John on Tech...
A look at technology from MY point of view
Tuesday 21 July 2009, 1:46 PM
Rob Enderle keeps making the same mistakes...
Rob Enderle has clearly articulated why Microsoft will fail going up against Apple. The so-called "principal analyst for the Enderle Group, a consultancy that focuses on personal technology products and trends." has an article up at techworldnews: Microsoft Makes Apple Eat Humble Apple Pie. He is referring to the tub bashing from Microsoft's Kevin Turner earlier last week. Who claimed that he was called by "Apple legal" to pull the current batch of Laptop Hunter ads from their current campaign. Much laughing from MS shills all week ensued.
Rob Enderle's article is full of the standard misconceptions that Microsoft and it's fans make when looking at Apple. The first error is that Apple is NOT just a marketing company. There is engineering and design work done at Apple that is of extreme value and beyond anything Microsoft is capable of - until Apple does it - and then they just fire up their photocopiers. This has worked in the past as Microsoft have had boatloads of money to throw at stuff. Apple innovate by developing stuff in house; Microsoft innovate by buying in the technology they want.
Secondly if Microsoft were an engineering based company then where's the meat? Where's the innovation? We see lots of stuff shown off by Microsoft - some of it very interesting - say project Natal. But it is all years away - it is all smoke and mirrors. If Apple were to show off something like project Natal (I am not saying Apple would do this - it is just an example for sake of argument) then it would be released immediately or within weeks (the iPhone was an exception being pre-announced a whole six months before release - but hey - we're not talking sometime in the vague future like we are with project Natal).
"For Apple, marketing is strategic, and top marketing people would like to have Apple on their resume." See - he is damning Apple yet again with faint praise. Top "anything" people would like to have Apple on their resumé. Try the guys at Palm - a job at Apple seems to be the BEST thing to have on your resumé to work there at the moment. John Rubenstein (pretty certain not a marketing job he held at Apple) and Lynn Fox (OK perhaps PR was a part of marketing) are all ex Apple as well as many others.
Finally the "whiny call" from Apple was only articulated by a Microsoft employee. Call it spin. I would say more likely someone phoned to tell them they would have to update the ads following the recent price cuts - but to them it - and by Rob it was a "whiny call".
BTW in the real world since when did legal representatives just phone to complain? If Apple really was doing this then where is the typed letter in cryptic legalese - Apple are pretty good at sending out cease and desist letters I believe?
The whole premise of his argument is that Microsoft have finally got the "marketing" thing sorted and are now ready to take on the world is great - save for the fact that that is NOT the reason that Apple are succeeding. Rob is looking at all the noise and fury while all the time forgetting that the magicians are actually doing real work in the areas you are ignoring. It is sleight of hand trick but everyone seems to be looking at the magic trick while ignoring where the real work is being done.
The irony of all this is that the so called "successful Laptop Hunter ads" are working wonderfully for the wrong party - Apple may have had a bad May (people were waiting for the new machines) but rumors are surfacing that June was spectacular. Quoting from Philip Elmer DeWitt's site: "Well, the NPD numbers came out and they blew past even his most optimistic expectations. Rather than up 5% in June, as he hoped, they were up a whopping 16%. According to Munster’s second note of the day, that implies sales for the entire quarter of 2.6 million units." So looks like Kevin Turner may have misinterpreted the call. Perhaps Apple legal were calling to warn him that the Microsoft Ad Campaign was actually working - Apple sales were through the roof.
Rob Enderle's article is full of the standard misconceptions that Microsoft and it's fans make when looking at Apple. The first error is that Apple is NOT just a marketing company. There is engineering and design work done at Apple that is of extreme value and beyond anything Microsoft is capable of - until Apple does it - and then they just fire up their photocopiers. This has worked in the past as Microsoft have had boatloads of money to throw at stuff. Apple innovate by developing stuff in house; Microsoft innovate by buying in the technology they want.
Secondly if Microsoft were an engineering based company then where's the meat? Where's the innovation? We see lots of stuff shown off by Microsoft - some of it very interesting - say project Natal. But it is all years away - it is all smoke and mirrors. If Apple were to show off something like project Natal (I am not saying Apple would do this - it is just an example for sake of argument) then it would be released immediately or within weeks (the iPhone was an exception being pre-announced a whole six months before release - but hey - we're not talking sometime in the vague future like we are with project Natal).
"For Apple, marketing is strategic, and top marketing people would like to have Apple on their resume." See - he is damning Apple yet again with faint praise. Top "anything" people would like to have Apple on their resumé. Try the guys at Palm - a job at Apple seems to be the BEST thing to have on your resumé to work there at the moment. John Rubenstein (pretty certain not a marketing job he held at Apple) and Lynn Fox (OK perhaps PR was a part of marketing) are all ex Apple as well as many others.
Finally the "whiny call" from Apple was only articulated by a Microsoft employee. Call it spin. I would say more likely someone phoned to tell them they would have to update the ads following the recent price cuts - but to them it - and by Rob it was a "whiny call".
BTW in the real world since when did legal representatives just phone to complain? If Apple really was doing this then where is the typed letter in cryptic legalese - Apple are pretty good at sending out cease and desist letters I believe?
The whole premise of his argument is that Microsoft have finally got the "marketing" thing sorted and are now ready to take on the world is great - save for the fact that that is NOT the reason that Apple are succeeding. Rob is looking at all the noise and fury while all the time forgetting that the magicians are actually doing real work in the areas you are ignoring. It is sleight of hand trick but everyone seems to be looking at the magic trick while ignoring where the real work is being done.
The irony of all this is that the so called "successful Laptop Hunter ads" are working wonderfully for the wrong party - Apple may have had a bad May (people were waiting for the new machines) but rumors are surfacing that June was spectacular. Quoting from Philip Elmer DeWitt's site: "Well, the NPD numbers came out and they blew past even his most optimistic expectations. Rather than up 5% in June, as he hoped, they were up a whopping 16%. According to Munster’s second note of the day, that implies sales for the entire quarter of 2.6 million units." So looks like Kevin Turner may have misinterpreted the call. Perhaps Apple legal were calling to warn him that the Microsoft Ad Campaign was actually working - Apple sales were through the roof.
Monday 1 June 2009, 1:36 PM
Bing! goes live.
Today, Microsoft have got around to soft launching their new search engine, Bing! Seems OK although a little bit too noisy for me I find the images distracting but I suppose they had to do something to differentiate themselves from the Google look and feel. But both have a text entry box and some links at the top to select the type of thing you are searching for.
Having played with it I have noticed something though. This was first mentioned in Gizmodo but Boy Genius and others are providing examples although not referring to it directly.
There is an issue when searching news sites with Bing!
The first entry always seems to contain a Microsoft link, irrespective of age of the story. I am hoping that this is a glitch in the initial seeding of data because if it is not then there is NO reason to use Bing! because you will not be able to trust the bias contained within the results.
As I say I really am hoping that this has to do with initial seeding of the search database and not some inbuilt bias from the management.
Having played with it I have noticed something though. This was first mentioned in Gizmodo but Boy Genius and others are providing examples although not referring to it directly.
There is an issue when searching news sites with Bing!
The first entry always seems to contain a Microsoft link, irrespective of age of the story. I am hoping that this is a glitch in the initial seeding of data because if it is not then there is NO reason to use Bing! because you will not be able to trust the bias contained within the results.
As I say I really am hoping that this has to do with initial seeding of the search database and not some inbuilt bias from the management.
Tuesday 12 May 2009, 4:15 PM
Microsoft's "Perfect Storm"
I was going to pass comment on David Meyer's posting about the Zune Phone but actually went off on one and I am thinking that this deserves a blog posting in it's own right.
Microsoft Marketing are probably rubbing their hands with glee at the moment for kicking Apple when it's "down" (must be a headless company without a "leader"). They also seem to be expressing untold joy that we are in a recession and the money is now flowing to them - those in the "cheap" seats. Having run a series of commercials where Microsoft give people money (not quite enough to buy a Mac) and then celebrate the fact they bought a PC. Hey cool, we're cheap.
They've notched it up a gear now by getting a "financial analyst" to tell people it will cost 'em 30,000 bucks to "fill" an iPod. This is neglecting the fact that NOBODY fills their iPod from the iTunes music store. New stuff maybe, but most have a vast catalogue of CDs which they have ripped and no doubt the youngsters still swap copies of music at school. But hey. They are still trying to sell a Zune Pass - give us all your money and we'll let you listen to some music. All music, well all music we can get the rights to. Cheap shot again Microsoft.
So they seem tragically hung up about Apple. You can imagine Ballmer stalking the offices late at night saying "We would have got away with it if it weren't for those damn Apple kids."
So where are they now? How are your Plays for Sure partners doing, Microsoft? You can just never trust 'em. Last night's twitter telling people not to buy an iPhone or Pre in June coz something new is coming is just SO from the Microsoft playbook. Which usually involves waving big flags when people launch stuff and saying "hey you guys, don't look over there look over here". Meanwhile they never actually deliver.
The marketing team think they have hit a perfect storm attack on Apple where as in fact what they have done is just drawn attention to the fact that they lie. They lie with stats, they lie with numbers but when you strip everything away they just downright lie. They have not won this war and yet they keep throwing money at it.
I have started to wonder if the $3.75 billion Microsoft are raising with this debt offering is actually to GIVE Zune phones to every man woman and child in the USA to stop them buying the damn iPhone?
Microsoft Marketing are probably rubbing their hands with glee at the moment for kicking Apple when it's "down" (must be a headless company without a "leader"). They also seem to be expressing untold joy that we are in a recession and the money is now flowing to them - those in the "cheap" seats. Having run a series of commercials where Microsoft give people money (not quite enough to buy a Mac) and then celebrate the fact they bought a PC. Hey cool, we're cheap.
They've notched it up a gear now by getting a "financial analyst" to tell people it will cost 'em 30,000 bucks to "fill" an iPod. This is neglecting the fact that NOBODY fills their iPod from the iTunes music store. New stuff maybe, but most have a vast catalogue of CDs which they have ripped and no doubt the youngsters still swap copies of music at school. But hey. They are still trying to sell a Zune Pass - give us all your money and we'll let you listen to some music. All music, well all music we can get the rights to. Cheap shot again Microsoft.
So they seem tragically hung up about Apple. You can imagine Ballmer stalking the offices late at night saying "We would have got away with it if it weren't for those damn Apple kids."
So where are they now? How are your Plays for Sure partners doing, Microsoft? You can just never trust 'em. Last night's twitter telling people not to buy an iPhone or Pre in June coz something new is coming is just SO from the Microsoft playbook. Which usually involves waving big flags when people launch stuff and saying "hey you guys, don't look over there look over here". Meanwhile they never actually deliver.
The marketing team think they have hit a perfect storm attack on Apple where as in fact what they have done is just drawn attention to the fact that they lie. They lie with stats, they lie with numbers but when you strip everything away they just downright lie. They have not won this war and yet they keep throwing money at it.
I have started to wonder if the $3.75 billion Microsoft are raising with this debt offering is actually to GIVE Zune phones to every man woman and child in the USA to stop them buying the damn iPhone?
Tuesday 28 April 2009, 1:40 PM
Not Such A Vine Idea
Not content with failing miserably with the Zune. Not Happy at failing the search field against Google. Not content not being able to get their touch screen device into a box the size of a table. Microsoft have decided to take down twitter.
Mary-Jo Foley is reporting on the American version of this site that Microsoft are set to launch Vine, a "twitter-like" public notification service.
Hmmmm. At some point can't they go back and sort out the problems with the stuff they have RATHER than push out a whole host of me-too products with a ho hum set of features?
Mary-Jo Foley is reporting on the American version of this site that Microsoft are set to launch Vine, a "twitter-like" public notification service.
Hmmmm. At some point can't they go back and sort out the problems with the stuff they have RATHER than push out a whole host of me-too products with a ho hum set of features?
Monday 27 April 2009, 2:27 PM
Google and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Google have used their mapping technology to track the spread of the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus. An interesting use of the technology though perhaps a little scary. If you are interested you can use the following link to see how things are progressing.
View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
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