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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.'"
Last time I checked everything microsoft has ever done is remarkably similar to things others have been doing for years.
This was just a terrifically bad idea on Shaw's part. Desperately pleading that you did something first so you should get some attention is never going to win you sales or good PR. That said, it doesn't seem like Microsoft really has any other strategy (except perhaps for their video game market, where they bought their relevance.)
No the Facebook product is quite different. You have to stop thinking of yourself as the typical user and think about the real typical user. I would be concerned for Facebook addicts and this device that makes addiction simpler, quite a few people are going to find themselves in serious psychological trouble. The unrealities of who and who are not really friends, competition in perceived social acceptance and distortion of self image, makes this device and the actual greed driven intent behind this device in it's application quite nasty. Designed from the get go to be psychologically addictive for those susceptible to it. Facebook have demonstrated how nasty they are and how aggressively they will target those vulnerable to their manipulations. To be clear I did go through that whole laborious process of deleting my account because it became apparent how privacy invasive they truly were and definitely not to be trusted.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
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.