Microsoft E-Mails: PCs Were Not So Vista-Ready After All
You might
remember
a lawsuit filed claiming that Microsoft labeled PCs as Windows Vista capable
when they were only really capable of running one version of Vista, the low-level
Vista Home Basic.
Well, this week, we found out as part of the suit's legal proceedings that
there was more to the story than just a bit of allegedly misleading marketing.
Apparently, there was something
resembling mass confusion inside Microsoft, including fairly high-ranking
executives -- Mike Nash and Jim Allchin among them -- questioning what on earth
was going on with the whole Vista labeling campaign. One employee even said
in an e-mail that a "piece of junk" PC could still qualify for a Vista
Ready label.
Now, companies screw stuff up all the time, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes
somewhat more intentionally. What seems to have happened at Microsoft sounds
like confusion and disorganization, which, again, isn't unusual in companies
of 70,000 people.
But, it does seem unfortunate that Microsoft apparently did such a poor job
of managing a not-unimportant aspect of the biggest release in years of its
flagship product. The result was, at the very least, confusion among consumers
-- and maybe even (we're speculating here) some confusion among and ill will
from customers toward Microsoft partners as well (if, that is, any customers
have actually decided to deploy Vista).
This little story just makes us wonder what else Microsoft is capable of botching.
In business, especially the software business, the devil is always in the details,
and Microsoft folks should know that by now. We're also not thrilled with the
tone execs took in their e-mails -- check the RCP story linked above
(and here
again). They seem to, first off, not entirely know what's going on, and secondly,
point fingers at underlings for screwing up. Of course, we're just getting tiny
samples here.
In the long run, this little Vista labeling debacle isn't that big of a deal
-- and, of course, no matter what happens, according to RCPU's incontrovertible
law, Microsoft will make more money. But if you're wondering why Vista has been
a mitigated success at best, maybe it's time to start asking questions about
whether Redmond has lost some of its focus, especially on core products. And
maybe it's time to wonder just how capable Microsoft would be of absorbing a
monster like Yahoo after all.
What's your take on Microsoft's Vista labeling fiasco? Do you find that the
company is losing focus? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 14, 2008