RSS100 million copies sold, but Vista mostly absent at CES
By Nate Mook | Published January 8, 2008, 3:39 PM
Ahead of Bill Gates' keynote Sunday night, Microsoft said that 100 million copies of Vista have been sold, but the new OS has little presence here at CES.
In a meeting with BetaNews Monday, Aaron Coldiron, senior marketing manager for Windows Vista, acknowledged that Microsoft has done little to offer a compelling story for its flagship operating system, but promised changes were afoot.
While Vista has been available to the public for nearly a year, many consumers haven't been eager to make the upgrade. Initial driver and application compatibility problems plagued early adopters, and Windows XP is still seen as "good enough" for a large percentage of users.
Coldiron said Microsoft has focused largely on niche marketing thus far -- for example pitching Vista to those in the process of buying a computer -- but hasn't directed much at the general public. This has enabled Apple to dominate consumer mindshare even though Windows still dominates actual market share.
Microsoft does have a handful of Vista banners and ads around CES announcing the company's new "Digital Life" campaign, but it's bland and a far cry from the presence of other companies. Granted, Vista isn't necessarily a consumer electronics product, but Windows does have a place in many CE devices and the audience is the same.
Coldiron didn't specify whether Microsoft planned television ads or any big new marketing campaigns, but said 2008 would bring a renewed focus on selling the benefits of Vista when paired with Windows Live. At the show, Microsoft is demonstrating using Vista with Windows Live Gallery and Spaces, along with the new Windows Live Mail client.
"Bill Gates talked about the magic of software, and watching the software and services work together really is like magic," Coldiron said. Now, Microsoft just needs to deliver that message to the general public and bring back the "cool" to Windows. It has slowly begun this effort with a number of viral YouTube videos on Vista.
Although many customers may be waiting on Service Pack 1 to bring much-needed improvements to Vista's performance and reliability, Coldiron said that because of the way Microsoft now rolls out updates, Vista users will see those updates well before SP1 arrives.
It's very easy to define "failure".
When a company is forced to extend support for a product it was hell-bent on phasing out for at least to the inception of the current lame-duck's successor, that's failure.
When a company dictates that OEMs not sell any more of the old version of a given product and those OEMs thumb their noses at the vendor and do so anyway, that's failure.
When a company touts their new gaming middleware as being faster and gamers discover it's an out-and-out lie, that's failure.
When a company realizes that early adopters of its new product are returning in droves to the old version and keeps silent with no PR spin, that's failure.
When performance stats indicate that the new product is significantly slower than the old one, and even after expensive upgrades, that product is still slower than its predecessor, that's failure.
And finally...
When security specialists like me look at a new version of a product and recommend at the corporate level that IT Departments not go to it because it offers no tangible benefits, that's failure.
Fanatics be damned - the emperor is NOT wearing new clothes. The empress however does have a new cost of paint, wig and miniskirt that she's strutting on the strip on Saturday night - but it's the same old empress and that new coat of paint is seriously slowing her down as she approaches the cars.
She ain't getting my cash.
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|*laughing*
You bit, I'll bite back:
When a company is forced to extend support for a product it was hell-bent on phasing out for at least to the inception of the current lame-duck's successor, that's failure.
Support for 2000 went many years beyond the inception of XP, and was sold many years afetr the release of XP..even on Dells.
When a company dictates that OEMs not sell any more of the old version of a given product and those OEMs thumb their noses at the vendor and do so anyway, that's failure.
Again, 2k/XP. Both were being sold then, XP and Vista are being sold now. So far your argument consists of: "This is how they did it last time...and they're doing it again...those bas****s!"
When a company touts their new gaming middleware as being faster and gamers discover it's an out-and-out lie, that's failure.
You mean when implementing a new API and expecting programmers to be experts in utilizing it right off the bat and that doesn't actually happen in reality, you're going to bash the API and not the inexperienced programmers? Brilliant... The first DX9 games were basically DX8 rendered with the DX9 API. It was easy for them to migrate from one to the other. That is not the case with DX10. It will take another 4 months or so to see a decent DX10 title.
When a company realizes that early adopters of its new product are returning in droves to the old version and keeps silent with no PR spin, that's failure.
Proof? I hear this on the net from a bunch of MS trolls. I hear it from exactly NO-ONE ELSE.
When performance stats indicate that the new product is significantly slower than the old one, and even after expensive upgrades, that product is still slower than its predecessor, that's failure.
You are an idiot. Added functionality=added processor/ram usage. In the past, tech outpaced functionality and this was not as noticeable. OEMs are selling machines at the lowest possible requirements for Vista and consumers are being bitten by this. The failure on MS here was in keeping the minimum requirements as low as they did. Any modern OS should *require* 2GB of RAM and a 64 bit dual-core CPU. Anything less is outdated.
When security specialists like me look at a new version of a product and recommend at the corporate level that IT Departments not go to it because it offers no tangible benefits, that's failure.
Anecdotal? Lovin' it. I've looked at the same OS and with UAC, sandboxed IE, and the memory heap rewrites, Vista, running the same applications we run now, will be *much* more stable and equally less prone to malicious attacks.
You are welcome to spend you money how you like, and I would never recommend anyone upgrade an existing system to Vista (or buy one with Vista @ under 2GB or RAM). But the picture you paint is nowhere near the reality of the situation.
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|your opinion...though a bit pompous and assumptive
Got my money and will continue to, I can use Vista and love it...don't blame the os or company if you can't use it. There there, here's a ball.
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|I am always amused how those who don't follow popular cant are immediately branded as either trolls or incapable of technical acumen. That's a fine and telling comment on the lemmings who ARE happily led down the garden path and needs no further elucidation.
I could wade through the rhetoric but I will condense my reply to the following as I have enither the time nor the inclination (beside, people will believe whatever they want to believe - a time-honored? tradition that goes back beyond intel vs. AMD and OS/2 vs. Windows):
I personally know of twenty (20) people who went Vista via one road or another (some got it with new machines, some with laptops, some bought it, some "tried" it). and ALL with the exception of one has gone back to XP Pro. Note that with the exception of the "tryer", each will be counted as a "sale" by Microsoft, and will be duly trumpeted to any who listen or, going even further, will believe them. The one who hasn't recently upgraded his box from 2Gb to 4Gb (he has a 3800+) and proudly announced "it's livable now" (he's using Vista Business). I asked him if it ran faster than XP Pro, fully knowing the answer. His hesitant answer was a quiet "no". "Then why do you bother?" "It's a change."
Uniquely lame, no?
As an aside, those who bought laptops form HP with Vista called the company and asked for XP drivers for the hardware when they decided to return to XP. HP demurred. The two individuals in question took my advice, returned the laptops and went with a vendor who acceeded to their request, specifically Toshiba.
I recommend to all my clients who receive new hardware with an untenable OS to do the same.
To those happier with form than with substance and prefer the so-called "cooler" look, you've definitely gotten what you've paid for. I believe there's an old proverb: "a fool and his money are soon parted". :) :) ;)
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|you truly embody the cliche "can't teach an old dog a new trick". You come up to a pebble and are so incapable you surrender to it and claim it a wall.
Really, take a step back and look how meager you are. What does it mean then for those who use Vista and run it flawlessly with 99.9% compatibility? Surely you are not so handicapped as you portray?
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|Can't argue facts, so instead, you jump on a tangent...
OK...
I am always amused how those who don't follow popular cant are immediately branded as either trolls or incapable of technical acumen.
Who are you describing here? According to post counts, those defending MS are in the minority here...apparently making *you* the sheep being led down the "garden path". It's just so *vogue* to hate everything MS, eh?
The rest is BS. You have nothing to back it up.
People did the same with XP. Crap from 98/ME and 2K didn't work, it was all Microsoft's/XP's fault.
Give it a rest.
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|Alright people do you want to know why I bought Windows Vista?...because.
1. It definitely is cooler than XP visualy and there are some nice features that I'm liking a lot.
2. I got tired of using my cracked version of Windows XP! and I wanted to be legit!
I won't deny that there are some things that may be annoying and may not work properly or perhaps there are things that just work too good and I don't want it . For instance, take my secondary add-on sound card I couldn't get the damn thing to stop updating it! so I just removed of my computer as for there really is no use for it anyway! then again my scanner won't work...but that has become more of the scanner's manufacturer problem, since they don't want to update the drivers... but overall, little tweak here and there and everything IS working nicely for me so I am very PROUD to own WINDOWS VISTA!!!
There you have it, care or careless me da igual!
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|This just in: VISTA IS A FAILURE!
And it's even got mr. rubberstamper himself toolie laughing at it now. Sad that Gates leaves the tech scene with Microsoft's biggest failure to date. When is Win7 coming again?
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|100 million copies in a year and your calling it a failure, let me just say your a freakin idiot!
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|It's not a big failure at 100 million copies sold. Some people are biding their time, waiting for the bugs to be squashed in SP1 and others are waiting until they get the 'peripheral support'....as many older hardware parts are useless with the new OS (not MS fault, mind you - lazy dev. syndrome).
I think the OS would have boomed (in a good way) if MS had cut the 32bit cord. 64bit is the now and for moving forward. Allowing consumers and devs to use 32bit is a crutch that pads the necessity of building proper driver and software and curbs the adoption of 64bit computing. I think in the end, people are just confused.
Many people called XP a failure in it's first year of release as well. I suspect Vista will take a similar route. We've had a year to get the software right, as soon as people understand the difference between 32 and 64bit, Vista will start selling more.
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|100 million is easy when you are a monopoly and can _force_ almost every new computer in the country to be bundled with your boat anchor of an OS. Watch who you're calling an idiot, because you don't know what you are talking about.
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|100 million is still nothing to sneeze at, no matter how it happens. Even if MS sold Vista for $10 (which is what I pay for Vista Business), that's $1 billion (not counting costs). I consider Vista to be a failure in some areas; however, it certainly is an improvement in some ways. The sad thing is that consumers are caught in the battle between MS and their attempts to have programmers write decent software/drivers.
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|If it's not entitled "Windows", I bet it would sell no more than a thousand copies.
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|One has to wonder how you define failure...
Oh, that's right.. According to zridling, everything Microsoft = failure.
lmao...
Gotta love the fanatics.
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|They are not forcing Dell or anyone else to sell windows.
Durr....
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|Microsoft's existence has altered the definition of monopoly. Never in history, has there been such a monopoly with various competition from xxxxxx. Indeed...but the dictionaries will illucidate new meanings from the low brow.
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|Fairly amazing 100 million people took the plunge. And with gas prices so high!
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|LMOA...
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|Lol.
*Off on a tangent*
I have trouble working out whether you Americans mean Gas gas, or petrol gas.
I wish you would sort that one out.
And if you mean petrol gas then I laugh at you. You have it cheap compared to the UK.
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|By gas, us Americans mean petrol gas. What are the prices in the UK?
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|They are taxed heavily (as we should be, but aren't) and that is why they pay a lot.
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|Well, first learn to call "football" soccer. [smiles]
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|Almost all of those 100 million were bundled with new machines. Hell, I bought two laptops this year, so technically I bought two copies of Vista. I tried it out a bit, but it was a big steaming turd. It turned the laptop I bought for my wife completely unusable. It was literally the slowest computer I've ever used, but with XP it's just fine. So technically I count for 2 Vista sales even though I actually went back and bought XP for those machines.
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|The word "Soccer" only exists in U.S.A. to the whole world its known as FOOTBALL!
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|what would we call "Football" Then? :)
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|Grown men playing in the dirt. :p
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