WinInfo Short Takes: Week of September 8, 2008

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Paul Thurrott / September 5, 2008


An often irreverent look at some of the week's other news,including the long-awaited back to school season, Microsoft's firstSeinfeld/Gates ad, some EU insights, another Netbook improvement,Opera silliness, and much, much more...WinInfo BlogThe kids wentback to school this week, or as I call it, "the most ...wonderful time ... of the year." They don't share myenthusiasm. Nor my love for the "na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na,hey-hey, goodbye" song. Oh well.
I'm heading to the Seattle area Saturday morning for about a week,and will be visiting the Microsoft campus for a day or two andattending a Microsoft virtualization event. I'm most excited aboutcatching up with friends, however. I haven't been there in a while,which is unusual.
Leo and I recorded another episode of the Windows Weekly podcastthis week. It should be available sometime soon if it isn'talready.http://www.winsupersite.com/paul/podcast.asp
But wait, there more. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter(http://www.twitter.com/thurrott), Friendfeed(http://www.friendfeed.com) and the SuperSite Blog(http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/default.aspx).ShortTakesMicrosoft's First Seinfeld Ad DebutsMicrosoft's first TV adwith comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gatesdebuted last night to mixed reviews. But to be fair, I think it'skind of cute, plus it's only the first in a series of ads, so relaxif you were expecting something more in-your-face. Remember, thisis Seinfeld and Gates we're talking about here. It's like they'regoing to take the "I'm a Mac" guy out back and give him along-overdue beating. (Debates about violence aside, at least admitthat you've considered it.) If you missed the ad on TV--and let'sface it, you did as it was attached to a Giants football game--youcan see it now onYouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afR5J7eskno
A Few Other Thoughts About Microsoft's AdsI've already gotten acrazy number of emails from people asking, "You mean theyspent $300 million on *this*?", referring to theSeinfeld/Gates ad. Come on people, you're better than that. This isjust the opening salvo in a $300 million ad campaign, not the solecommercial. And yeah, TV time is expensive. I suspect we're goingto be seeing a lot of the pair on TV in the weeks ahead. Andhonestly, anything to cut through the Apple noise is welcome atthis point. Microsoft executive Bill Veghte described the ad as an"icebreaker" in an email to Microsoft employeesyesterday. "Telling our story means making significantinvestments to improve the way consumers experience Windows,"he wrote. "To that end, we are focused on making improvementsat practically every consumer touch point, from the moment theyhear about the Windows brand in our advertising to how they learnmore about Windows products online; from how they view Windows andtry it at retail to how they use the entire range of Windowsofferings across their whole life." Exactly.
EU Ruling Against Microsoft Was a 7/6 SplitIt turns out that theEU's antitrust decision against Microsoft in 2007 was a close call.Judges from the EU Court of First Instance narrowly voted to chargethe software giant with antitrust abuses in a vote that was 7 forand 6 against. Since then, of course, Microsoft has settled thecase, but this week's revelation about the closeness of the votehas caused some to opine that Microsoft would have been successfulhad it tried to appeal the decision. (Microsoft did appeal aprevious 2004 ruling that included, among other things, a $720million fine.) And the EU has clearly been emboldened by itssuccess against Microsoft, which I find to be the more importantissue here. EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes, a prominentand over-the-top Microsoft critic, has since announced severalspurious investigations against the software giant. Microsoft,however, remains circumspect about the 2007 decision, and sayssimply that the court's decision was "clear."
Microsoft Increases NetBook Allowances Yet AgainAnd eventually,these things will simply be able to run Windows Vista and we can bedone with this silliness. You may recall that Microsoft hascontinued the sale of Windows XP Home for another year, but only onlow-performance PCs like Netbooks. In order to ensure that XP isn'tbeing used for other types of devices, Microsoft has attached anumber of caveats for the XP license to PC makers, settingrestrictions on various hardware capabilities. But as PC makershave started actually building these things, they've run intovarious technical roadblocks and Microsoft has been veryaccommodating, increasing their limits on various components againand again. The latest example is hard drive size: Previouslyrestricted to 80 GB or smaller, PC makers are now able to use a 160GB hard drive in a so-called Netbook PC if they'd like. Otherlimits, of course, like the 1 GB of RAM or being restricted tolow-performance CPUs, are more serious, and more limiting.
Microsoft's Xbox Moves Aimed at Preserving its Number TwoStatusWhen Microsoft cut the price of its Xbox 360 console, anddramatically, this week, I was ecstatic: The device has been fartoo expensive for far too long, and by keeping the price at theprevious levels for so long, Microsoft has allowed Sony'sPlayStation 3 (PS3) to catch up from a sales perspective. But let'sbe serious here. Microsoft is never going to catch market leaderNintendo. So rather than see the price cuts in that light, I thinkwe should all admit what this is really about: Microsoft would liketo finish off this generation of video game consoles with a secondplace finish. This would improve on its third place finish from theprevious generation, of course. But it would also humiliate Sony,which was previously the dominant player. Can they do it? I have tobe honest here: I don't think so. If anything, I expect Sony tofollow with its own price cuts, and if it has to lose money on thePS3, so be it. Meanwhile, Nintendo doesn't have to do a thing: Atits current price point, the Wii will simply continue todramatically outsell the competition.
You Know It's Time to Give It Up When...So Google unveiled its newChrome Web browser on Tuesday. And as of Thursday, there werealready more people using Chrome than are using the Opera browser.I've often opined that I don't understand the point of Opera, andthat was true back when they charged for it, it was true back whenthey went free, and it's true now. I guess the mobile version isdecent, but seriously. That ship has sailed. It's time to move on.Opera has less than 1 percent market share. It's been aroundforever. It's just not going to happen.
Dell Looking to Dump PC FactoriesBack when Dell was runningroughshod over the PC industry, it built factories all around theworld, seeking to minimize the time between a customer's order andits arrival at their front door, regardless of where they lived.Today, the market dynamics have changed, and while Dell's factoriesare mostly geared towards making desktops, most customers are nowbuying portable computers. So Dell has a plan, and yes, if you knowthe company at all, you know it's all based around the notion ofsaving money. It hopes to sell most of the factories to contract PCmakers who will then make PCs for Dell. And, knowing Dell, I'm surethey'll play these contract PC makers against each other, alwayslooking for the best possible deal. They're fun like that.
Microsoft revamps Windows.comAs was the case with the relaunch ofWindowsLive.com, Microsoft has taken the designer's pen toWindows.com and come up with something really attractive. Check itout, it looks great.http://www.windows.com
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