Microsoft shutting down MSN Soapbox

Oh, it was gonna be MUCH more than Microsoft's answer to youtube. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9003718/Opinion_Why_Microso... "Microsoft will make the movement of media between Windows, Soapbox and the Zune natural and seamless. […] Apple faces the prospect of competing not with the Zune alone, but with a mighty Windows-Soapbox-Xbox-Zune industrial complex." As noted today on http://daringfireball.net/. I especially like the "mighty" part. As we like to say here........ LOL!

There was nothing unique about soapbox and it was never properly marketed by Microsoft.

Here's an exmaple of a "cloud" service that ends up screwing their customers in the end. The perception that "if it's in the cloud it's there forever" is fallacious, and many people don't realize that. My boss included.

"it was never properly marketed by Microsoft." Nothing ever is from them. They spend all this extra money on advertising and we get these lame arse laptop hunter ads. The first few bing ads were pretty good, and the Jerry and Bill thing while completely unrelated to anything Microsoft were funny. Mean while Apple reports a record quarter yesterday. I guess all that crap everyone talked on this blog the other day in the Apple phone call blog post, can eat a big slice of humble pie. Comments like this are just funny "sjaak327 said: LOL, the lower shipping of mac's pretty much worldwide (apparently around 12% drop) must hurt. This in sharp contrast to the only 3% drop of all brands combined. I guess in economic bad times, people choose a normal priced alternative." I wonder what the numbers will look like from HP and Dell? Or how about Microsofts PC sales numbers? Microsoft needs to turn the ship around on the Apple tax/Laptop hunter ads since people don't care according to Apples last quarter, especially in this economy.

I find with Microsoft makes "answers" that they usually are over-marketed. For instance. Take Bing's News. There's News search, but when one just wants todays headlines, one has to click on the MSN link, then click on MSN news link - oh wrong link - back to MSN .. now which one is news .. oh that one. . wading through that busy MSN page and all the hype and diets and celebrities. How about just a news headline page for Bing? But that's just one example. When MSN search first came out, one had to wade through all the marketing making the search service useless especially when one was on a slower connection. No wonder Google won - simple - quick loading even on dial-up .. Microsoft take note: people don't want to wade through marketing and celebrity stories and diets when they want to get things done. Even back to the early days of Active Desktop and Push technologies, there were all these "Partners" and a whole lot of hype. People don't want it and if you curse your projects with it the projects will remain second rate, two-bit, has been efforts .. like Active Desktop. I've visited Soap box. The interface was over-engineered and busy, Busy Busy Busy and not personallized. Youtube is personalized. So when one looks at a video, one can learn a lot about the video maker and find out what other videos he/she/it has done. Busy, over engineered, impersonal, difficult to use, no wonder it's flopping.

" "it was never properly marketed by Microsoft." Nothing ever is from them. They spend all this extra money on advertising and we get these lame *** laptop hunter ads." Oh, and speaking of those laptop hunter ads, the ones that are just killing Apple and the ones Apple is pleading with Microsoft about, "Apple laptop sales surged 25% in June, says NPD" http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135747/Apple_laptop_sales_surged... Keep running the ads, Microsoft. Keep doing "cartwheels down the hall".

chuck, how about you use the real figures from Apple's earnings report which show Mac sales only increased by 4% year-on-year. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10292380-37.html

RobertC, Sure. Apple's overall Mac sales are up 4%, laptops up 25%. Either statement is true. At least, it's what NPD says. The separate laptop data was to make the point about the supposed effectiveness of the infamous "Laptop Hunter" ads. It seems they haven't' had the effect that Paul so desperately wishes them to have. The thing that we know is NOT true is the nonsense Paul so breathlessly touted a week ago about Apple's sales being down 12%. That's not "data", it is the misinformed speculation of a 3rd party. There was a range of speculation---and that's all they were---and Paul quoted the lowest one, presenting it as a fact. I'm sure he knew better, but that's what you get from him. We can agree or disagree on matters of opinion, but we ought to agree on data. For example, I never dispute Paul's repeated reiterations of Apple's marketshare of 3.5%, or whatever it is when you count all the cash registers running WIndows. Of course, he never notes that Apple's market cap is now 67% (or something like that) of Microsoft's.

"I never dispute Paul's repeated reiterations of Apple's marketshare of 3.5%, or whatever it is when you count all the cash registers running WIndows." In the same sentence you say you never dispute these figures, then you go ahead and throw out something that disputes the validity of the figure. FWIW, I don't think Paul ever really speaks of the market cap of companies. I don't think anyone has any doubt that Apple or MS make a lot of money (well, some extremists do like RJ), so it kind of is an irrelevant statistic. Apple will be around for a long, long time. They have continued to have success, and that's great! I don't have a problem with Apple as a company. I just have a problem with the CEO and the ardent fanatics. It's like you guys need an affirmation every time Apple has a good quarter, to somehow prove that all of your MS trash talking and Apple lifting has been worthwhile. That's why you guys stick it in our faces at every opportunity.

Dipsh!t, ""I never dispute Paul's repeated reiterations of Apple's marketshare of 3.5%, or whatever it is when you count all the cash registers running WIndows." In the same sentence you say you never dispute these figures, then you go ahead and throw out something that disputes the validity of the figure." No, I don't dispute the 3.5% number, although I may misunderstand how it is determined. I was under the impression that the worldwide sales of Windows DO include cash registers, ATMs, etc that run Windows. If I'm wrong I stand corrected. To determine a percentage we need both a numerator and a denominator. The numerator is easy.....the number of Macs. The denominator is what? Windows PCs that are laptops and desktops? Plus ATMs and cash machines? If they're included or not, how much difference does that make? I'm not sure, and the sarcasm was merely to make the point that marketshare is just --A-- number that matters, not the ONLY number that matters. Apple out performed the PC market in growth 18 of the last 19 quarters....another statistic that has little meaning without context. Paul always throws out the holy grail of marketshare without context because it pleases him to denigrate Apple. And that of course is my persistent complaint, "reporting" about Apple that is unbalanced (marketshare without context) or just WRONG (the supposed 12% decline in Apple sales).

"I don't have a problem with Apple as a company. I just have a problem with the CEO" Um, what? So the Nazi "Steve-Heil" guy at WWDC doesn't get on your nerves? The CEO leads the company, and most of the workers carry the same credo.

"That's why you guys stick it in our faces at every opportunity." OH, come on. Paul insisted just a week ago (in a so-called "news" story) that Apple was failing miserably because they don't sell a netbook. WTF? Show me one company whose sales and profits are soaring from low-margin netbook sales. Honestly, why does anyone take this guy seriously? IIRC, it was Paulie who wrote, "What this all adds up to is obvious: When the economy goes south, so do sales of unnecessary and expensive gadgets. And that, dear reader, is pretty much Apple's core business, when you think about it." THAT is "sticking it in our faces". It's snark disguised as news, uninformed opinion disguised as analysis, and self-serving wishful thinking shouted into an echo chamber of nodding dittoheads. Paul could not have been more wrong, but his eager partisans gobbled it up like ravenous kids at a Chuck E Cheese party. Yeah, Apple's stunning "failure" this quarter was "obvious". Right. Instead of failure, Apple had their best non-holiday quarter in their history. Paul's transformation into Rob Enderle is now complete. These two are the tech equivalent of CNBC...putting the "anal" in "analysis".

"Show me one company whose sales and profits are soaring from low-margin netbook sales." Acer anyone? "It's snark disguised as news, uninformed opinion disguised as analysis, and self-serving wishful thinking shouted into an echo chamber of nodding dittoheads." I think of this every time I see an Apple ad on TV.

"egotistical twit" Mirror, meet reflection. Wae, you were pretty clear when you said, "I'm not really surprised by this because it still uses dated Flash technologies. It would be better if they released a Silverlight version that features extensibility and better video quality instead." That's pretty unambiguous. You blame its failure on Flash. How pathetic. That's part of the problem with techheads like you, Wae. You think the technology is the solution, rather than usability, good interface design, and a good user experience. You get out your spec sheets and compare your "unit" with the guy next to you, and think that's the be all and end all. It ain't that simple, little man.

No Chuck, NPD statements are not correct. Apple's own figures say that Macbook sales are only up 12%. Sure, that's still an increase, but it's not 25%.