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Microsoft's "New Coke" Moment?

Posted by timothy on from the basement-stash-makes-more-sense-for-coke dept.

theodp writes "Remember New Coke? Twenty-eight years ago, Coca-Cola replaced the secret formula of its flagship brand, only to announce the return of the "classic" formula just 79 days later. Had it launched in 2013, Coke's Jay Moye suspects a social media backlash would have prompted it to reverse itself even sooner. In a timely follow-up, ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols points out that Microsoft is facing its own New Coke moment with Windows 8. 'Does Ballmer have the guts to admit he made a mistake and give users what they clearly want?' Vaughan-Nichols asks. 'While it's too late for Windows 8, Blue might give us back our Start button and an Aero-like interface. We don't know.'"

7 of 786 comments (clear)

  1. Re:OSX is better anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's your cheque.

  2. Original Taste by puddingebola · · Score: 4, Funny

    I loved the flavor of new Coke. The Edsel was an innovative automobile. I still have Vista installed on my PC. I plan to upgrade to the Windows 8 experience. I am insane.

  3. Re:New Coke? by lennier1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ^^ It's more of a company tradition.

  4. To The Cloud city! by VortexCortex · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I am altering the OS, pray I don't alter it any further."
    — Darth Ballmer.

  5. Re:OSX is better anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Also, they seem to have the "hipster 10%". The part of the computer market that actually doesn't mind spending a little extra money to get a good looking product to impress the shallow, vacuous dickheads they hang out with"

    FTFY.

  6. Re:New Coke? by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Funny

    It really is amazing how long that train wreck has been going on without anyone driving the engine realizing they are in fact wrecking. With most of the passengers telling them they're wrecking. And people standing by the side of the track. And the guys shoveling coal into the... uh... fireplace? Trains have conductors, right? I guess the conductor would be Balmer. Or the engineer, which I think are on the train itself for some reason.

    I... I don't really know how trains work, but I'm refusing to admit I've made a mistake with this metaphor. Which I feel is probably a better metaphor for the MS situation.

  7. Re: Apple priced itself out of the market by tompaulco · · Score: 5, Funny

    Two things I notice:

    1) nobody I work with has a desktop. 2) Apple portables outnumber windows and Linux combined

    Where I work Apple has taken over the desktop.

    So where you work, there are zero desktops and they are all Apple?

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.