Self-checkouts at stores are a dereliction of customer service. From my totally unscientific observations of them remaining unused while there are lines at the real checkouts, most people don't like them.
Before you tackle marketing, have you established a brand identity for your product? Name, tag line, logo, and color palette are the core elements of a brand identity. Without one, the marketing... um, people... won't have a foundation to build on.
Many may think branding and marketing are the same, or that branding is part of marketing, but they're really separate processes.
Nope. MS has been drooling over Apple's end-to-end production pipeline for too long, now they want to cut out the middlemen: the OEMs. But they have to do it in a covert way that won't rouse their suspicions. A couple of failed Windows tablet launches seems like a logical step.
MS also thinks the OEMs are too stupid to see this. They aren't, and will just as covertly start shopping for Linux distros to partner with. Units with factory-installed Linux start to arrive in 2015. By then, Steam will be a major selling point, and Windows' only explicit consumer raison d'être will evaporate.
When I got my second cell phone in 2007, I also switched from T-Mobile to Sprint. I narrowed down my choices to the Motorola RAZR or ic502, both clamshell models. The deciding factor: the RAZR didn't have a raised dot on the 5 key, so I got the ic502.
I hated that phone every minute of the next three and a half years.
Microsoft's gambit with Nokia was a 3 to 5 year game, it hasn't played out yet. Once Nokia has imploded, MS will swoop in and snatch up at least a good chunk of the patent portfolio. Maybe the manufacturing part too, depending on how badly they still want to implement a facsimile of Apple's end-to-end pipeline model.
They've now wormed their way into Dell, albeit with completely a different tactic. I'm not sure how much influence they bought for $2B (out of a $24B valuation), but it's certainly more than none. I wouldn't be surprised if Dell's Linux offerings disappear within 2 years.
MS never really intended to make Surface a hot item, the whole strategy of them making their own branded devices is puzzling, especially since it's never worked before (Zune, Kin). All three seem more like process tests rather than full bore, confident product releases.
I still think tablets are a fad that doesn't have enough momentum to last until the next version of Windows.
Redmond may be running scared, but they don't seem to be sure what to be scared of. Linux is a threat, yes.. one that they will have enabled with the combination of Surface (angering the OEMs) and the stubborn imposition of Win8 and its stupid Metro UI on everything. Plus, they haven't embraced ARM as fully as they could have, much less any other architecture.
I expect at least a few OEMs (not Dell, obviously) to begin discreetly seeking distro partners very soon, so they can release proper desktops/laptops with Linux factory installed in 2015: the long awaited year of the Lunix desktop.
Apple has complete control over their production pipeline, software and hardware.
Microsoft has historically only handled the software part of the pipeline, while letting the OEMs take care of hardware.
Microsoft now looks at Apple and sees that the full-pipe model is viable and wants to cut out the middle man, the OEM.
Instead of building the hardware part of the pipe for themselves, they do things like poison Nokia or take a stake in Dell, because they perceive subversive paths to be cheaper and quicker.
MS wants to be a full-on hardware vendor now, expanding beyond game consoles and PC peripherals. Zune, Kin, Surface, it all leads here.
If MS owns enough of Dell to exert control, how will the other OEMs react? Their symbiotic business model with Microsoft will become hostile pretty quick.
It'll be 2015, because of Windows 8 and the Surface tablets.. The OEMs will need time to renegotiate their Windows distribution licenses, then find distros to partner with.
They'll submit to being regulated like a bank. I used to work for Western Union, their money tranfers are subject to banking regulations, but PayPal isn't, for doing essentially the same thing.
When touch is added to laptop screens, the manufacturers will still insist that the screens be glossy, so not only will you have to look through your own reflection, it will be covered with smears.
Also, you have to build it before the patent will come.
Not anymore. Last year US patent law was changed from "first to invent" to "first to file", meaning if you can write a patent application, you can get a patent for something you haven't invented yet.
And the thing everyone needs to remember is that no previous version of windows used the screen corners as a UI trigger. It's simply not expected: there's no visual cue in the corners to indicate that they cause something to happen. Not much different than if win95 had shipped with no task bar, but the 80x20 pixel block 4 pixels up and to the right of the bottom left corner was still the start button. Who would know to click there?
Win8 defenestrates most windows usability conventions, and on top of that doesn't express itself very well, if it bothers to at all. People know to click on buttons because they look like physical buttons, they have depth. Metro is just a Wall of quasi-meaningful white shapes (with little to no context) floating on colored boards.
"We" don't. Microsoft does. Microsoft sales, does, at least. And inside MS, sales is the only thing that matters. Trust me on this.
This is why MS is a marketing company and not a technology company. Their products are designed to be sold, not used (as many usability reviews of w8 on the desktop will attest).
If IE was going to focus on actual standards compliance
... you'd see their HTML1, HTML2, HTML3.2, HTML4, HTML4.1, XHTML1.0, XHTML1.1, CSS1, CSS2, CSS2.1, CSS3, JS1.0, JS1.1, JS1.2, JS1.3 compliance comparable to every other browser, and it's not.
If they built a car, they'd put wings and a propeller on it.
No, because that would be innovation. If MS built a car, it would have the steering wheel on the roof, pentagonal tires, the hood welded shut, and would operate best on MicroSoft Roads(TM) fueled by MicroSoft Gas(TM).
And as of a couple weeks ago, it would start up as a Little Tykes vehicle and you'd have to switch it to real car mode to go anywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Collect all the unwanted phonebooks and deliver them to the phone company regional office, preferably piled up in front of the door.
The fact that Walmart generally only has half as many lanes open as it needs at any given time is also a factor.
I chalk this up as more evidence that corporations consider their non-executive workforce a liability rather than an asset.
THIS.
Self-checkouts at stores are a dereliction of customer service. From my totally unscientific observations of them remaining unused while there are lines at the real checkouts, most people don't like them.
Now we need an option to disable cookies on cross-domain image/* requests.
Before you tackle marketing, have you established a brand identity for your product? Name, tag line, logo, and color palette are the core elements of a brand identity. Without one, the marketing... um, people... won't have a foundation to build on.
Many may think branding and marketing are the same, or that branding is part of marketing, but they're really separate processes.
Mountain Dew already has orange juice concentrate in it. If someone wants juice with a kick, drop an open 5 Hour Energy into your glass of juice.
What their consumers really want is for Mountain Dew Throwback to replace regular Mountain Dew.
Nope. MS has been drooling over Apple's end-to-end production pipeline for too long, now they want to cut out the middlemen: the OEMs. But they have to do it in a covert way that won't rouse their suspicions. A couple of failed Windows tablet launches seems like a logical step.
MS also thinks the OEMs are too stupid to see this. They aren't, and will just as covertly start shopping for Linux distros to partner with. Units with factory-installed Linux start to arrive in 2015. By then, Steam will be a major selling point, and Windows' only explicit consumer raison d'être will evaporate.
Except this is Microsoft. They deliberately understocked stores to cause premature sellouts, and therefore an inflated perception of demand.
When I got my second cell phone in 2007, I also switched from T-Mobile to Sprint. I narrowed down my choices to the Motorola RAZR or ic502, both clamshell models. The deciding factor: the RAZR didn't have a raised dot on the 5 key, so I got the ic502.
I hated that phone every minute of the next three and a half years.
Microsoft's gambit with Nokia was a 3 to 5 year game, it hasn't played out yet. Once Nokia has imploded, MS will swoop in and snatch up at least a good chunk of the patent portfolio. Maybe the manufacturing part too, depending on how badly they still want to implement a facsimile of Apple's end-to-end pipeline model.
They've now wormed their way into Dell, albeit with completely a different tactic. I'm not sure how much influence they bought for $2B (out of a $24B valuation), but it's certainly more than none. I wouldn't be surprised if Dell's Linux offerings disappear within 2 years.
MS never really intended to make Surface a hot item, the whole strategy of them making their own branded devices is puzzling, especially since it's never worked before (Zune, Kin). All three seem more like process tests rather than full bore, confident product releases.
I still think tablets are a fad that doesn't have enough momentum to last until the next version of Windows.
Redmond may be running scared, but they don't seem to be sure what to be scared of. Linux is a threat, yes.. one that they will have enabled with the combination of Surface (angering the OEMs) and the stubborn imposition of Win8 and its stupid Metro UI on everything. Plus, they haven't embraced ARM as fully as they could have, much less any other architecture.
I expect at least a few OEMs (not Dell, obviously) to begin discreetly seeking distro partners very soon, so they can release proper desktops/laptops with Linux factory installed in 2015: the long awaited year of the Lunix desktop.
Apple has complete control over their production pipeline, software and hardware.
Microsoft has historically only handled the software part of the pipeline, while letting the OEMs take care of hardware.
Microsoft now looks at Apple and sees that the full-pipe model is viable and wants to cut out the middle man, the OEM.
Instead of building the hardware part of the pipe for themselves, they do things like poison Nokia or take a stake in Dell, because they perceive subversive paths to be cheaper and quicker.
MS wants to be a full-on hardware vendor now, expanding beyond game consoles and PC peripherals. Zune, Kin, Surface, it all leads here.
If MS owns enough of Dell to exert control, how will the other OEMs react? Their symbiotic business model with Microsoft will become hostile pretty quick.
It'll be 2015, because of Windows 8 and the Surface tablets.. The OEMs will need time to renegotiate their Windows distribution licenses, then find distros to partner with.
They'll submit to being regulated like a bank. I used to work for Western Union, their money tranfers are subject to banking regulations, but PayPal isn't, for doing essentially the same thing.
When touch is added to laptop screens, the manufacturers will still insist that the screens be glossy, so not only will you have to look through your own reflection, it will be covered with smears.
Not anymore. Last year US patent law was changed from "first to invent" to "first to file", meaning if you can write a patent application, you can get a patent for something you haven't invented yet.
Dammit, nevermind...
Consists of one item, and it's not a feature: that tablets will just go away.
This is the main reason I hate 7. I don't put anything on that machine because I don't want the hassle of trying to find it later.
And the thing everyone needs to remember is that no previous version of windows used the screen corners as a UI trigger. It's simply not expected: there's no visual cue in the corners to indicate that they cause something to happen. Not much different than if win95 had shipped with no task bar, but the 80x20 pixel block 4 pixels up and to the right of the bottom left corner was still the start button. Who would know to click there?
Win8 defenestrates most windows usability conventions, and on top of that doesn't express itself very well, if it bothers to at all. People know to click on buttons because they look like physical buttons, they have depth. Metro is just a Wall of quasi-meaningful white shapes (with little to no context) floating on colored boards.
...is legally distinct from "Instagram does not claim any distribution rights". I'm also sure there are legal workarounds for "sell".
Just like ISPs and mobile carriers legally and torturously redefine "unlimited".
If I could find the 2.4 key mappings for 2.5+, I would use it more.
This is why MS is a marketing company and not a technology company. Their products are designed to be sold, not used (as many usability reviews of w8 on the desktop will attest).
Microsoft created a generation of lazy developers who only coded for IE.
... you'd see their HTML1, HTML2, HTML3.2, HTML4, HTML4.1, XHTML1.0, XHTML1.1, CSS1, CSS2, CSS2.1, CSS3, JS1.0, JS1.1, JS1.2, JS1.3 compliance comparable to every other browser, and it's not.
No, because that would be innovation. If MS built a car, it would have the steering wheel on the roof, pentagonal tires, the hood welded shut, and would operate best on MicroSoft Roads(TM) fueled by MicroSoft Gas(TM).
And as of a couple weeks ago, it would start up as a Little Tykes vehicle and you'd have to switch it to real car mode to go anywhere.