tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post111127090532653959..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: Terrible Lizard, Terrible MarketingWho da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1146846580730909102006-05-05T09:29:00.000-07:002006-05-05T09:29:00.000-07:00Quote:Do us a favor - don't join the Office team o...Quote:<BR/>Do us a favor - don't join the Office team or anything else to do with product stategy or marketing. Hint: Office -> Home. Home <- Office. Get it? See the difference? How about coming up with MS Home and the bundle of products that would make it as successful in that discrete market as Office has been in orgs?<BR/><BR/>Response:<BR/>People do work-related things at home, and they do home-related things at work. They need to be able to share their documents and data between multiple PCs in multiple locations for ONE LOW PRICE. They need to be able to share data and documents with friends and family members who may or may not have the same software products or versions.<BR/><BR/>Most of the "extra" features are useless annoyances, on the same level as Clippy. Tell the marketing guys to come out with a slimmed-down and simple-to-use version of Office that SMB and corporate buyers can buy AND legally give a (single) copy to employees to use at home. Make it able to seamlessly read and write OOo, ODF, WP, and Works file formats without any extra configuration. If they do that, MS won't ever have to worry about competitors products.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1113436409743849122005-04-13T16:53:00.000-07:002005-04-13T16:53:00.000-07:00> Hint: Office -> Home. Home > Office. Get it? See...> Hint: Office -> Home. Home <- <BR/>> Office. Get it? See the difference? <BR/><BR/>No. Like most people I have a Home Office where I write documents (letters and documents for my after-work activities) and create spreadsheets (typically to analyze/manage some part of my personal finances). I sometimes work on these files at work as well as home. I also want to edit my documents & spreadsheets using the same UI at work and home. Does any of this sound unreasonable or esoteric?<BR/><BR/>I don't qualify for the student version of Office and I'm not forking out serious cash for a full version of the latest Office. MS Works comes oh so close with its full version of Word but it has a lame spreadsheet application.<BR/><BR/>Office 97 fits the bill perfectly. It does everything I've ever needed at home, it interoperates with the fancy schmancy Office at work and has a similar UI, but best of all the standard edition is dirt cheap on eBay.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1112541506050580852005-04-03T08:18:00.000-07:002005-04-03T08:18:00.000-07:00Thanks for your generosity.http://web.elastic.org/...Thanks for your generosity.<BR/>http://web.elastic.org/~fche/blog2/archive/2005/03/30/thank_you_microsoftAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111596005411845612005-03-23T08:40:00.000-08:002005-03-23T08:40:00.000-08:00"Its funny - NONE of my neighbors run Office or ev..."Its funny - NONE of my neighbors run Office or even Outlook"<BR/><BR/>Do us a favor - don't join the Office team or anything else to do with product stategy or marketing. Hint: Office -> Home. Home <- Office. Get it? See the difference? How about coming up with MS Home and the bundle of products that would make it as successful in that discrete market as Office has been in orgs?. True, we might have to invest some cycles actually talking with Home users vs sitting on our asses in Redmond, and - imagine- we might even have to come up with some innovative new apps since even slimmed down rehashes of corporate worker software isn't likely going to blow anyone's hair back (your neighbors do a lot of spreadsheets at home?). Jesus, half the people in this company spend the majority of their energy thinking about how to cram existing products down people's throats regardless of whether they fit or are wanted, instead of doing the research to understand what people really need/want and then building products that address that. On the Office side, we should be thinking about creating the product that obsoletes Office - not just cramming more features into the existing one. The latter isn't working very well in case you hadn't noticed and while we're busy doing a circle-jerk, someone else if thinking about that Office-replacement product.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111565205247891662005-03-23T00:06:00.000-08:002005-03-23T00:06:00.000-08:00I know! The marketing campaign is an homage to Nat...I know! The marketing campaign is an homage to Nathan Myhrvold hahahaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111467668161516122005-03-21T21:01:00.000-08:002005-03-21T21:01:00.000-08:00Office is definitely a victin of its own success.....Office is definitely a victin of its own success... I think we should definitely go for the leaner ad meaner package, cheaper too, to flood the market with good feature set (perhaps a feature subset of what we have now - but not like the "Starter Edition XP" joke - who EVER thought about THAT idea???).<BR/><BR/>If we got something cheaper out there that people can afford, perhaps make it for end users only - we'd raise a lot of hell with "Open" alternatives. And I don't mean Works either. Package Outlook, Word and Excel, trim it down of fat, ship it. Recycle electrons!<BR/><BR/>Its funny - NONE of my neighbors run Office or even Outlook. Nobody. Its just too expensive for mere mortals. Heck I would not run it if I did not have a employee discount! Outlook 2003 is nice but not THAT nice.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111459853094712542005-03-21T18:50:00.000-08:002005-03-21T18:50:00.000-08:00Whew, okay, removed the duplicate postings that ap...Whew, okay, removed the duplicate postings that appeared over and over. Yes, I think the Blogger commenting system (recently revised) has some usability problems that case multiple postings by accident.Who da'Punkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111288354554636322005-03-19T19:12:00.000-08:002005-03-19T19:12:00.000-08:00Heh, I'm not EVERYWHERE and Dare I'm not talented ...Heh, I'm not EVERYWHERE and Dare I'm not talented enough to write Mini-Microsoft.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111285620181746792005-03-19T18:27:00.000-08:002005-03-19T18:27:00.000-08:00There's some problem with the Blogger tool - I kee...There's some problem with the Blogger tool - I keep getting an Error page when I try to post. The post shows up on this page multipe times, but not at all on the home page. Doh!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111285397332958672005-03-19T18:23:00.000-08:002005-03-19T18:23:00.000-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111284959210861312005-03-19T18:15:00.001-08:002005-03-19T18:15:00.001-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111284951078468302005-03-19T18:15:00.000-08:002005-03-19T18:15:00.000-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111284870687670902005-03-19T18:14:00.001-08:002005-03-19T18:14:00.001-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111284846280141952005-03-19T18:14:00.000-08:002005-03-19T18:14:00.000-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111284836602583162005-03-19T18:13:00.000-08:002005-03-19T18:13:00.000-08:00Great post! You nailed it with your comment:"They...Great post! You nailed it with your comment:<BR/><BR/>"They can't see any reason to upgrade to Office 2003."<BR/><BR/>Is may be a problem for Microsoft if customers don't need more features, but it's not a problem for customers. If that's the tough reality Microsoft faces, maybe it's time to steer the Titanic off the course of the Features Iceberg, and instead strip out the crap nobody wants or uses.<BR/><BR/>Hmm, here's a good solution:<BR/><BR/>"Let's slim down Microsoft (Office) into a lean, mean, efficient customer pleasing profit making machine! Mini-Microsoft (Office), Mini-Microsoft (Office), lean-and-mean!"<BR/><BR/>What if Outlook was stripped down to only the features David Allen recommends? What if PowerPoint was stripped down to only the features Cliff Atkinson recommends? You'd have a passionate base of customers buying those leaner and meaner products, that help them apply a useful methodology rather than Microsoft's feature-obsession.<BR/><BR/>I would be first in line to buy it, and I'm sure a few million more customers would too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111280630187744692005-03-19T17:03:00.000-08:002005-03-19T17:03:00.000-08:00No, I don't think the last point is that blogging ...No, I don't think the last point is that <I>blogging</I> is the answer. I think it is releasing power-tools and examples that leverage the latest software - like a labs.office.microsoft.com. Something like that <I>might</I> get customers excited about the latest software, but I seriously doubt Microsoft would ever get a light-weight process approved to release such tools and examples.<BR/><BR/>But blogging is too disparate to really get customers excited about Office. <I>Maybe</I> analysts. It's more like pissing in the wind, though. You need a central place to go to.<BR/><BR/>This guy doesn't post enough to be Scoble-rific.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1111275553553636682005-03-19T15:39:00.000-08:002005-03-19T15:39:00.000-08:00Wow, The Office guys actually come up with an inno...Wow, <BR/><BR/>The Office guys actually come up with an innovative campaign that actually talks about the new features of Office instead of feel good platitudes and you reject it only to suggest "blogging is the answer". When did Scoble take over writing this blog? <BR/><BR/>-- DareAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com