Is Microsoft Really a Dying Consumer Brand?

Ill make it simple no

Statement is bull...

CNN is about as reliable as Obama.

Let me guess, Steve Jobs wrote it.

CNN is the dying brand.

umm.. No of course not..

I'll make it more complicated: Yes.
1) No web browser or the ability to play most media files on the xbox360?
2) Didnt bother to come out with a touchscreen OS for phones until 2 other options were fimrly established
3) They still use NTFS for a file system... holy crap.
4) Who owns a zune? oh wait why would you, your not allowed to do anything on it.
5) Windows 7/ excellent OS. Windows VISTA just another way to steal your money on something that just doesn't work. End result, people don't trust microsoft.
6) Hey microsoft, your web browser sucks... for the eighth time...
7) Why can't we just boot windows off of a flash drive again? Why did XP require a floppy disk for raid drivers?

I have more but... those are good enough for now.

No

Id stopped caring about what happens toMS, but thats until windows 7 came out...

Id stopped caring about what happens to MS, but thats until windows 7 came out...

^^^

What Microsoft has lacked from a consumer standpoint is the polish, ease of use and integration that Apple has been able to provide with its products. Microsoft has appeared to realize this. Windows 7 and Office 2010 are probably its most polished software to date. We are starting to see tighter and tighter integration especially between its services (xbox live & zune marketplace) and the Phone 7. If rumors are to be believed, an app store is also on its was to the desktop. So Microsoft by all accounts has woken up to the consumer base and is playing an aggressive game of catch.

Just because you work at CNN... and you and your retard buddies have apple products.. that automatically means everyone has apple products?.
by the way.. who or what is CNN?... I thought they were a dying brand.. doesn't everyone just watch fox?

People still watch CNN?

no

Awe, CNN forgot that they aren't relevant anymore.

Reason why apple cant score with business is cos they have accounting departments staffed by people who want value for their money and are accountable if they buy expensive crap. Sadly your average consumer on other the hand does not. You can sell just about anything using word of mouth when the mouth is attached to an idiot.

The dollar is a dyeing brand.

Brand upon the brain!

The only thing that MS has going on, barely, is the X-Box 360. The rest is just making copycats on similar products.

If we talk about "making technology", I don't remember anything in the last decade made by MS being something actually "new" to the consumers. Not in bling bling, not in functionality.

Even in OS (business+desktop+mobile) share they're staggering quite fast. They can't even position their new OS'es quite well because they DO NOT BRING ANYTHING NEW to the table. Win7 has seen the light thanks to loads of cash in marketing and being better than Vista. But like 99% of the needs are pretty much covered by XP and the much "humble" (no gaming thanks to DirectX) Linux distros out there, where Ubuntu shines and excels in user experience (ease of use, features, UI, etc).

Hope MS takes this as a wake up call FAST. They're not a bad company, but they're not making anything amazing these days either.

Cheers!

I think this is a accurate assessment. Apple and Google are the major tech players in the consumer space right now. I doubt the new WinPhone will be able to compete against the iPhone (or Android). Blackberry should be worried though.

The problem isn't all Microsoft's. PC makers need to start selling better laptops and tablets like the MacBook Pro and the iPad. These devices are far more than fashion statements. Apple's hardware is very appealing to consumers. The high prices give Apple more R&D dollars to design the next generation of exciting products. PC competition has produced low-cost designs and shrunken margins with low R&D budgets, now PC laptops look old, because they are old. PC makers are selling the same old notebook designs they did 8 years ago, and consumers know it.

Bottom line - PC makers need to raise prices to produce premium products with premium margins to fund new R&D to complete against Apple. If they just wait for Microsoft to solve their Apple problem, it will be too late, and they too will suffer Microsoft's fate.

clearly someone was trying to start shit when they wrote this piece for CNN. They are thinking 10 year in the future, to the point where people May and I say May be doing there daily computing on tablets or some kind of portable medium. At the end of the day, half the planet cannot afford these devices like the Ipad or serious smart phone technology. So again Microsoft will still be the OS for a good chunk of the planet. I think someone at CNN is hoping that Microsoft will die. I don't see it happening, Everything Microsoft builds pays my bills.

UM, i would never run our 150 million dollar company on anything other than a Microsoft Server OS. sorry CNN, but go cash your Apple check and go to Hell!

MS will always have a special place in our hearts, it brought hardware choice to the masses. Too bad everyone is so eager to board the cloud wagon...

I guess that ease of use surpasses the customization even though more than half the population of the developed countries know how to use a computer, they think it is cool that things like setting IP address has to be buried inside the control panel so that I need to open 2 applications and waste about 1 minute to find the setting instead of just right clicking and going to lan properties...

CNN is a dying news org, who decided to try to increase readership by publishing an article full of crap and getting free advertisement from it.

I would agree with this except for one tiny problem. People are versed in going to best buy or buying there systems from HP/Dell. I learned from experience if the system has to be top end, build it yourself. Other people buy big box computers from the big box stores pays my paycheck because unless they paid top dollar for it, and sometimes even when they do, the damn thing doesn't last. I tell people all the time if you want it to last spend the money on the good stuff. They don't I always here, omg its going to cost how much to fix that, I can buy a new one for that, and usually its like half of what new one costs. I mean who the hell buys a new desktop for $400 and expects it to last. Thats like buy a car for $200 and expecting to run. I don't get it.

Do we need need nicer look equipment? Yah... are people going to pay what it costs to get the nicer looking better equipped. Not Likely.

Microsoft is almost as dying as McDonald's is. Who wants fatty burgers?

Whoever wrote that article on CNN obviously has something against Microsoft, they basically took all of Microsoft's achievements and spun them to look bad.

I haven't read the article over at CNN, but in general terms I would say that Microsoft has never been a big name for a consumer to brag about. It's just not Microsft's culture, and I perfectly understand that.

Unlike Apple, that clearly put their shiny logo on the back of their laptops, so it works as free publicity when someone has one open, or on the back of their iPhones, Microsoft is a software brand that relies on it's products to make the impact, rather than the company name itself, much like Adobe relies on Photoshop and Flash. Other companies have a different approach - like Corel (Corel Draw is the finest example).

Almost everybody praises Windows 7, the Xbox 360 is very popular, and so is Office 2007. You don't even have to say "Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010" People know it's from Microsoft. The biggest free Office package named itself against Microsoft by just saying it's an Open.. Office.

What I mean is that Micrsoft has done a brilliant job over the years with these products, and they have a massive brand awareness, they have defacto standards, and that is what counts. Microsoft itself lies a little bit more in the background, as a quality assurer.

Possibly many people mistake this approach for a weak consumer brand, like CNN.

Aside from a few big consumer brands, Microsoft seems to be shifting to a B to B business model, similar to IBM. In the long term that may be a better fit for them as Apple continues to conquer the laptop, smartphone, and tablet market. Also the fact that the desktop seems to be on the downward trend. I doubt it will be anytime soon for Microsoft, but I would think that within 10 - 15 years, they won't be nearly as influential on the consumer side as they currently are. I think what they really need to do is get rid of Ballmer and get a CEO with vision there. Since he's taken over the company has been sliding down.

Duh, its from CNN, of course its bull.

The libtards at CNN like Apple stuff? Shocking.