By Ina Fried, 24 July 2008 17:03
NEWS
After months of searching for ways to defend its often-maligned Windows operating system, Microsoft turned to Vista's sceptics for help.
Microsoft got together a sample of Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista and asked them for their opinion on the operating system. They were then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 per cent of the sample gave positive feedback on the new OS. They were then told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista.
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"Oh wow," said one user, eliciting exactly the exclamation that Microsoft had hoped to garner when it first released the operating system more than 18 months ago.
Of course the focus groups didn't have to install Vista or hook it up to their existing home network, however the emotional appeal of the "every man" trying Vista and liking it clearly packs an emotional punch.
The Mojave project is likely to be just one of many efforts designed to resuscitate Vista's image among stepped-up competition from Apple and Google. In an interview Windows unit business chief Bill Veghte told silicon.com sister site CNET News.com that he wants to see his unit try new things to get the message across.
He said: "We have a huge perception opportunity. We are going to try a bunch of stuff."
The image improvement effort has many components. With small businesses, for example, Microsoft earlier this month launched the "Assurance" campaign. In that effort, Microsoft is offering free Vista-related technical support, a move that will add millions of dollars to Microsoft's telephone support costs. The point, Veghte said, is that businesses want to see Microsoft standing behind its product.
Microsoft is convinced that, despite early technical challenges, Vista's problems are primarily ones of perception.
Much of that perception, Microsoft belatedly acknowledges, stems from Apple's successful and unchallenged anti-Vista campaign.
Marketing vice president Brad Brooks told partners earlier this month that Microsoft was "drawing a line in the sand", while CEO Steve Ballmer promised in a memo to employees Wednesday that after doing some hard technical work on Vista that it was now time for Microsoft to "tell our story".
Ballmer wrote: "In the weeks ahead, we'll launch a campaign to address any lingering doubts our customers may have about Windows Vista. And later this year, you'll see a more comprehensive effort to redefine the meaning and value of Windows for our customers."
The need for the campaign is clear. Apple has been making inroads, as well as headlines with its anti-Vista push. Although Microsoft dominates in corporations and in overseas markets, Apple has been grabbing a significant share of the consumer market in the US.
Microsoft is already working on Windows 7, the next version of the operating system. But Veghte said the company can't wait for a new product to start firing back.
Veghte said: "I've got to start having that discussion in the marketplace. I've got to start driving that now. People feel guilty [about Vista]. It's wrong."
Comments
There are 20 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
if Microsoft are so confident that people will prefer Vista over XP
give us the choice, and let the sales figures decide
but first get Vista to run at the same speed on the same platform as XP
and it would be nice if it supported the same range of hardware as well rather than forcing a purchase of devices we already have and that are perfectly servicable
2. David Fletcher
Well, sorry and all that, microsoft, but if I was to try it, I'd have to buy it. I'm not going to give another penny of my hard earned to microsoft, not now, not ever, so I wont be trying either vista or 7.
I'm a member of a Linux Users Group, and nothing delights me more than helping others get started with using Linux. Usually it's as simple as sorting out their Internet connection by getting rid of those horrible USB->ADSL adaptors. The wonderful Free Cycle network has helped me in the past with this, by donating redundant ADSL routers. If I've got a spare one at the time it can be gifted to the new Linux user. If not they're happy to go and buy one after seeing a demonstration.
Personally, compared to the KDE desktop, I find XP to be primitive and unfriendly to the user. I'm delighted I made the small effort required to switch, as are all of the people I've helped. None of them regret making the move.
3. Roger Huffadine
It may be a delight for users who only want to use office and Internet Explorer but for anyone who wants to actually do anything else that is useful and productive then Vista is a Nightmare.
I Have tried it and it really is a bag of nails - support is worse than the now defunct Windows 98 - in fact Windows 98 was a far better and more capable OS than Vista is today.
4. anonymous
Sorry Microsoft. Having just been forced to upgrade a system from XP to Vista, I can only describe Vista as an unmitigated disaster. It is the last straw that will result in my company switching to Linux as soon as possible.
Interestingly, I know two people who say that they have been put off using their home computers as a result of having to adopt Vista. That is an extremely negative impact.
5. Chris Anderson
Yeah, I like Vista so much I'm writing this on a virtual machine running XP on my Vista based laptop And hoping to post it before Vista's wonderful Wi-Fi system decides it doesn't like my home network again and I have to restart it just to connect again.
6. Simon Bateman
Having used both XP Professional and Vista Business on a variety of hardware I can conclude that XP is still faster, in terms of boot speed and usable speed for basics. In business this is all that counts. Business users do not need multimedia applications and pretty interfaces. Businesses want stability, security and speed of operation.
To get the same ‘perceived’ performance users need twice the power in terms of hardware. Try persuading a business or organisation that they need to replace all their PCs, with all the associated costs, and deal with the question “and how will Vista (Business) benefit my organisation...” when the honest answer is “err.. very little..”
Microsoft make some brilliant products (such as Exchange Server) but I think Vista is not one of them. Microsoft missed an opportunity with Vista.
7. George
I DID try Vista.
In fact I have a dual boot machine so can switch between XP and Vista in a few minutes, but I still use XP.
The only reasons I went back to XP are because of the culmination of all those little Vista problems that just aren't there in XP AND XP is faster.
Vista just doesn't have any perceived benefits to compenstate for the problems and I don't find security a problem with XP.
8. anonymous
Slow, unresponsive. Too secure that us admins have problems with it.
My home laptop is going back to XP shortly.
Don't knock it... bin in and install Windows Server 2008.
9. Nick Cole
WOW, we've got to replace our hardware and possibly some applications to try a system out that does exactly what we wanted to and could do before changing it!
Some marketing expertise!
It is nothing to do with perception, but the realisation that we will be throwing away experience, knowledge, systems, and hardware merely to get a fancy new coloured and rearranged desktop environment. So that we can all go through the learning curve yet again.
10. misceng
I have been using computers for about 40 years and have just had my first contact with Vista. A middle aged lady asked me to help as she had had to give up her old XP PC and now had a new Vista laptop. I found its fancy interface so confusing and unintuitive that I gave up trying to get Microsoft Works set so that she could use it and installed Open Office instead. She is now happy
11. Vic
You have to give Vista a bit of credit though... It is pretty... And that is where its usefullness ends. I am currently testing a solution that converts a server 2008 installation into something that looks like Vista, but runs like XP. I just need to figure out how to get rid of the Start menu 'enhancements'. So far so good, only cant get my build in bluetooth adapter to work. That is going to be a deal breaker if it does not work though. It worked flawlessly in XP.
12. Geep Geepster
I think something is going on... XP is getting slower!
13. Jeremy Wickins
Here's a few things that I'd need to see in Vista before I even bothered: halve the bloat; make it work on more legacy hardware; deal with the connectivity issues. If Microsoft want me to actually buy the thing after these issues are sorted, then halve the price across the board, and allow me to install it on each machine in my house up to a maximum of, say, five. Then get rid of the need to re-register if I change the hardware in one ... Hell, forget it - the next time I need to reformat one of my machines, Ubuntu goes on.
14. Andrew Robb
Did mojave target Vista virgins? I tried Vista for a month before upgrading my new laptop to XP. My 'old' software now works.
15. anonymous
Hmm vista slow, painful nagging (there are the good points). In the time it takes my dads vista laptop to boot I can use my mac mini to power up check email, read email (most junk as usual) and then power down...
Work is an XP laptop I can't see the point of it myself
16. Lionel A Smith
The fact that it had nothing to do with the hard realities of introducing Vista into an existing XP environment isn't in it. Karen Challinor, as usual has touched most of the bases there already.
All this test has done has proven once again the old adage that ‘bullsh*t baffles brains’.
17. Ian Savell
Surely with all those brains Microsoft must 'get' the problem!
Yes, Vista looks good at first and runs fine on hardware built for it, but once you move away from 'first look' you realise it simply isn't fit for purpose. Simple maintenance tasks are almost impossible, it requires staggering amounts of memory (luckily now cheap) and doesn't like legacy hardware and software.
The whole exercise proves that Microsoft can't get beneath the glitz and deal with the fundamentals
18. anonymous
Obviously, Vista's failure to convince users has not much to do with perception. In my work I've had many clients who've been using Vista for months and who have really given it a try, but who have downgraded (or are planning to downgrade) to XP out of sheer frustration. Hopefully life will get better with the next version so we can forget all about Vista.
19. Terri Sipantzi
I have tried Vista and compared to XP Vista sucks. I have a small business with XP and Vista laptops. I spend 90% of my time fixing Vista related issues while my XP machines run largely without problem. Then there is the cost of hardware. It takes twice as much memory for the Vista machine to approach the speed of the XP machine. Finally, the hardware drivers for Vista seem to be very buggy whereas I can't remember when I last had a problem with XP drivers. I am so fed up with Vista that unless I can get XP on new machines I am seriously considering moving to Apple
20. Vic Cameron
I've upgraded from Win XP to Vista. It's truly wonderful. I've been using it for more than a year now with no problems. I've loaded all of my XP programs and they all work very well. It's much more stable than XP. Love it.
Vic