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Microsoft: Facebook Home Is a Copycat, Windows Phone Is the 'Real Thing'
colinneagle writes "Frank X. Shaw, VP of Corporate Communications at Microsoft, did not seem happy about Facebook's Home announcement when he wrote, 'I tuned into the coverage of the Facebook Home event yesterday and actually had to check my calendar a few times. Not to see if it was still April Fools Day, but to see if it was somehow still 2011. Because the content of the presentation was remarkably similar to the launch event we did for Windows Phone two years ago.' Shaw also posted Microsoft's 'Put people first with Windows Phone 7.5' video before writing, 'We understand why Facebook would want to find a way to bring similar functionality to a platform that is sadly lacking it.'"
There's no need to fight, you BOTH suck.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
This one?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Your platform is unique, just like everybody else's.
And here's number 1.
Or a copy of a real turd. Tough call.
Last time I checked everything microsoft has ever done is remarkably similar to things others have been doing for years.
It's no the first time that people claim concepts as their own, I'm sure there is a 2 man show somewhere who did their 'put people first' campaign for ... their lawnmower... repairs garage. But being a top player in the tech space, in such a short time, and having the same tag line is a bit weak.
But even weaker is all the coverage of people going 'what if your friends are ugly?' ... trust me, if your friends are ugly, repulse you enough you don't want to see them at all, just a hint, they aren't friends. I have a windows phone, have tiles for groups of friends (family, extended family, friends near me, old friends) ... and when I go back to an iOS or droid device for a few days to check it out, i can't deal with the lack of information about the people I care about. it's the existing future of how people will want their devices to behave.
Dear Microsoft,
Facebook tolerates you. It is thanks to them that you remain relevant. E.g., when Facebook Graph Search can't find a particular item, it currently defaults to Bing... but, that can easily change. Please, pretty please, just give them a reason to reconsider their allegiances, and I am sure they will happily discard you like the dead skin off a snake.
Never forget that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Besides, if Facebook has taught us anything, it's that regardless of who had the idea first, it's execution ultimately that matters. If you have to tell people that you've won, you've lost.
Both suck, but saying that facebook copied windows phone is like saying a lawnmower is a F1 sports car!
Is that $1.3 billion stake small enough that it is OK to lambaste FB, or will Frank Shaw find himself in hot water? http://whoownsfacebook.com/
.. thou doth protest too much, methinks.
Whoever loses, we win.
Are they also upset that they invented the Tablet PC in 2002 and then Apple ate their lunch eight years later by actually delivering it in an appealing form factor that people actually wanted ? "Waaah, waaah, we were fiiiiirst!" Apple learned that "first" doesn't always equal success, but they quit whining about it and did something about it instead. Worked out pretty well for them.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
[No axe to grind since I use neither MS nor FB ...]
Stories like this one remind me of politicians playing party politics and slagging off everything the opposition does and says instead of focusing on whether it's a good idea or not.
It seems that long gone are the days when the top companies competed on product and politics was (ostensibly) about doing the best for the nation. Doing good work has become quite secondary to politicking (in the worst sense of the word) in both areas.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Microsoft is just mad that they were too caught up in Not Invented Here syndrome that they did not think of embracing Android and building on top of it like Facebook did. So much money wasted reimplementing a whole mobile operating system when they could have just built Windows Phone as a custom UI on Android.
Oh geeze... my age is showing.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I fully expect Facebook to sell more copies of their mobile phone than WP8... Not saying either is good. I suspect MS is bitter.
So, so weak. What a waste of electrons.
I'm not sure how you're sourcing this, but this is actually a very accurate depiction of Microsoft's deluded perspective. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was working as a consultant on some projects with Microsoft and was flying to Redmond frequently. I asked him if the people he was working with were feeling disillusioned about where they've been heading and their prospects against the competition. He related that they were proud that their company had already invented the tablet several years ago.
Internally, they must be bragging about that as a morale-booster or something in the face of pretty daunting prospects for what they're working on now.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Nobody is excited about Windows phones. There is no passion for the platform. But its not not just Windows phones.
I think the game is up for Microsoft. They are delivering some amazing things now but nobody can see it. I'm not saying that everyone is blind, but Microsoft has lost our attention. Top SQL admins are moving to SQL 2012, but out side of them, I don't see much. Organizations are just now making the move to Windows 7. That's a good 3 years of a good product lost. Server 2012 is the most significant server OS they have ever released, yet nobody is excited about it. Windows 8 Phone is actually a good product, the hard part is getting it into people's hands. Windows 8 start screen actually works well with the Surface Pro, just not on any real computers. (Sorry MS, I gave that start screen an honest try but it has to go on my desktop/laptop)
I know I come across as a fanatic for writing this, but every IT group that is a Microsoft shop should be this passionate about the new stuff. The fact that they are not should be a big issue for Microsoft.
30 years ago
Seriously, Microsoft has just been copying the longest and thought they could get away with it
Seriously, I'm getting fucking tired of companies slagging off at each other, with either aggressive or passive aggressive comments made between various CEOs or VPs or whoever thinks they're important enough to get the spotlight for a few minutes.
Make good stuff that people want. If a competitor is doing something that's risks drawing attention away from your stuff, don't act like children. Just shut the fuck up and present something even better. If you feel you have to acknowledge the competition, do it with some old-fashioned class for goodness sake. This bickering gets old extremely fast.
Could Microsoft possibly be any more butthurt over this?
Ok, compared to whatever Facebook Home is, I'm willing to stipulate that Windows Phone is the real thing.
The question that immediately comes to mind is, the real what?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Microsoft has the right of way on this one. Anyone who has used Windows Phone for the last couple of years can spot the lovingly copied design in Facebook Home aka Death of Privacy.
Well if they are following their CEO's example, then what do you expect? Remember it was Ballmer who boldly predicted Apple would never see the iPhone in any significant numbers. Today it makes more money for Apple than all of MS products. Steve Jobs was a prick but he was right more often than not.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Jeez, might as well just break out the blueprints for the Edsel while they're at it and wash the ride down with some New Coke.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Let us know when you have some users.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Sounds like bad LoTR fanfic poetry.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
It never meant anything. Doesn't mean anything to the bully at the movies who takes your seat, didn't mean anything to the settlers when the natives told them.
Besides, MS, how does it feel to be on the other side of "But I did that first, he just copied me!" for a change?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Seriously, I'm getting fucking tired of companies slagging off at each other, with either aggressive or passive aggressive comments made between various CEOs or VPs or whoever thinks they're important enough to get the spotlight for a few minutes.
What do you expect them to do? Innovate, and sell us stuff that's actually useful?
Nah, that's too much trouble.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Relax. As long as they aim at each other, at least they're not bothering their customers.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Facebook will find it can't lift just one facet of a diamond.
I had done a submission a week back - http://slashdot.org/submission/2570591/idc-predicts-windows-phone-to-be-the-fastest-growing-platform
Windows Phone requires an "always on" connection...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Facebook Home has a chance. Microsoft Phone is a joke. Anything microsoft connected to 'phone' is a joke. They should have stopped before they screwed up Nokia (now dead).
The original version was vastly more superior then what kinect is offering. There was a lot less lag and overlapping bones weren't any problem. Microsoft removed hw stuff and countered that with software, but the end result was a system that was usuable but a step back from the original design. I wouldn't call that innovation.
Both of them are based on the previous Adroid-based Motoblur. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoblur
Can you tell I'm being sarcastic? Facebook is by definition a fast follower (and therefore copycat). Social Networking, News feeds, photo sharing... everything was a copycat. And this isn't actually problem - its a very good strategy. Watch someone else struggle and make all the mistakes, then copy the result and maybe improve it slightly with far fewer resources than it took making the mistakes.
MS is just whining (again). Go throw a chair.
Microsoft is notorious for slagging off other companies. Especially Google.
Refer to 'Gmail Man', 'Googlighting Stranger'.
It's part of their culture, and no doubt a reflection of Ballmer's obnoxious personality.
After Microsoft copied just about everybody in the industry and presented other people ideas as their own... I suppose it's karma.
Because they really would want to copy Windows Mobile's success!
"Ha, Facebook! Microsoft tried to me-too a smartphone before you did. We copied first!"
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Nah. Vogon.
Microsoft: We're becoming insanely irrelevant we better do something! Hey, I know, let's take credit for having the best everything and put everybody else down. We can make a commercial and call out Google and then we can have interview answers that put down other huge companies as copycats. Then maybe people will pay attention and buy our garbage.
Great plan. You wouldn't want to just make something with a high level of awesome and then possibly just market the awesome part.