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Microsoft: Facebook Home Is a Copycat, Windows Phone Is the 'Real Thing'

Posted by Unknown on from the our-interface-sucked-first dept.

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.'"

13 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Children, children... by Kenja · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?"
    1. Re:Children, children... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

      Indeed. This seems more like a battle for a hill so small neither can stand on it.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Children, children... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.)

    3. Re:Children, children... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      King of the shrill?

    4. Re:Children, children... by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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
    5. Re:Children, children... by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Informative

      You really think MS's marketing campaigns have led it to success?

      MS was successful because they were in the right place at the right time by providing the OS to IBM's PC, whose open architecture made it popular for cloning, and because of this popularity tons of application software ran on top of it. Of course a bunch of dirty tricks to ruin competitors didn't hurt, plus they made/bought out some office software which became the business standards. There weren't any advertising campaigns, ever, that helped them in these endeavors.

    6. Re:Children, children... by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft is successful because of their product managers who do a good job responding to customer requests. Their customers of course, are businesses, not consumers.

      So explain Windows 8.

      Which business customers were demanding a touch-screen tablet UI on their desktop PCs?

  2. Which launch event? by symbolset · · Score: 5, Funny

    This one?

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  3. because microsoft is always completely original by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Last time I checked everything microsoft has ever done is remarkably similar to things others have been doing for years.

    1. Re:because microsoft is always completely original by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What was it Metro was similar to, again?

      Dog shit?

  4. Microsoft v Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whoever loses, we win.

  5. Chanting this in the hallways... by SethJohnson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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 ?

    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!
  6. What ever happened to professionalism and respect? by jellyfoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.