technology

advertising / apple / apple news / iPad / iPhone / iPod / microsoft / naming / observatory / steve jobs / technology — 9 Comments
2
Sep 10

Apple hits the high notes

Fans of over-analysis surely enjoyed the rumors about what was going to happen at yesterday’s Apple event. Thankfully, that’s all behind us now. It’s time to start over-analyzing what really happened. Here’s my contribution:

Live streaming. Welcome back! After five years, it was good to see you again. If this was a real-world test of Apple’s new billion-dollar server farm as some speculated, I’d give it a 95% rating. The video was fantastic, except for a few glitches. Just need one little tweak in Server #11,355. (Update: See comment below. This may have been Akamai’s technology, not Apple’s.)

The Perky Factor. Haven’t seen Steve this “on” in a while. He was enthusiastic, animated and funny. That’s entertainment.

iOS 4.1. Kudos for fixing the two unforgiveables: (1) the proximity sensor, and (2) the horrid performance on iPhone 3G. Wireless printing is cool, but I’m most anxious to try out the HDR photo feature. You haven’t gotten me to leave my pocket camera at home yet.

iPod shuffle. Feels like a “do-over.” Has any new iPod ever been larger than the model it replaced? Buttons are back. Remote/earphone combo is gone. Much, much better. Apple design leads the industry, but on occasion it does lead them astray.

iPod nano. Holy cow. Home run. Out of the park. Love it to death. Apple will sell a ton of these in the holiday season. Who among us can resist the lure? Just don’t think you slipped this one by us, Apple: Last year, all your marketing was about the cool new video feature, this year you’ve removed it. We’ll let this one slide, only because it wasn’t real video anyway (not HD) and this mini-touchscreen is just too damn cool.

iPod touch. iPhone 4 set us up for this one. It’s exactly what everyone expected: Retina display, dual cameras and FaceTime. And let’s have a big hand for the A4 chip, which is now powering iPod, iPhone and iPad. Nice and snappy.

iPod prices. Our traditional deal with Apple has always been “more features, same price.” Is it my imagination, or are these prices creeping upward? Cue Darth Vader: “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it further.”

iPod ads. When a company gets big and successful, nobody wants to be the one to screw it up. So you begin to stick with things simply because “they work” — even though the younger, brasher version of yourself wouldn’t have thought twice about shaking things up. The new ads are perfectly fine. They’re just awfully familiar. In fact, the new touch ad (click in the image above and skip to 35:40) is virtually a carbon copy of the 2009 touch ad and the 2008 touch ad — except now FaceTime is added at the end.

iTunes 10. Ping is a huge, huge, huge addition. Until now, Apple has been more of a bystander in social media, and Ping puts them right in the thick of it. Or at least closer to the thick of it. Following friends’ discoveries and following your favorite artists is one of those “why didn’t they think of this before” kind of things. Perfect. I’m already signed up and horrifying my friends with my musical taste.

Zing! Bing! Ping! But can we talk about the Ping thing? Since when does Apple go with a me-too product name? Zing was an embarrassing failure for Dell. Microsoft is putting millions behind Bing at this very moment. Surely there’s a better word in that dictionary somewhere.

AppleTV. Huge step in the right direction, giving us access to Netflix, movies, TV shows, all those good things. $99 is a great price. Its tiny form is impressive, though in practical use not a terrific benefit. It’s still another box with cables sticking out of it. Question: what happens to my current AppleTV? It’s not like Apple to render a product obsolete so quickly. May I have a credit, please?

All in all: great show, Apple. Thank you for a fun and interesting afternoon. Just make sure you terrify the right people in the lead-up to the next show. Your secrets seem to be leaking more and more these days…

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google / observatory / strategy / technology — 4 Comments
26
Aug 10

Battle of the philosophies

Any right-thinking person has to believe that competition is good. As Apple and Google go about thrashing one another, we all reap the benefits. And right up front, I do have to admit (gasp) that I’ve now tried a few Android phones, and in my superficial test drive they felt pretty good.

However, the philosophies behind the platforms remain night and day. To some, this means nothing — legitimately, they may only care about the phone in their hand. To others, it means a lot — because it affects the way they the platform is managed and perceived around the world.

Apple, as many point out, is into the control thing. This is exactly why so many people love their iPhones. Apple guarantees the experience by crafting both the OS and the hardware, and polices the App Store to at least attempt some quality control. The dark side of Apple’s approach is the perception that they are stifling freedom. (225,000 apps be damned.)

The world of Android is very different. Google supplies the OS while a legion of manufacturers compete with one another to make the hardware. This guarantees choice. But the dark side is the potential for fragmentation, where certain phones run certain versions of Android, some are missing features, upgrades can be delayed or unavailable, etc.

In fact, it’s hard to classify this as “potential” anymore. In the short time Android phones have been among us, fragmentation is already rearing its ugly head. PC Magazine just observed that the rollout of Android 2.2 was a mess. To paraphrase:

• The first Android 2.2 (Froyo) upgrades to Droid failed to deliver Flash. An upgrade to the upgrade will shortly fix that.
• The overseas Droid (called Milestone) gets Froyo in late Q4, but only in Europe and Korea. Froyo is “under evaluation” for Canada, Latin America and Mexico.
• Motorola phones with pre-2.1 versions of Android won’t get Froyo anytime soon.
• The Motorola Cliq, Cliq XT and Backflip are waiting for Android 2.1, but the Devour won’t get it.
• Owners of the Droid Incredible are still waiting for their upgrade.
• The brand-spanking-new Dell Streak was delivered with Android 1.6 and won’t get an upgrade till the end of the year.
• Samsung Galaxy phones are expected to get Froyo, but no one knows when.
• The only company to “ace” the Froyo launch was … Google. Nexus One users got their upgrades back at the end of June.

Like I said, none of this matters if you love the phone in your hand and could care less about the guy sitting next to you. But if you’re a fan of simplicity — or even democracy — it’s hard not to be turned off by the fragmentation of Android.

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microsoft / strategy / technology — 7 Comments
12
Aug 10

Microsoft goes Mac-sniping

After playing the part of punching bag in the Apple’s long-running Mac vs. PC campaign, then fighting back with a peashooter in its own I’m a PC campaign, Microsoft is on the warpath. With a new section in their website entitled PC versus Mac, they’re turning the volume all the way up to 7.

Before we pause to read, let us enjoy the accoutrements. While most web pages display a window title, Microsoft actually crams a mini-ad into that tiny space — complete with a double-dose of “more.” You can almost hear the marketing chief exhorting his troops, “Make every pixel on this page sell!”

As you can see above, the navigation area atop the main image does a perfect job of differentiating PC from Mac. It’s a mess. We get two navigation bars (awkwardly spaced), four tabs, a “Were you looking for?” pop-up and an ill-placed, barely noticeable “PC versus Mac” title. Appropriately, the woman’s face seems to be saying, “No, really, I’m glad to see you — I just didn’t have a chance to clean up.”

Well it’s August, maybe the web designers are on holiday. Let’s just skip directly to the content. Like Apple’s Why you’ll love a Mac pages, Microsoft breaks its story down into bite-size chunks. Do they pass or fail?

1. Macs might spoil your fun.
Microsoft makes a point that in the universe of PCs, you can find models that have Blu-ray, TV tuners, 3G wireless, and the ability to connect to Xbox and TV. Can’t do that on a Mac. Fair enough. Pass.

2. Macs can take time to learn.
This section boldly states, “The computer that’s easiest to use is typically the one you already know. While some may say Macs are easy, the reality is that they can come with a learning curve.” It’s been a while since I’ve seen logic as lame. This is like telling the stick-shift owner that automatic transmissions are easier, but they come with a learning curve. Of course they do. Everything in life has a learning curve. Once you learn, it might just make what’s left of your life more pleasant. Fail.

3. Macs don’t work as well at work or at school.
This isn’t just a scare tactic, it’s at odds with Microsoft’s own business. Here we are warned that it can be difficult to share files with PC users if you use Apple’s productivity suite. No mention that if you use Microsoft’s own fabulous Office for Mac, you get seamless compatibility guaranteed by Microsoft itself. Ugly fail.

4. Macs don’t like to share.
 I never knew it was hard to share on a Mac until I read this. I share things instantly and effortlessly all day. Whatever setup was required was so insignificant I don’t remember it. Fail.

5. Macs might not like your PC stuff.
Here, we discover that files from Apple’s productivity suite won’t open on a PC. Hey wait a second. Didn’t they just say that? Oh, and if there is a Mac version of the software you want, you’ll have to buy it again and relearn it. Uh… buy it again, yes. Relearn it, no. Double fail for redundancy.

6. Macs don’t let you choose.
This section starts by saying “PCs give you a lot more choice and capabilities for your money.” Interestingly, they never mention the money part again, even though it’s probably their strongest argument. Instead, it’s all about Blu-ray, TV tuner (didn’t we already discuss this already too?) and all the colors you can choose from besides Apple’s white or silver (watch it pal, that’s aluminum!). Fail.

The beauty of Apple’s famous-but-now-defunct Mac vs. PC campaign was its tone of voice. With humor, it delivered a very aggressive message without making Apple sound nasty. On Apple’s website — then and now — the comparisons to PCs are presented positively (“It’s designed to be a better computer,” “It’s compatible with your stuff,” etc.). Microsoft’s tone is far less appealing — you might even say whiny and threatening.

I don’t knock Microsoft for creating these pages. They have a business, and they need to stop the growing number of defectors in their tracks. However, I will say that some artful writing would have helped. A lot.

They might have waited till the designers got back from vacation, too.

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apple / observatory / technology — 4 Comments
3
Aug 10

Agitated over arrogance

Didn’t realize I’d strike such a nerve with my recent post about Apple’s arrogance. The flood of comments gave my database a pretty good workout.

I thought a number of responses were comment-worthy in themselves. A few of my faves:

No one forces you to purchase an iPod, iMac, iPhone or iPad if you don’t want one … Purchasing one means you understand some of the constraints and some of the liberties inherent in the device. — Steve516
Right you are, Steve. We all get that Apple exerts more control than other technology companies. We also get that for most people, the result is a more satisfying, liberating experience. Lapel-pin versions of this comment should be distributed far and wide.

In 2008, Steve said iPhone don’t need multitasking and video chat. In 2010, these are main features. All fan boys just followed him 2008, just said hey why do you need multitasking in iPhone. — Vijay
Score one for the anti-Apples. Steve Jobs does have a history of dismissing an idea, only to embrace it later. “Nobody wants to watch movies on an iPod” is a famous one. And yes, many Apple enthusiasts blindly follow. (One day we must learn to speak without getting the script from Cupertino first.) However fun it may be to talk about the sheepish flock, it has nothing to do with the merits of Apple products. So this complaint falls under the category of “I hate Apple users” rather than “I hate Apple products.” Argument dismissed.

What is undeniable is that Apple evokes strong emotion. In my experience there are very few people who have a neutral standing on Apple’s methods and products. And that is part of their success. If you try to please everyone you produce policies and products which evoke no strong emotion, no attachment. — Haight Moar
 Bingo. Both of these points capture the essence of Apple. Apple ignites passion, be it love or hate. It’s a level of public interest that is incredibly rare, and almost impossible to achieve by calculation. I’ll go out on a limb here and say you probably reacted differently to iPhone 4 than you did to the Microsoft Kin. Apple is open about the fact that they don’t try to please everyone — they try to please themselves, believing that what gets them fired up will get customers fired up too. It might sound cocky, but it produces better products than a focus group.

Hack your phones until they scream. Nobody cares. Just leave mine alone. It works fine. You can draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa, but that wouldn’t improve it. — Notablogger
 Just as Antennagate is a far bigger deal for tech bloggers than it is for customers, so is the notion that Apple is manically restrictive. Customers fall in love with a beautiful device that does amazing things, period. It’s hard to convince people they’re being deprived when they’re staring at a library of 225,000 apps.

[Edited for English] The lens in your observatory is of colored glass, rather than a pure glass lens. It shows everything painted in some color, say red, and u see everything as reddish. You cannot see the truth. And worse, sometimes your observatory becomes blind! — kabeer
Damn, you caught me red-handed. There I go seeing things through that annoying lens of my own experience. Surely things would be simpler if I could suppress my time working with executive teams at Apple, Dell, Intel, IBM, Compaq and others, or those long days toiling on both PCs and Macs. Maybe then the truth would be revealed!

Just because a business practice makes stock prices go up does not mean it is the best practice. There is far more involved in the thriving of the human race than profit-making. — Barry
Very true, Barry. But you direct your criticism at the wrong company. Any self-respecting Apple detractor will laugh at the notion, but Apple does have a different philosophy about profit. They’re guided by the belief that if they focus on making great products, profit will naturally result. Most companies find it impossible to move profit down a notch in the priority list.

What do you haters want? … You want us to admit Apple isn’t perfect? I admit, they screw up sometimes. — Vent
Yep, Apple has made mistakes. Some have been whoppers. But if you live in fear of making a mistake, you’ll never do anything great. Most companies are so constrained by processes set up to prevent failure, and so unwilling to accept risk, they rarely create world-changing products.

There is barely anything new – Just bringing everyday technology to the unaware masses. So yea, I kinda agree that they’re a sales company, not really a leading tech place. — Raghav
 How many times have we heard this one before. How simple it is to do what Apple does. They don’t invent anything, they just—

Hey, wait a second. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. If Apple can make billions of dollars simply by bringing everyday technology to the unaware, why don’t we just start a company and do the same thing? How hard can that be? We’ll be rich! Who’s with me?

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observatory / strategy / technology — 98 Comments
22
Jul 10

The ever-arrogant Apple

Following the Antennagate news conference, certain critics quickly concluded that Apple was acting like its usual arrogant self.

I couldn’t agree more.

How dare Apple think they can make this problem go away with a free case that makes the problem go away. They need to suffer more than that.

This company was practically founded on arrogance. Imagine, two guys in a garage thinking they could out-compute companies like IBM and HP. In later years, they’d tell us to abandon the standard PC interface and use some silly mouse to control our computers. With smug superiority, they’d cut out the floppy disk we’d come to love. Errgh.

If only we thought to stop them then.

Because it wasn’t long after that Apple — a company without any real consumer electronics experience — had the gall to build the music player that Sony or some better-qualified company should have built. This self-appointed savior of the music business somehow seduced the record companies with an online music store that forces us all to go along with “their vision” of how music should be sold.

With iPhone, Apple took its arrogance to an extreme. They marched right into a market owned by big, successful global companies like Motorola and Nokia, believing they could “school them” by reimagining the smartphone. How self-important can a company get?

Then came iPad, where Apple’s arrogantly arrogant take on arrogance was laid bare for all to see. This is pure Apple, telling us they can do what Microsoft and others had failed to do for a decade before. Overnight, they create a new category and expect us to follow their vision for the future of computing? And suck us into making even more purchases at the iTunes Store?

It’s gotten to the point where Apple doesn’t even try to disguise their arrogance. They’re a company that creates devices other companies should have created, follows standards only when it pleases them, shuns research to create only the products they’d like to use themselves  — and then won’t even let outsiders tamper with the platforms they’ve created!

Look what they’ve done to poor Adobe, yanking away their right to spend more than three years figuring out how to run Flash on mobile devices. Look what they’ve done to the world’s developers, telling them to write specifically for iPhone rather than just port over apps designed for less capable phones. Compounding their sin, they have the unrelenting gall to insist that apps meet some basic standards for quality and reliability. With their “our way or the highway” attitude, Apple takes choice away from customers, forcing them to settle for a library of only 225,000 apps.

In my mind, Apple is just another in a long list of companies who make the mistake of following their own vision — like Porsche or Nike. Whatever happened to just fitting in?

Obviously, Apple’s excessive arrogance will be their downfall. Never mind that their market share has been so rapidly increasing for so long in so many categories. Or that Apple’s business model produces vastly more profit than those of other technology companies. Chalk that up to good fortune.

One day all the sheep under Steve Jobs’ spell will wake up and demand that Apple act more like other technology companies. Then at last iPhones can be more like Droids, Macs can be more like PCs and Apple can enjoy the PC makers’ perennial sense of economic doom. Apple shareholders will finally be able to rejoice in an investment that avoids such dizzying heights.

That’s the way it oughta be.

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advertising / creative / technology — 19 Comments
16
Jul 10

Droid does coolness

Okay, so I’m a day late with this one. Just wanted to drool a bit over the Droid X teaser commercial that ran the night before yesterday’s launch.

I have to admit, this spot hooked me.

I’ve knocked Droid ads in the past for being 99% testosterone with little appeal to the female audience. I wouldn’t make the same criticism of this spot — it’s beautifully produced and, lo and behold, it actually has a story. The soundtrack is perfect. Mercifully absent are the cheesy effects and robot-macho trash talk.

Consistent with Droid’s we’re-not-Apple approach, no spot could be as far removed from Apple’s touchy-feely FaceTime spots as this. While Apple touts babies and relationships, Droid is on a cold, hard quest to uncover new technologies. I’m not saying Apple will suffer for it, only that the two worlds are night and day — just the way Droid likes it.

Bear in mind, this spot is just a teaser. Who knows what the full campaign will look like, but we can safely assume it won’t feature grandma and her new kitten.

I haven’t yet gotten to play with a Droid X, but from what I see of it online, it will give iPhone a run for its money. The huge screen looks amazing, though I’m curious to find out what that means for battery life. The fact that it’s available on Verizon puts even more pressure on Apple at a time when they’ve got their hands full with, uh, other issues.

In the meantime, I’m a sucker for a good story — and this spot does its job well. Kudos to whoever created it. Great work. (If anyone knows who the culprits are, I’d be happy to give them credit here.)

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apple news / strategy / technology — 11 Comments
15
Jul 10

The great mystery of Apple’s stumble

There are a few reasons I respect Apple as I do.

Corny as it sounds, the biggest one is that they believe in “doing the right thing.” In my experience, other companies believe they share this value, but frequently confuse the right thing with “the most cost-efficient thing” or “the least controversial thing.” Apple focuses on the customer experience and makes decisions accordingly — even when the cost is high.

That’s the Apple I know. It’s also the Apple that, for reasons unknown, has taken the last few weeks off.

The good news is, there is now a press conference set for Friday morning. We can safely assume Steve will explain what’s happened and tell us how Apple is going to set things straight. It’s important to note that this is being billed as a press conference, which is something I’ve never seen Apple do before. That means they’ll be taking questions from the assembled press, and those questions are sure to be pointed. This is brave, but also necessary. By their own action and inaction, Apple’s “got some splainin’ to do.”

I’m confident that sanity will be restored. The bigger question is, how did sanity slip away in the first place?

Personally, I cannot imagine that Apple — or any company — could possibly design antennae in such a radical way without being aware of what happens when a human hand bridges the gap.

My theory is that Apple did what they’ve always done so well in the past. They looked at the total product design and made the tradeoffs necessary to create the best possible iPhone. What they gained by this design — a 24% thinner phone that gives most users better reception — seemed like a good tradeoff.

In hindsight, of course, that seems terribly naive. Apple attracts way too much scrutiny for such things to go unnoticed. They created a lose-lose situation for themselves. It appeared that they either didn’t have a clue about antenna engineering or they tried to slip one past us. This wasn’t just an opening for the anti-Apple crowd — it was a disappointment for Apple customers used to the pursuit of perfection.

Anyone looking for evidence that Apple knew about the flaw from the start would point to Exhibit A: the bumper. A few designer cases aside, Apple hasn’t dabbled too much in cases before, yet bumpers were a part of iPhone 4 from the start. This could be perfectly innocent — it just looks suspicious given what’s happened.

So why didn’t Apple handle this better? Why would their response be an open letter (not written by Steve) that reeked of a company avoiding responsibility? For those experiencing dropped calls, the display of bars is hardly the issue. A software fix alone seemed laughably inadequate, and terribly un-Apple.

Why didn’t Apple do what they’ve done before? Steve personally responded to the original iPhone pricing fiasco by offering $100 gift cards to those who overpaid in the first three months. Why didn’t they offer iPhone 4 buyers something as substantial?

Personally, I believe lack of “substantial” has been the hold-up. That iPhone 4 open letter was their attempt to calm the torch-carrying masses at a time when they literally had nothing substantial to offer. The engineers hadn’t yet solved the design issue for future iPhones. Bumpers were back-ordered, so Apple couldn’t even reasonably suggest them as a fix. They may well have gotten themselves into a situation where there wasn’t a viable “right thing to do.”

But Steve has one power that few CEOs have. He can make things happen, even if they don’t seem possible. So I believe all the pieces are now in place for Apple to respond as we wished they would have responded earlier. I expect them to get back into to the right-thing business on Friday. It will be expensive, probably involving $50 gift cards or free bumpers to those who’ve already bought — and a no-questions return policy for those about to buy. Obviously it will also involve a plan to address the design flaw in manufacturing.

The great shame of this is that iPhone 4 is an amazing bit of technology. I have experienced no reception issues with mine. It’s one of those devices that makes me happier every day. Despite the feeding frenzy in the mainstream press and blogosphere, there is no iPhone 4 user revolt. People aren’t flooding the Apple Stores to get their money back. What we have is a huge number of happy customers being bombarded by stories telling them they shouldn’t be so happy. I’m not sure there’s any parallel in consumer product history.

I don’t mean to downplay this. The iPhone antenna issue is a problem that needed fixing yesterday. But there is an art to turning negatives into positives, and Apple is pretty good at it. I hope Apple sees this as another opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction — and another opportunity to do the right thing.

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advertising / creative / strategy / technology — 8 Comments
13
Jul 10

iPhone 4: the show must go on

Apple’s new batch of iPhone 4 ads come at a most interesting time.

iPhones continue to sell like, well, iPhones — yet that thorny little reception issue keeps getting more complicated. Antenna experts debate, competitors take advantage and now even Consumer Reports lobs a grenade, apparently landing a direct hit on Apple’s sense of sportsmanship.

Let the battles rage, I say. For the moment there are new ads to review, and it’s our holy duty to answer the call.

There are four new ads in total, joining the first ad that’s been running for a while now. Like that first spot, the new ones focus on one thing and one thing only: FaceTime. That’s the killer feature, and Apple (thanks to agency TBWA\Chiat\Day) communicates with the simplicity and clarity it’s known for.

There’s a ton of humanity in each of the new spots. In fact, if you don’t take them in moderation, you may suffer an overdose of humanity.

It’s an old joke in marketing that babies and puppies are the only sure-fire hits with customers. Of the four new iPhone spots, one is about a newborn and another is about a baby-to-come. Hmm.

Here’s a quick review of each of the spots:

Meet Her. A new dad uses his iPhone to give his own father a first look at his baby girl. Touching script. Grandpa plays the part perfectly. Heavy on the sap factor, but looks great. Nice touch that the beautiful baby is confined to the mini-screen while we concentrate on the bigger image of gramps.

Haircut. This is a real charmer. It doesn’t set out so obviously to tug at your heartstrings, it’s just an everyday story — which actually makes it more powerful. You don’t feel like you’ve been “played” after you see it. You totally get how iPhone could change the way you communicate.

Smile. This spot succeeds in the same way Haircut does. Not at all heavy-handed, it’s just a moment in life made more touching by iPhone. The girl with the braces is sweet and plays the part perfectly, melting under dad’s gentle pressure in the span of 30 seconds.

Big News. Unfortunately, no matter how cool FaceTime is, you can’t help but think it’s sad that dad-to-be is getting the most important news of his life via iPhone. If the happy couple has really “been working on ‘that thing’ for a while now,” I can think of a few better ways to share this moment.

One technical quibble with these spots is the hand. In Meet Her, it feels totally natural. It moves. It’s real. In the other three spots, it’s like a piece of acrylic — unnaturally perfect and motionless, save a little shifting that appears to be added after the fact. I wonder why all the spots couldn’t have been produced with the reality of Meet Her.

I imagine these ads will work well for Apple, especially in the touchy situation they’ve created with the antenna. Connecting emotionally with customers is the best insulation against damage, and that’s been Apple’s strength for eons.

I will only note that with Apple’s transition from perennial underdog to market leader, its consumer image seems to be evolving from human & cool to human & sappy. Doubtful that Apple will slide headlong into the Hallmark Zone — but when two out of four spots are about babies and fatherhood, the puppies can’t be far behind.

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strategy / technology — 5 Comments
1
Jul 10

The brief life of Microsoft Kin

Not a good day for Microsoft Kin

For anyone keeping score, Microsoft’s dual-disaster Kin One and Kin Two phones managed to breathe on their own for a mere 48 days. Not even enough time to have a litter of puppies.

Sources said “disappointing sales.” One can only imagine what those numbers looked like.

It’s not like this comes as a surprise. You could smell disaster in the initial press release. I blogged once about the lunacy initially, and then again when research confirmed that the target audience wasn’t interested. But hey, I was just a singer in the chorus — these phones were ridiculed pretty much everywhere.

The big question is, how does something like this happen? How could Microsoft just put on the blinders and so enthusiastically fling itself off of a cliff?

A favorite pastime among agency people is looking at some of the wretched ads out there and wondering how on earth they ever got through all the internal checkpoints at the agency, and then again at the client. Somehow, unfathomably, blatantly bad ideas don’t always get shot down. In fact, sometimes they are lovingly embraced. Generously, we can call this human error.

But marketers hardly have the exclusive on inexcusable lapses. Hollywood occasionally serves up those delicious combinations of bad casting and bad script — movies that would be instantly rejected by any amateur moviemaker, yet somehow glide from pitch to production to distribution.

So what’s Microsoft’s problem? Untalented managers? Oblivious CEO? Bad research? Engadget is running a story about what happened behind the scenes with Kin, a story that involves a mid-project OS change and a resulting 18-month delay.

Yeah, fine. But I’m sorry, Kin was just bad casting and a bad script. Kin was based on the idea that “young socials” (teens and 20s) would spark to a less-capable phone “made just for them” — when every young person I know is lusting for an iPhone, Droid or whatever. They want text messaging, apps and games — all of which were mysteriously missing in Kin. The one thing they do not want is “My First Sony.”

Inexplicably, Microsoft thought Kin was a good idea. It wasn’t. In fact, it wasn’t even close, which is why it died faster than any product I can remember. For a company in this industry not to recognize the utter wrongness of Kin is even more unforgivable than creating it.

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technology — 3 Comments
30
Jun 10

iPhone 4 gets Kubricked

Didn’t take too long for someone to prove iPhone 4 makes a pretty good movie studio. Amazing, considering it will only cost you $199/$299 for the iPhone and $4.99 for iMovie. Well, okay, you do have to spring for the actors… and the composer… and the rigging… and the lighting… and the formalwear for Oscar night… but still.

(See the “making of” video here.)

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