes Microsoft, while conceding that 'the supplier can develop a revenue stream business that may actually have higher value than the one-time purchase model currently practiced.' But don't worry kids, that's only if you do more than 52 hours of homework a year!"

Comments

Wha?

[Xaemyl]

You gotta be fucking kidding me ...

Re:Wha?

[Anonymous Coward]

Say what you will but Bill Gates' vision was revolutionary for the time. He brought shrink wrapped software to the masses. No one had done it successfully before him.

Now, MS is like an old man past his time who can't think beyond what he accomplished. Here MS is trying to remake itself but can't get out of the mindset that worked in the 80s.

They really need to think differently but they can't. This is why MS is doomed (well, not doomed, they just can't be the new dominant player).

Yet another excuse not to do homework

[Anonymous Coward]

"Teacher I didn't get my assignment done. It was either buy food or rent MS Word for three hours, and I didn't want to starve."

Billing for fun and profit

[Anonymous Coward]

and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun

As long as they only bill you while you're actually having fun, I'd imagine that this would be a good deal for many of today's games.

Pretty Remarkable

[iluvcapra]

They have some moxie, don't they?

I guess this would be successful, but it pretty much guarantees that all of your customers will hate you, even as they pay you. So really, it's a horizontal move for Microsoft.

As long as computing is as desperately cheap as it is, with $300 computers and free office suites, it's hard to see how they could make this work as a business model.

Re:Pretty Remarkable

[PhreakOfTime]

it's hard to see how they could make this work as a business model.

I think your confusion come from applying your own reasoning to the world at large.

But if I may give a reprieve to your doubts about the viability of this, may I suggest you introduce yourself to a few more CEO's. You may find their approach somewhat 'illogical'. But then again, just look around. Do you think the financial crisis we are facing now was based on 'logical' decisions by these same CEO's?

To many in 'business', being free means cheap. There are people who honestly believe that simply by paying more for something, it means its 'better'.

Money( a medium of exchange for items) and Wealth(the actual items or quality of services themselves that are deemed 'of value') are NOT the same thing, but there are many people who cant tell the difference.

At Least Microsoft is Now Being Up Front

[Apple Acolyte]

We can be thankful that at least Microsoft is now being up front and honest about its true intentions. This has always been M$'s dream and ambition - to extort users by making them pay perpetually for the privilege of supporting M$ hegemony. Let us all remember that this is the M$ endgame every person is supporting when he or she chooses to buy and use Windows, buy XBox consoles and otherwise support that company. We can be relatively sure that Windows 7 will be a flop similar to flop that is Vista, and as M$ grows more desperate for revenue it will start introducing these mandatory "pay and pay and pay again to play" anti-consumer, anti-competitive schemes.

Alright

[Renraku]

What's in it for the consumer?

Do you supply a top-of-the-line PC and internet connection for us gamers? It might be worth it then, provided we don't game too much.

Do you supply a flexible, strong, compatible laptop for the school crowd? It might be worth it then, provided you don't provide incentives to universities or schools to dump more homework on the poor students.

What about the in-car entertainment system? Cell phones?

If I'm buying the equipment, I'm not going to pay monthly for something I currently get for free. The consumers, even the dumb ones, will be looking for alternatives. If no better alternatives exist, they'll be created.

In short, I hope Microsoft does launch this nice program, hopefully with the backing of the law, and other absurd things so we can watch the anvil break the camel's back.

Re:Alright

[NewbieProgrammerMan]

In short, I hope Microsoft does launch this nice program, hopefully with the backing of the law, and other absurd things so we can watch the anvil break the camel's back.

There have been many times in my life when I've said this same sort of thing about decisions I've seen others make. I believe I've seen people say similar things on Slashdot about other decisions Microsoft has made in the last decade. So far, opportunities to say "See! I told you so," have been sparse.

The thing is that the universe appears to be fairly forgiving to makers of decisions we think are dumb. Microsoft is still around, and people are still handing them piles of cash every year, despite all the predictions of doom.

I think that if Microsoft succeeds with this pay-as-you-go program, it will be because there are more ignorant people out there than we suspect.

Re:Alright

[Dutch Gun]

Since when does Microsoft care about that? The real issue is that Microsoft has discovered that they may be able to lock people into Windows and Office, but they can't force people to buy new versions. Their "customers" will just keep on using Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and then Microsoft only gets a cut when someone buys a new computer, if that. And then, even then, they have to cut the price of their software for the OEMs, and so they aren't making the sort of money they like.

It would be suicide, nothing less. Customers resoundingly rejected this sort of system with DivX, and they'll do so again. People aren't completely opposed to subscriptions when they feel enough value is offered for the money, though.

In business, nothing is more attractive to a bottom line than subscriptions. Yearly guaranteed profits, nice and predictable. Nothing is scarier to a business than spending millions on a product that people may or may not want. But money is a better feedback mechanism for a business than almost anything else.

Honestly, though, I just can't see them being quite that stupid, at least not in the foreseeable future. Just because subscriptions are a wet dream for the financial department doesn't mean marketing won't stick their finger in the wind to see if people would actually go for such a scheme. People have been predicting this sort of stuff for years, and it never happens. It works at the large-scale enterprise level (it's probably advantageous there, since it's a known and regular expense), but it would be disastrous at any smaller scale.

Still, it would be fun to see them try.

Re:Alright

[Eskarel]

Well, it really sort of depends.

If they offer this subscription model instead of the current boxed model, and they offer it at the prices currently being suggested, then the only thing in it for the consumer is the grief of switching to a new office suite. Consumers simply will not pay that kind of pricing if they are heavy users of said products, even at the ludicrous prices Microsoft charges for the full versions of Office Professional(which is more than most people need), even a user who upgraded with every single version(office versions are usually about 3 years apart with the exception of 2k->XP), it would only really take 230 hours a year(or about 5 hours a week) to pay for the boxed copy.

On the other hand, if they offer this method alongside their boxed sales system for people who use word or games very rarely, then it might be quite a good deal. If I had to pay a couple of bucks per hour for Office, over the last 3 years I'd have probably paid substantially less than $50, which compared to even a student copy of Office, would be quite a good deal. Realistically most games are currently priced at about $2/hour of fun anyhoo, so that might work even easier.

It's still true that you should ignore anyone starts spouting off that SAAS will be the wave of the future(they're either raving nutters, or marketing whackjobs), but there are valid uses for the subscription model. MMO's work because they provides more fun per dollar than most single purchase games for a lot of the people who play them. You may disagree with this, but that's why they work.

To sum up, it is possible for subscription models to provide better value for money for certain market segments than traditional purchase models. These market segments are also often ones which companies have a hard time selling to. A good subscription model that provides value for money to this segment, combined with either the normal boxed model, or a decent scaling/capped system for heavy users, can benefit both consumers and companies.

A bad subscription model is not something we really have to worry about because people simply won't stand for it.

Some would argue that people are stupid, or sheep, especially(at least on slashdot) if those people use Microsoft products, but there's only so deep people can reach into someone elses pockets with impunity. People have rejected business models like this before, and even TPM wouldn't save Microsoft Office if they tried it.

When two is better than one

[djupedal]

"The plan, as Microsoft explains it, involves charging students $1.15 an hour to do their homework, making an Office bundle available for $1/hour, and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun. In addition to your PC, Microsoft also discloses plans to bring the chargeback scheme to your cellphone and automobile..."

And ads - don't forget ads...lots and lots and lots of ads.

Seriously, when is MS going to get off the same old profit-stump? Is there no one inside that company that can imagine fresh ways to make money besides licensing? Will MS ever come out of the ice age they fostered and find something to sell that the world actually looks forward to paying for?

Despite what MS would wish, software isn't a utility product that spins a meter at the sidewalk. It isn't a consumable that requires a refill after every trip to the coast. It isn't a treat that changes flavor every month according to some designer whim.

Software is part of a process. A process that can be solved by many means and anyone willing to devote the time. It doesn't come out of a strip mine in the Congo...market it according to the market, not to your desire to fill coffers and it will make money - I promise.

Re:When two is better than one

[Opportunist]

MS has a hard time with licenses today for a simple reason: XP is "as good as it gets". It has everything you want. Actually, 2k already fulfilled this. Together with the 2k version of Office. They can do everything an office user wants. The key question for MS is, thus, why would someone buy a newer version and how can we convince him to do it? And that gets increasingly harder.

Yes, there's always new technology that one may want to include and that (miraculously...) doesn't get patched into older versions. NT had for the longest time no USB support. Not because it's impossible, because suddenly it became that support after a sizable company made a huge stink about it and threatened to terminate their multiple-thousand office licenses if it doesn't get it. But why should business users have switched to 2k if not for USB support?

Office work is not like games where you'll always have something new that people would want. Better graphics, better sound, better ... ok, not really better gameplay, but better looks. Looks? Who cares in an office world? People should work with their computer, not look at how pretty it is! Factor in that new system also often means new hardware because it is invariably more power hungry and businesses push back new systems as far as they can, as long as the old one works, why bother creating something new? I'm currently in the process of writing software for a company that decided to replace their old DOS tool, and only because I made an offer low enough that they shrugged and went "oh ok, why not...". Not because they really needed it.

Bottom line, there is no compelling reason for most businesses to switch to new systems. So charging by the hour/month/whatever metered "service" is of course more profitable for MS. Even if businesses don't need to buy their latest system, they will keep paying.

interesting new model...

[elashish14]

and billing gamers $1.25 for each hour of fun

Can we get a refund for a game if we play said without having said fun?

In the words of Open-Source supporters...

[geekmux]

...fuck that.

Depends on the options

[dirk]

If this is going to be the only option, then it's crappy and destined to fail. But if this is going to be an additional option to purchasing Office (which I think is more the case) it may still fail, but is at least a decent idea. Most students use Office only for homework that requires it. If that is the only time you use it, what makes more sense, paying $200 for the full Office suite that you will rarely use (and definitely won't use half the programs) or paying $50 for the 50 hours you actually use it(which is probably being generous in the time students actually use Office)? And factor in that if you have an older computer, Office may run slowly versus this online version which (if done properly) should run smooth as long as you have good internet access.

If this is an additional choice, I think this may be a decent idea (though I don't think it will be a hit).

Children in Africa - dear Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Children in Africa can live for a day on $1.15, Mr. Bill Gates philanthropist. How is this not a modern way of colonialism - if not outright slavery?

Re:only one thing to say

[drosboro]

Hmm. On the other hand, I just shelled out several hundred dollars for Adobe Illustrator, a program I need only for a few hours a year (but when I need it, I REALLY need it). If I had the option to pay an hourly rate OR purchase it outright, I'd have chosen the metering. Actually, a lot of apps are the same for me - including all of Microsoft Office. I use alternative word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation packages (or just do it in my text editor / LaTeX), but every now and then I do need to use Word or Excel.

Again, given that there will be alternatives that are not metered, a pay-for-use model for some of these monolithic, massively-priced apps might not be a bad thing.

Re:More amazing

[iluvcapra]

Oh Goodie. My post has become the "important" one that other people latch onto with non-germaine observations in the hope that they'll get higher placement.

Computing 101 Homework

[Nom du Keyboard]

Computing 101
Assignment #1
Locate, download, and install Open Office.

Re:Only 52 hours of homework?

[jonadab]

> When I was a kid, we were assigned ~400 hours of homework a year. From what I hear, it's more now.

Well, there's what they're assigned, which varies by grade and teacher, and then there's what they actually do, which varies by student. I'm not convinced there's any correlation between the two.

Re:only one thing to say

[Nikker]

How about if your net connection goes down or the business model flops? Same thing as "Plays For Sure"? They close up shop and leave you high and dry? Maybe you need to format your computer and it comes back telling you to take a hike or you need to use it for a couple mins on your laptop but since it doesn't have the TPM chip it won't go? This will only work if everyone who uses it has some sort of "Trusted Computing" software / hardware combo and by agreeing to install that what else are you agreeing to?

Just food for thought.

WOW...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't this discourage kids from doing homework? Hmmm... I can do my homework for the next hour for 1.15 or for 10cents more I can have fun for the next hour... which will it be, I wonder.

another thing that sucks

[Miseph]

Meals on airplanes, I mean, what the fuck? You pay $400 for a ticket, and they can't even give you a ham sandwich? couldn't they jack up the price an extra dollar and give you something real to eat, instead of just cheap biscotti or stale peanuts?

Thank you, thank you; I'll be here all week.

Re:I don't see this as a horrible idea.

[simonbp]

Or, you could open it up in Google Docs, make the change, and save it. No install or money required...

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[Ethanol-fueled]

Am I the only one who finds it pretty funny that college students still use MS Office instead of OpenOffice? You'd think they'd enjoy the choice before they get stuck with Office 2007 at their first professional position.

Re:New model?

[nine-times]

'Both users and suppliers benefit from this new business model'

Only Microsoft could try to call a business model 'new'...

That's the part of that business model that you have a problem with? That they're calling it "new"?

The real problem in my mind is that really, it's either the user *or* the supplier that will benefit, but not both. Because the question is, will the user end up paying more when you calculate all the charges, or will they end up paying less? If they end up paying less, then the users benefit and the suppliers lose money. If they pay more, then the suppliers make more money but the users lose money.

There are plenty of other problems with this model, but certainly it won't benefit both suppliers and users.

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[Enderandrew]

OpenOffice is far from perfect. The UI isn't going to wow anyone. It is slow and clunky. That being said, I would say it is a fair competitor to Office 2003 and Office 2000. Office 2007 is a different beast. Some love the ribbon interface, and some hate it. I'm curious how you feel Office 2003 kicks OpenOffice down the road.

OpenOffice supports more file formats, provides basically all the features of Office 2003, and handles PDF import/export as well.

I really don't believe there is any great disparity between the two products. Both have a few faults and advantages.

Re:only one thing to say

[qzak]

I just hope I dont forget to shut down or leave my computer on...overnight. Or over the weekend. This quickly adds up to the cost of just going out to buy the software today. I guess thats what they mean by 'the supplier can develop a revenue stream business that may actually have higher value than the one-time purchase model currently practiced.'

Re:New model?

[griffjon]

Regardless, I think it's clear that the consumer is getting screwed with this deal.

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[hairyfeet]

Sorry, but I have to agree with the parent. I have a nice legal copy of Office 2K I picked up at work ages ago and it runs rings around OO.o. Now that doesn't mean I don't hand out OO.o to everyone who brings in a PC and doesn't have an office suite, because for most it is fine. But I tend to be a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kind of guy and if a machine performs well i tend to keep it for a long time. This 1.1GHz Celeron with 512Mb of RAM running Win2K makes a GREAT netbox, fast for web surfing and downloading without sucking lots of power or heating up the apartment. But trying to use OO.o, even the older versions was frankly painful. With Office 2K it launches almost instantly even with the quickstarter disabled.

So if you are just wanting something free or have a fast box then I would go with OO.o, but if you are running something a little slower(and considering how netboxes and netbooks are taking off this is a problem IMHO) then Office 2K or 2K3 is just a better choice IMHO. On this machine it is less than 4 seconds to start a new doc with Office 2K, whereas it is closer to 20 with OO.o 2.X and closer to 30 with OO.o 3.0. So while I have nothing against OO.o and frankly will take it any day over Office 2K7 and that damned ribbon, for me Office 2K/2K3 just beats the pants off of it for performance.

Cloud Computing Anyone?

[awitod]

What an awful summary!

The $/hour numbers and the homework example in the patent application are both simply illustrations. What the application is about is a method of creating, provisioning, and metering, and charging for a bundled unit of specific functionality within a cloud infrastructure. As I said in a previous post, I think they are too similar to EC2.

On the other hand, this sort of thing is a key enabler to any sort of broad SaaS infrastructure and people will use these services if the price is right. I just move several sites onto EC2 at a rate of ~$0.13/hr. For around $1100 a year I get a good infrastructure for less than what the server with no software and no connectivity would cost and I can make it bigger or turn it off whenever I want. Near as I can tell, the difference here is that instead of buying the power as a configured server instance, you are buying a configured service instance. This is a subtle, but important, difference. (But to my mind not a novel one).

So assuming they have some implementation to back up the patent application, I'm glad Microsoft is working on this because it's a necessary part of the infrastructure.

Re:Doesn't kill piracy at all

[Reziac]

What exactly in homework these days REQUIRES M$ Office??

Seriously. What absolutely can't be done with paper and pencil, or at worst typewriter and paper? (Which in computer terms, is any text editor.)

If a kid's homework REQUIRES a specific software, then that homework is teaching the kid how to get answers out of that software, NOT about the nominal subject.

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[espiesp]

Am I the only one who finds it pretty funny that college students still use MS Office instead of OpenOffice? You'd think they'd enjoy the choice before they get stuck with Office 2007 at their first professional position.

Well, you know, some kids either

A: Have realized that when compatibility with the outside world counts, especially with VBA, Microsoft Office Wins.
B: That if you are going to have to know something for that professional position you might as well learn it now while you're at school. Unfortunately not everybody has the learning curve of a hardened Geek. To ask them to be masters of two different office suites is asking an awful lot.

In any case, don't even get me started on Office 2007. That DOES kinda screw up everything. It seems the penetration of 2007 is incomplete. Many facilities I work in have a mix-match of 07 and 03 usually, sometimes older making things a nightmare. I could possibly get used to 2007 if I used it all the time...

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[PrescriptionWarning]

I would highly doubt the performance benefits of the microsoft office are worth the extra hundred dollars entry fee.

The startup time in an application really is not that relevant these days, as once its open what really matters is how it is during usage. Now if OO.o is slow even while typing, making it difficult to type at normal speeds on your computer then I would say you have a valid concern. Otherwise taking a few to several extra seconds to startup is nothing when you consider it probably already takes you a few minutes just to boot into windows on that same slow machine.

Heck even my quad core machine takes at least 3 minutes just to get to the point where i can start doing stuff on it, compared with just over 1 minute for Ubuntu on the same machine.

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[Tubal-Cain]

Well, I see only three options for the near-term future of office suites:

• Stay with MS Office 2000/2003/2007 indefinitely.
• Use this new pay-as-you-go service
• Use OpenOffice, KOffice, Abiword, StarOffice, etc.

MS's current office suites will eventually be too old (file formats stop getting used, stop getting patches, etc). The pay-as-you-go service is prohibitively expensive. But OpenOffice and the rest can only get better, if only because they all use the same file format and therefore users have no reason to stay with a poor product when one of the others surpasses it.

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[Fallingcow]

None of the professors used OpenOffice, but they usually didn't mind a PDF. file->export to PDF.

Actually, some of them still used Word Perfect (IIRC, it may have been some other off-beat WP program), and this was just a couple years ago. Weird.

Vendor Neutrality in Schools

[nurb432]

Yet another reason to protest and refuse when a school mandates a particular application for 'home work' ( unless its a class about that particular package of course ).

A word processor to write a term paper is not just 'Microsoft Word'.

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[petermgreen]

IMO trying to force people into subscriptions and/or pay by the hour is likely to cause many people to like you say screw it and either take the pain of moving to alternatives or stick with old versions (many are doing that anyway) and pirate extra copies if they can't get them legally.

And if too many people say screw it then the network effects advantage that keeps ms office alive will disapear (while ooo is a bloated pig that can be made up for with extra hardware)

Despite this patent I don't think MS is suicidal enough to make subscriptions/pay by the hour the only option.

Though IIRC MS is trying to use the carrot of lower prices and other side benifits to tempt corporations and academic institutions into subscriptions deals that they then become basically stuck with.

it is true

[PermanentMarker]

So its confirmed now the marketing guys from vista has lost their minds. No customer will accept this, luckely by the time it will be ready linux will be grown up. I think later or soon, the monopoly breaks downs the tree is starting to fall. Any empire ends, and i think this could be just the reason fir it.

Re:In other news...

[jamesh]

Why is there no "Don't Go There (-1)" moderation option?

Dead idea

[DaMattster]

Gee, I thought services like these were dead ideas. Remember the AOL days when you had to pay per minute usage fees? These days are no more. Microsoft really doesn't have a patent on this. When it comes to computing, metered services have been pretty much thrown out the door.

Re:How about a stray process?

[trolltalk.com]

"Run task manager, kill the exe, and I can eject the USB drive. No real problem but it raises a question: What if this stray process was billing me?"

Quick - patent it!

Atarax

[Anonymous Coward]

as a university student, I can tell you that I use office for all my homework. So this will, certainly fails for universities.
Each week in a term I spend about 15 to 20 hours on MSOffice or O.O.
I juste think that's it's another way to make easy monney for microsoft

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[hairyfeet]

Did you miss the -1.1GHz Celeron-part? We are talking about-new motherboard,new CPU,new RAM,new HDD(most new boards are SATA) and new GPU,not too mention the extra power suckage(This box has a 150 watt PSU and rarely hits 50% usage, whereas I wouldn't even build a new box with less than a 450 watt today) and heating the hell out of my apartment,or picking up a $60 copy of Office 2K,which I bought years ago so it isn't costing me anything now.

With the economy in the toilet it just doesn't make sense to pay all that money for the privilege of not using MS Office. And I think that as the economy worsens and times change this is going to be a big deal. Up until this point software creators could bloat almost without limit figuring Moore's law would cover their ass. But I have noticed, especially after the super bloat that is Vista, that folks are more and more preferring that I repair the machine instead of buying a new one. Why? Because for most folks PCs have passed "good enough" a long time ago and the money just isn't there to waste on unnecessary items. For what most home users are doing this 1.1GHz would work fine and anything 2GHz or over is frankly giving them tons of CPU to spare. So more and more often I am seeing machines brought in for cleaning and perhaps a tiny upgrade instead of the "toss it and get a new" cycle that we had throughout the 90's and early 00s.

So I personally hope as netbooks sell more and more that programmers will stop making such bloated applications and maybe then they will be able to release an OO.o I can use. Until then I will be sticking with MS Office 2K. In the long run it is simply "cheaper" to use than the free alternative for me.

just another way...

[Evil_Ether]

...that the corporate scum can keep education out of the hands of the poor.

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[hairyfeet]

I also have a 3.6GHz P4 with HT and 2Gb of RAM and WinXP SP3, and both MS Office 2K and 2K3(which I was given free in school) still beat the pants off OO.o in response time,ease of use, and resource usage.

And what is wrong with Win2K? I have many SOHO and SMB customers that have stuck by Win2K Pro,because of one simple fact:it works. Win2K is IMHO the best business OS MSFT ever made. It is light on resources, fast and responsive on just about any hardware made in the last decade, and is rock solid stable. Most are behind hardware firewalls running DHCP and NAT and have the server taking care of scanning anything coming in or going out,so why switch? In this economy it is all about ROI and getting the job done with the least amount of extra expenses. By sticking with Win2K Pro they are not only not having to deal with a system wide hardware rollout, but like me they are also saving cash on cooling and electricity by using older machines will still perform the tasks they require to get the job done.

IMHO this is what is going to be hurting MSFT for the foreseeable future. MSFT got used to the 3 year hardware upgrade merry go round that we all did in the 90's thanks to the leaps in hardware. But now for most folks anything over a 2GHz is going to do everything they will want to do, the hardware on anything but the most junky machines just seems to keep going and going, and people are comfortable using Win2K/XP and don't want to learn a new OS. So I have a feeling I'm going to keep seeing customers that either want me to fix the machine they have or get them a solid off lease machine using the OS they are comfortable with. With money being tight there just isn't really a point in switching right now. I personally think the era of the 3 year upgrade cycle is over. Folks will just buy a netbook or a cheap laptop for when they wish to be mobile and keep their "old reliable" desktop just where it is. And with the economy in the toilet who can blame them?

Re:The Ultimate Steal?

[mysidia]

Who's Britney?

Intelligence has little to do with ability to sing or make songs, anyone with the right skills can do that.

But intelligence does have to do with the ability to market and sell music.

Intelligence of the sales department, marketing department, and business decision makers is what matters, not the build quality or intelligence of code monkeys that actually implement marketing's vision.