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Google Keep Labelled "Delete"

judgecorp writes "The Google Keep note-keeping app has had a frosty reception. Analysts including Gartner have said its functionality is laughable compared to that of the rival Evernote (saying "it's like saying MSFT Paint is a threat to Photoshop") and other users have rejected it on the grounds that after the death sentence on Reader, Google can't be trusted not to pull the plug on a service which people have come to rely on."

57 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. delete? by jaymz666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe an extra l there?

    My first thought was "how can I trust them with this when they just killed reader?"

    1. Re:delete? by ALeader71 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Agreed. If this doesn't take off, it may be a short lived service. I'll stick with Evernote.

      --
      Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
    2. Re:delete? by jaymz666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly, I will stick with the company that has their whole business model based in note taking and similar services.

    3. Re:delete? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Google Keep does not affect your data even if Google would clean it off.

      Why? Because Google Keep is tied to Google Drive where it store notes. And they are just text, image and sound files. Nothing radical would not happen if you couldn't use Google Keep anymore.

      Google Reader does not kill RSS. There are plenty of RSS readers out there. Now it only demands that you need to sync readed/unreaded in different way but all the RSS feeds can be imported and exported to almost any reader. There is no such problem with Google Reader cleaned off.

      Media is talking about Google Reader as it kills RSS from WWW.

    4. Re:delete? by QAPete · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. First iGoogle, then Reader, two user-friendly, very efficient ways of getting stuff I want to see in front of my beady eyes. Google kills them both, and is constantly begging / pushing me to use Google +, which I have absolutely no wish to use. Both iGoogle and Reader were great examples of things Google did very well. Now they are putting their resources into things that OTHER companies do very well, like Google + and Google Keep.

      I have ties to Gmail I need for now, but beyond that I'm not getting involved in Google anything.

    5. Re: delete? by Tometheus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And my first thought was "how can I trust them with this when they killed G Notebook?" Not going to catch me twice with the exact same trick...

    6. Re:delete? by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Killing Reader didn't kill RSS. But killed all the ecosystem around it, both from apps and for the way you used it. Why i should do an alternative app that makes use of Keep if they could end it tomorrow? Why i use it to store notes if they could not be there tomorrow, and all that that was put there because that particular way of access is not there anymore?

      In any case, either with Drive or Takeout, you don't lose your data, but it lose a part of its value without the "right" way to access it, all of it. A bit more "bening" shutdown was Wave, that if well was discontinued but open sourced the server so you can continue using it in the same way elsewhere.

    7. Re:delete? by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Reader didn't kill RSS but it killed and stifled development of other RSS readers over the past 7 years.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  2. Blog Spam - Move along. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't bother clicking the link.

    Yes, we're all mad about reader, and we all should be warned about cloud services shutting down.

    Next post please...

    1. Re:Blog Spam - Move along. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What is interesting is that they have angered the bloggers with killing reader. Maybe not a lot of people used reader, but apparently the people that do pimp out new google products to the masses. You can't blame them for having an axe to grind.

  3. Google Fool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I propose we now use "google" instead of "fool".

    Google me once, shame on you.
    Google me twice, shame on me.

    1. Re:Google Fool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I propose we now use "google" instead of "fool".

      Google me once, shame on you. Google me twice, shame on me.

      There's an old saying in Mountain View - I know it's in Redmond, probably in Mountain View - that says, Google me once, shame on - shame on you. Google me - you can't get Googled again.

  4. No? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Frosty reception? I beg to differ, people all over the internet seem to love it. Design especially.
    http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1aoo1a/google_keep_googles_notetaking_app_is_live_again/
    Check this reddit thread.
    Also it works with Google Now on Android, so i can say "Google..Note to self Fix the printer" and it will take the note, save the text AND audio file.
    I, personally, like it very much. Evernote is good, but something that integrated into android and synced with my Google account is much better for me.

    1. Re:No? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      Frosty reception? I beg to differ, people all over the internet seem to love it.

      Reddit is "all over the Internet"?

      The world has become such a sad place.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:No? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Perhaps it could be called "polarizing" instead? Normally when Google rolls out a product it's met with (from my experience) hesitantly positive reviews. Google Wave got a bunch of comments on- and off-line along the lines of "This looks neat, but I'll wait and see," as did Google Plus, Google Voice, etc. Maybe it sucks, maybe it's great, maybe people are just in a week-long state where they are keenly aware of Google services, whatever.

    3. Re:No? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Isn't Gartner the firm that's been wrong about almost everything?

    4. Re:No? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They are the new and improved Netcraft. If Gartner confirms it you can be sure it isn't happening.

      Seriously, their entire business is providing "intelligence" that contradicts reality for company that find the facts inconvenient.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:No? by spiralx · · Score: 2

      You're forgetting their other service, writing bloated verbiage about last month's overused buzzword and marketing it as cutting edge market analysis for clueless C-level executives.

  5. I thought features were passe? by timeOday · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I am starting to feel like a relic, because in my world, running a buch of feature-rich applications on a powerful computer with a large screen still seems like a great thing to do most of the time. All I see on the web is how "most people" don't use the full power of Word/Powerpoint/Outlook, therefore it should be removed. And then Microsoft comes out with Metro just to confirm my fears.

    It's nice to see an application (yeah, I typed out the whole word!) slammed for being too simplistic.

    1. Re:I thought features were passe? by Pope · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, Microsoft came out with Metro because they don't know what the fuck they're doing.

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    2. Re:I thought features were passe? by viperidaenz · · Score: 3, Funny

      Note application only takes notes, doesn't do my laundry.
      Why won't it wash the dishes!?!?!??

    3. Re:I thought features were passe? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 2

      I don't features should be removed, unless removing them makes the programmers *make the features that are there work properly*. Maybe I am also a relic (ok, not maybe, definitely), but I get rather irritated when Word (or any other similar crap application) adds some more features or changes the UI just for the sake of doing it, and the same f*cking bug that sometimes for some unknown reason corrupts the document and won't let me save it still existing pretty much exactly like it worked in 1997.

      Wasting time adding features while serious bugs are left untouched is what p*sses people off. Of course it's a lot easier to ad copy saying "n Exciting New Features" than it is "Word 2007, 45% fewer fatal bugs"

            Brett

  6. How can you trust google not to delete it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Said everyone with a gmail account. Honestly, even if they do you will still have a copy of your data synced on your devices and the precedent is that you'll be able to get your data anyway.

    1. Re:How can you trust google not to delete it by BenoitRen · · Score: 2

      Why doesn't EVERYBODY do run their own IMPA server?

      Because not everyone is Zelda.

    2. Re:How can you trust google not to delete it by rgriff59 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I keep hearing phrases like, "Don't worry. They will give you a way to get your data." For some reason, that is supposed to be a determining factor. So what?

      Google says "Here is a fantastic new app to use. Please make part of your daily workflow." Some arbitrary amount of time later, Google says "Nevermind." If I have indeed made it a part of my workflow, I am required to change my workflow on their schedule on their notice. Maybe you are lucky enough to have never had life fall apart. Maybe you've never been so busy taking care of life changing issues, you could miss everything short of bombs exploding in your path. At such times, the last thing you need is for stupid little things, like a note taking app, to require attention.

      As Google has a proven record of discarding their "Wow, Cool, check this out!" technologies in a fairly short time, the risk of putting the newest into a position where it will exclusively control an important workflow is too high from my perspective. Sure, I can get my data. Then what do I do with it? I have this great XML dump that nothing else can make sense of. I need something to rely on, free or not.

      The fact that they announced this right on the heels of their spring cleaning product killing spree shows that as a company, they don't care. I, as an individual have the same sentiment about their new product. This has to be one of the worst marketing strategies ever attempted.

    3. Re:How can you trust google not to delete it by shellbeach · · Score: 2

      Geez, it's called innovation. You try some things out ... some take off, some don't; the ones that work you keep, the ones that don't you ditch. But at least Google keeps trying things out. Would you prefer it if they always just pushed out the same-old, same-old?

      Personally, I find that I've stopped using Google's failed offerings (Google Notebook, Google Reader) long before they get officially canned, and I presume most other people have too. But the consolation is that they were only developed through a business model that constantly pushes the envelope -- if Google had been sticking to core services, neither Notebook nor Reader would ever have seen the light of day to being with.

  7. Re:Well, you know the saying. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can't use the word scroogle without sounding like the worlds biggest Microsoft shill.

  8. I am Jack's total lack of surprise... by Assmasher · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Google can't be trusted not to pull the plug on a service which people have come to rely on" - They've just now realized this? LOL.

    Most people on /. have known this for years.

    Google knows what it's doing when it comes to search (including maps), and (after several years) Android - everything else is stuff built/rolled out/supported by disparate uncoordinated groups with no coherent strategy or purpose beyond "hey, this looks like something the PR guys would like."

    --
    Loading...
    1. Re:I am Jack's total lack of surprise... by Jahava · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Google knows what it's doing when it comes to search (including maps), and (after several years) Android - everything else is stuff built/rolled out/supported by disparate uncoordinated groups with no coherent strategy or purpose beyond "hey, this looks like something the PR guys would like."

      What a stupid statement. "They only knew what they were doing those times they did well." Most of their projects, with the exception of search, started out as disparate uncoordinated groups with no coherent strategy.

    2. Re:I am Jack's total lack of surprise... by neminem · · Score: 2

      I've understood for years that I couldn't rely on anything in the cloud that was new, experimental, or not terribly well known. That makes perfect sense. I knew, too, that I couldn't rely on any particular *feature* of any software in the cloud, because an automatic update could remove or break the feature. Still, I thought it exceedingly unlikely that any software that *wasn't* new, *wasn't* experimental, and *was* quite popular, would just suddenly disappear, for any reason other than "the company went under or was bought", both things that I can't really imagine happening to Google. The fact that they decided to ax Reader, means they might decide to ax *anything*.

    3. Re:I am Jack's total lack of surprise... by metamatic · · Score: 3, Funny

      I've understood for years that I couldn't rely on anything in my butt that was new, experimental, or not terribly well known.

      Man, cloud to butt keeps delivering in hilarity...

      --
      GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
    4. Re:I am Jack's total lack of surprise... by neminem · · Score: 2

      Epic! Googled it, there is indeed a Firefox version of that, too. Which is now installed. This rivals the Youtube Moronizer for hilarity in simplicity, text-modification-wise. (For context, see also: http://www.dorktower.com/2010/09/24/5585

      Yeah, I definitely don't think it's a good idea to rely on any technology in my butt, either.

    5. Re:I am Jack's total lack of surprise... by bfandreas · · Score: 2

      Why would I need a browser extension that transforms butt to butt? Does it change the character encoding? Is there more to it than changing each occurrence of butt to butt?

      In other news: set the phasors to "very install on my PHB's PC". It's a matter of self-defense, really. Since I can't sue for mental anguish this might open him up to a sexual harrassment lawsuit when all he goes on about is butts.

      --
      20 minutes into the future
  9. Re:They should sign Carly Rae Jepsen by noh8rz10 · · Score: 2

    no, sign PSY, "Goog-nam Style!" My meme is more recent than yours!

  10. Evernote competition? No. by Grizzley9 · · Score: 2

    For some things simplicity is best. iOS Notes or Google Tasks where you have just basic information and easy input for simple things and it can be synced. Google Keep is good for a notepad/post-it note app currently, a scratch pad. But it is a long ways away from being a robust note storing and organizing tool such as SimpleNote or Evernote or OneNote. They should have just bought one of those type and incorporated it if they wanted to compete.

    Plus now with their credibility in killing apps, no one will use this for serious note taking. If they don't, then whats the point for Google? Not much to be gleaned from scanning scratch notes, at least they didn't think so when they got rid of Google Notebook.

  11. Re:What the Dickens are you talking about? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

    I've never heard of a character named "Shcroogle".

  12. Re:Evernote competition? No. by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    Just don't try and attach video clips or pictures to your Evernotes or you'll run out of your 60MB/month and have to pay for premium service.

  13. Great! "Delete" is an awesome band by Blaskowicz · · Score: 2

    I am more than glad that Google has become a music label, and that they signed Delete, they make very fine punk rock.
    Also, naming their recording and artists's lair "The Keep" is mighty fun.

    1. Re:Great! "Delete" is an awesome band by Improbus · · Score: 2

      When I hear "Delete" I hear a Cyberman saying it. WTF is wrong with me?

  14. "Beta" means something different to Google. by mistapotta · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As I remind my students, "Beta" to Google means they haven't figured out how to profit on it. If they can find a way to profit on it, it then becomes one of their many appliances. If they can't, it gets killed. Clearly, Google didn't have a way to profit on Reader, as they couldn't on Wave, as they couldn't on Health. If they can find a way to profit from Keep, it'll keep. Otherwise it'll be gone like the rest.

  15. Remember Chrome or Android? by elcheesmo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember when Chrome first came. I thought Google was wasting their time because Firefox was clearly the best browser, and there was no reason to think it would ever stop being the best. And the browser market already seemed too crowed with IE, Safari, Firefox, and Opera all competing for market share.

    Keep now is not what Keep will be in the future. Google search, Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, Android, and many other Google products are almost indistinguishable from what they were during their first iteration. And of those I listed, Gmail and Google Maps are the only ones I would say were actually better from the competition from day 1.

    Evernote should be sweating at least a little bit.

    1. Re:Remember Chrome or Android? by doconnor · · Score: 2

      As I recall Google search was better then the competition from day 1. Unlike it competition, it used all the words you entered in its search, wasn't flooded with flashy ads and had its vastly superior page-rank algorithm.

  16. Re:Well, you know the saying. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    Correction - you can't use the word "scroogle" without sounding like someone employed by Microsoft.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  17. "Serious note taking" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I really agree with a lot of points you're making, but there's something about this whole thing that, to me, speaks volumes about the absurdity of computing today.

    What the hell is "serious note taking"? Is there really some situation where I would need to sync my notes across my desktop and mobile phone, where I couldn't just put it in my phone to begin with? Isn't this all what saving to your computer, or in a cloud folder, or a text editor is all about?

    I really don't mean to knock Evernote--I understand why people like it--and also can understand people's skepticism of where Google has been going since management changed there, especially given their recent track history. But I also think there's a tempest in a teacup quality to all of this. I mean, the notetaking apps I use don't sync across anything and they're fine. I'm sure Google Keep is fine for 90% of people. I suspect that a large proportion of people using Evernote overvalue their notes, even as a large proportion of people make good use of it.

    The reason why Google can integrate these sorts of services, and people use them, is because their value to most people (*most people* being the key here) is so small, but in aggregate is so large to Google.

    I worry about Google, and the crap they're pulling makes me take a second use at Evernote, Dropbox, etc. However, even if those services disappeared together with those of Google, would it really hurt me? No.

    There's something scary to me when we talk about Google Keep as if it's a nuclear powerplant control system, or a word processing program, or something like that. Some people just want to jot down notes.

  18. Re:Oh shit!!! by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That is what I call "the batshit brigade" as these people treat corps like fucking ballclubs. I've noticed its primarily the big three, Apple, Google, and MSFT, but to a lesser extent you get the pro *.A.A "Anything a corp does is great because free market herpa derp!" and the pro gov "America Fuck Yeah!" types but not nearly as bad as the big three, you'd think they were a fucking ballclub.

    Now as far as Google...why SHOULD you trust them for a service you depend on after Reader? Its quite obvious there is a metric that if a service doesn't hit Google pulls the plug but they won't tell the user what the metric is, so why should I trust them? As much as I think Windows 8 is a flaming turd this is one thing I have to give MSFT credit for as I can tell you to the day when XP dies, when Vista dies, when 7 dies, and when their Office suites die so I really don't have to give a shit about the metrics. I just look at the date of EOL and that is that. Of course since their software works just fine after EOL (I should know as i had to support several Win2K units until last year) I don't even have to worry about that if I don't want to, but its nice to know.

    If Google wants us to depend on their services then they need to give us SOMETHING, anything, that will let us gauge what the support cycle is gonna be. A minimum support date like MSFT, publishing the current userbase along with the minimum number required for them to support it (which would have fixed the Reader problem as those that like Reader could have tried to drum up enough converts to fulfil the metric) or some other gauge so we have a damned clue as to how long its gonna be supported. As it is any service they have could disappear tomorrow because some PHB decides it doesn't meet a metric which we don't even know about and that stinks.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  19. Re:This won't be good... by SScorpio · · Score: 2

    Check out Microsoft OneNote. It gives you greater flexibility than just using Outlook at a note keeping tool. The hardest part will be adjusting your workflow, OneNote is free form so it's difficult to jump into as you are learning what organization method works best for you versus adjusting to one imposed by the application you are using.

  20. Welcome to free cloud services.... by tokencode · · Score: 2

    Welcome to the world of free cloud based services, where you the user don't really matter, you own nothing and you should be happy Google gave you the privilege of using something as long as they did....

  21. A better comparison by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google Reader: Survived eight years DESPITE BEING FREE

    Evernote: Has only five eight years history BUT CHARGES MONEY FOR APPS AND SERVICES.

    Google Keep: ALSO FREE JUST LIKE READER

    Huh, I wonder which one may be around after eight more years - the one that pays for it's own existence or the one that's like a pony in the stables of a rich guy with a bad gambling problem?.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  22. Headline? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3

    I'm not sure if it's better to blame Google for picking a stupid product name, or the headline writer, but I'm still not sure what "Google Keep Labelled "Delete"" means - even after I finally realised that "Keep" is the product, and not a verb. Who's doing the labelling?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  23. Re:Oh shit!!! by steelfood · · Score: 2

    What Microsoft gets, and that no other tech company except maybe IBM does (and probably pioneered, no less), is that people were able to run their legacy 16-bit applications up until 64-bit Windows.

    And I expect the legacy 32-bit emulation layer for Windows is going to be here to stay, because I don't really see humanity pushing the limits of 64-bit computing for a long, long time.

    --
    "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  24. Re:Oh shit!!! by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What Microsoft gets,

    Yep, Microsoft products and their Kin will always play for sure!

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  25. Re:Oh shit!!! by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Same damned thing happened with MSFT, they USED to put out relatively consistent products, now its just rehashing what Apple does even when it makes no damned sense, like putting an iPad style UI on a desktop which even Apple doesn't do.

    I personally call this "the curse of PPT math" as that is what seems to be the culprit, a company comes along, builds a base, people start becoming loyal to the product....then here come the beancounters. They start cranking out PPTs and Excel sheets and saying things like "Well if you look at the stock price its obvious we need to do" or "If you look at our competitor's quarterly earnings and stock price then its obvious we need to do"...fuck you you beancounting little shits, unless you are a financial services company on K street you should NOT be focused on pleasing fucking Wall Street, you should be focused on pleasing YOUR CUSTOMERS and making top notch products. do THAT and watch your company grow, don't? You become another risk averse money hungry dinosaur ripe for getting your throat cut by a new company that focuses on listening to the customer instead of Wall Street.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  26. Re:Oh shit!!! by TheSeatOfMyPants · · Score: 2

    Apple initially 'got it' with the Apple II family of computers, so old software from the 8-bit Apple II were playable on every computer in the A2 line, including the 16-bit Apple IIgs. Forgetting the importance of backwards-compatibility (or, perhaps, Wozniak taking the knowledge with him when he left) very nearly destroyed the company.

    --
    Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)
  27. Re:Oh shit!!! by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

    And I knew people that switched to windows precisely because Apple burned them on backwards compatibility. back in the day you did NOT do DTP or graphics on anything but a Mac and I had some friends that had invested heavily in Mac software. when Apple left them high and dry? Boy were they pissed off.

    Now sadly we are seeing the same shit with MSFT, windows 8 bombs so what is the word on Windows Blue? "More touch integration!" yeah because every PC has a touchscreen now...facepalm. I swear if they don't fire that fucking sweaty chimp in 5 years MSFT is gonna be RIM, a company that USED to be huge but now only has legacy customers and even they are looking at exit strategies.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  28. Re:Oh shit!!! by jafiwam · · Score: 2

    You paid for Windows XP and Office 2003...you didn't pay for Google Reader. Google services are free! Would you stop fucking complaining about a free service being discontinued. I'm sorry your mother stop breast feeding you when you finally left the basement at age 30 to find your job as CEO of who gives a fuck incorporated. You are not entitled to support from a free service!

    Google Reader, iGoogle (which I personally use and have a replacement for when tbe time comes*), and numerous other Google products that have been cancelled and forgotten, and any products they have now (Google Docs got absorbed into Google Drive, which won't last, it's shittier and nobody is going to pay them more than $5 a month for personal account) and nobody wants file storage that will just evaporate when they pull the plug....

    In all that, the PRODUCT is not what Google offers. The PRODUCT is the EYEBALLS those things attract to the ADS that Google sells in them.

    The CUSTOMER is the ad-purchasing company.

    I think Google's fundamental problem is they attract savvy users, technical users, educated and intelligent ones... the same ones that get annoyed by ads, have vendettas against ads, or simply blocked them years ago and forgot they exist.

    Google needs to DUMB DOWN their products to more like crap like imageshack and flickr. Pulling market share from other ad-display companies which is really what they are, hell, even Fark is nagging users about using ad blockers now, the guy that runs it is already wealthy and is now getting greedy.

    Only then will these product survive.

    YouTube seems to be a perfect storm of retard / tech guy / and content that people will tolerate ads for. They can do what they do, but tried so many stupid things (as in, too high tech that they can't count on ad returns from the eyeballs that come) and now have to downsize.

    Google does well, but they are setting themselves up to get knocked off the top by someone who figures out a new way to do search, and a more human-like algorithm to do search results.(No, you Apple retards, it's not going to be something I can talk to. I use computers because I find talking inefficient and annoying. Adding a chick's voice to some app isn't going to cut it.)

    *Netvibes, free version lets you make a portal for yourself.

  29. Re:Oh shit!!! by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

    Sadly Crosshair it won't, if you looked at Dell's actual performance they had been doing BETTER than before the downturn for the past 2 years but because they are not a hip trendy company that attracts speculators their stock stayed in the dumps. I'm sure I gave you that video on what is wrong with the stock market, so much money being poured into the system has distorted the market so badly actual performance means nothing anymore, its all about catching the speculators eye with short term jumps.

    I mean does anybody REALLY think Apple stock is worth its current price? that when the main products have become saturated and the only thing they have in the pipe is a fricking "iWatch" that they are gonna have another iPad on their hands? of course not but all those speculators that go "Wow Apple devices are expensive so they MUST be good" cause lots of short surges in the stock which cause speculators to herd like lemmings. You just have too much money chasing too little real value so thing gets cock eyed.

    But dell is a perfect example of what to do, they ignored the street and had already gotten back up to pre downturn levels. Sales up, costs down, profits up, who in the hell cares what the street thinks if all of that is true about your company? What MSFT SHOULD be doing is taking a page from IBM and offering services and support in addition to the software. Companies don't want to give up XP? Fine if enough companies pay support contracts we'll keep supporting it...BAM! Big influx of money as companies with thousands of XP units would rather pay a support contract than deal with the mess of changing out that many units. People like Win 7 over 8? Fine and dandy, sell them channels for their WMC that let their PC become the center of entertainment by making deals with the big producers..BAM! Another big influx of cash.

    Frankly it would not be hard AT ALL to have MSFT making good consistent money right now but because Ballmer is a marketing droid he ONLY cares about what the street thinks while ignoring the fact the speculators will NEVER think of MSFT as a trendy brand, its just not gonna happen. he thinks he can slap a coat of paint and turn Pinto into Porsche and that shit just ain't happening, all he is doing is bleeding customers to the competition.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.