The ‘Mohave’ Experiment

@Paul, Wow. This is "good stuff"? If this site's content lives up to you expectations, they must be pretty low. First, I love the interface on the site. That reacting video wall is really cool. That said... What exactly is there in this site to get excited about for anyone with a brain? Microsoft managed to find the most computer illiterate group of people in America and treated them to a demo staged by their marketing and PR hacks. seriously, they haven't been in a Best Buy or Circuit City or Staples in almost two years? They've never SEEN a Vista PC? I guess they haven't seen a single retail PC, period. Give me a break. So these technophobes get a 10 minute demo in a highly controlled environment and no real experience using the system for any meaningful stretch. Honestly, how can they talk about it being "faster" when there doesn't appear to be any comparison PC. Faster than what? Their computer? Huh? What these people are reacting to is Aero, which is just playing catch up to OSX. I bet if you did this same exact "experiment" or should we say "marketing video" and demo'd Leopard instead, these people would have said "wow, this is a giant leap forward! Look at how the windows can zoom around! Look at that searching! Amazing! Vista may be much better than the bad press, but this marketing effort is so horribly constructed it will do more harm than good. All this ultimately does is repeat the fact that people think Vista sucks. Why should anyone believe that a 10 minute controlled demo should negate nearly two years of bad reviews from all over the tech press? Seriously? How many "it's time for MS to start from scratch" articles have been written? Is the average person gonna buy a PR video or the tech writers for the NY Times? If all you had to go on was the media consensus, and this blatant marketing piece constructed by the seller of the product themselves... only an idiot would change their mind. "Oh, well... Microsoft said Vista is a great! And they sure made it look great in that 10 minute demo! They must be right and everyone else I know that uses it is wrong!" Again, I'm not saying Vista deserves this reputation. Migrating the PC userbase is a painful experience with so much garbage hardware out there. It's frankly amazing how well Windows does. But give me a break. @Waethorn, Har-dee-har-har. I love that you posted this amazingly lame, ludicrously out of date video (and others as well) to spike.com as well as other mac-bashing dork tripe. It really says a lot about you. Honestly. And I think the comment below that video says a lot about the quality of human being that would find this garbage "funny". (It's a hideously chauvinistic, insulting dig against all women). Ignorant bigotry loves company, it would appear. First of all, you posted this in June of 2007 and the computer in the video is at that point 5 to 6 years old. Then, the whole duck-quack gag is referencing OS 9, which is also 5 to 6 years old as of the post date. Replace that old mac with a Windows Me PC BSOD (or we could just watch any of the Microsoft product demos in which Windows has croaked). Those things would be equally stupid to what you're doing. Jesus. What is wrong with you? Do you really think this is funny or even makes a point? Comedy must either ring true or be effective absurdism to work. This is neither. It makes me sad, actually, to see that junk like this is cluttering our channel's site and polluting an otherwise strong media brand (but that's another matter). What an unfortunate, obsessed troll. In other news... your fellow Canadians are apparently loving the iPhone so much that Rogers has committed to buying at least $150 million worth of them with demand for other phones apparently grinding to a halt ahead of the release. Wait... how could that be? You said there was no Canadian demand for the iphone? A the power of bigoted delusion. Grow up. PS: For those of you interested in something truly worthwhile at spike.com, please go to www.spiketruedads.com and learn how you can help connect our troops over seas with their families. It's the pro-social campaign I helped launch and direct and it really is a great cause. We're working to bring 140,000 troops together through a partnership with United Through Reading. Check it out! PSS: Flip 3D sucks. It breaks the spatial relationship of the window positions and forces a horribly tedious rolodex scroll to hunt for what you want. It was clearly intended to "answer" expose on the eye-candy front only, since it's not even half as useable. It's very telling that such a horribly conceived execution is center stage on Microsoft's Vista marketing everywhere since day one. Talk about style over substance.

Oh... I also love that the other video Waethorn posted to spike is an iphone commercial "parody" in which the video is dubbed over with such gems as "my neighbor's dog has a 4" cl1t". All class, all the time.

The talented mr shipley rounds out Joe Wilcox's excellent deconstruction of this ridiculous "experiment". http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/07/mojave-experiment-bad-science-bad.html Warning. He's a great Mac software developer, so mac-bashing trolls should bother since you're not capable of interpreting data from sources you don't like.

@tayme, I just find it very revealing how Waethorn spends his time... and very saddened to see his garage cluttering up my employer's site. How about instead of being bothered by my long post, we talk about the actual subject though? I happen to do on-air promotion and marketing for a living and find this Mojave to be a nice production of a horrible strategy. Shipley and Wilcox are dead on. Paul thinks it's "great", which says a ton about where his head is. So the bashers can't handle Apple's ads, but this sad excuse for an "experiment" which is pretty disingenuous at it's heart is just fine. Since when is a 10 minute presentation by a PR hack anything close to useful information about an operating system? The undercurrent of this whole thing is "everyone that's had problems with Vista is an idiot. Just look at how impressed these bozos were with our coy, staged demo! Proof that everything is perfect! Tada!". Nobody with a critical mind would see this for anything other than what it is. An ad pretending to be a case study. Meanwhile, every new PC on earth ships with Vista. People are going to have it whether they've heard it sucks or not. All this marketing does is acknowledge that people have heard Vista sucks. I believe this could do more harm than good for the kind of users Microsoft should care about most. The smart ones.

Tayme, I often consider you and Dip the most reasonable on this site (despite Dips flame bait avatar)... Quoted for truth: "To this day, I have NO problem with those who have tried both PCs and Macs, and still prefer their PC. And they can give real reasons why. I respect that. But it's really funny how that courtesy seldom works both ways. So yeah, maybe I still chuckle at the Mac vs PC ads, and un-mute when those commercials come on. But it's not because I look down my nose at PC users. Maybe it's because it's funny to see so many are still there, fighting the good fight, wanting the numbers to make them be "right". But oh, the ones I've known over the years who finally gave a Mac an honest try...and have never looked back. And that makes me feel happy, for them. Not smug. Now I'm off to whiten my teeth:. Cant agree with this poster on another site. All to often the PC side amounts to a righteous "95% market share shouting match". Forgive these Mac fanboys for being a little defensive. If there weren't so many anti-Apple fanboys (including 100% of the IT staff in certain pklaces), you wouldn't have this "problem."

@Tayme, Apple's TV ads are built around the reality that they are speaking to PC users. They have a very simple concept: identify a known weakness that PC users may be experiencing (trouble with Vista compatibility) and point out that the problem is better on the mac. OR... identify a pre-conception about the mac (you can't do work on macs... they're just for graphics) and address it head on by pointing out that Macs run Microsoft office. The goal here is to covert Windows users that aren't satisfied with their experience to find out more about the mac. Pretty simple, and pretty crucial in a world of 95% Windows marketshare. We can debate the merit of the :30 format all day long, but nobody can dispute the effectiveness of Apple's effort here. Maybe Mojave will find the same viewer success.... but how will we measure that success when Windows already has 95%? What is the objective here? Microsoft has already converted the entire PC OEM base to selling exclusively Vista PCs. So what is it they are trying to do? Convert XP users? That's inevitable, except for the small slice of people moving to the mac. Win hearts and minds? Please. Honestly, if Vista is so good that they feel the need to right the perception, they already have a captive market that will eventually learn of it's greatness without Microsoft spending a dime. Everyone will end up with Vista... or Windows 7 or whatever. So, as a marketer, I think this is a fundamentally flawed strategy that's trying to attack a problem that doesn't exist. And in doing this campaign, Microsoft is confirming for people that this "vista perception problem" is pervasive. They'd be smarter to smother that Apple envy and just show confidence in their product. Brand = Product. If vista is great, that will win the day as people experience it's greatness. The real heart of this problem is that real people have had real problems with Vista. This campaign trivializes that into pepsi vs. coke. That's an insulting, tone-deaf mistake. Again, this is the Flip 3D of marketing. Pretty and pretty useless. At the end of the day, this campaign just makes Microsoft look desperate. Paul thinks it's great. That's why Paul doesn't make commercials.

First, let's not play the comparison game here with MobileMe. The problems Apple has had with that launch are irrelevant. Well... actually... that's not quite true. Let's look at that. Apple quickly started a blog with an outright apology for the problems, taking full responsibility for them and issuing credits in excess of the time lost. I don't believe at this point that anyone's information had been completely lost. Calendars, emails and address books have been restored. But MobileMe's launch has been disastrous and the tech news coverage certainly not been shy in calling it so. Now... I have never made claims about the quality of Vista or how the userbase is reacting as a matter of first hand opinion. I'm sure most people are NOT downgrading. Thats not how people work. They just buy a computer and start browsing the net and checking their email. Whatever. Here's the key question: What do they have to gain by pointing out that most people hear Vista is a train wreck? That's what this Mohave Experiment does. It paints a picture of a userbase that's very unhappy and surrounded by bad word-of-mouth. The very people that care enough about computing to have an opinion about operating systems are not going to buy into the methodology of this "experiment", which is the root of the criticism. If you have a brain, you will see this for what it is: advertising. So why do advertising that re-inforces the very perception you are trying to fight? Why not just take the high road? I think a 60 day trial is a great idea... except that upgrading an existing PC is the worst experience you could have of Vista. I'm all for Microsoft showing people that Vista is great (whether it is or not). That's their job since it's their core product. What I'm saying is that they barely need to say anything. Again. Product = brand perception. If Vista is this good, Microsoft should just keep on trucking and have confidence that the userbase will catch up with time and use of the product. Virtually everyone is going to end up using it regardless. Listen, I absolutely believe that Mac OSX is a better system than XP or Vista. I still expect 90 to 95% of the userbase to remain on Windows for years to come. That's just the way it is... and it happens to continue making MS truckloads of cash. Microsoft will never have the user satisfaction of Apple. Never. They chose the open hardware model and they should live with the fact that it makes for a more diverse range of satisfaction with many factors out of their control. They should be happy with their monopoly money and stop wasting energy worrying about what a bunch of dorks think. It makes them look reactive and confirms the consensus. Will they do other advertising? Certainly. Is this thread about that? No. It's about Mojave. And Mojave is a disaster in concept and strategy.

@Tayme, I love real debate and feel like there is a good community of decent people on this site. I need to learn to ignore the garbage from Waethorn. Here's an interesting thing to consider... On my way home, I picked up PC Magazine's august issue with "Windows 7" on the cover. Read the article. Wow. Anyone that reads that article can only come to one conclusion: Vista sucks, Microsoft is working as fast as they can to replace it with Windows 7, which ultimately is just an attempt to catch up to Apple and Mac OSX. Seriously. I'm not declaring this, I'm paraphrasing the article as well as other elements throughout the magazine. I find it hard to believe that PC Magazine is either a mouthpiece for Apple propaganda or a completely out-of-touch Microsoft bashing publication. Vista clearly has problems and Gates has demonstrated that he feels it's been a pretty problematic release. I'm not sure why Paul is so outraged by this. Is everyone, including Bill Gates himself, wrong? You know what they say. If you think everyone else in the whole world is crazy, chances are... it's probably you. PS - Don't you also find it particularly hypocritical that Paul will bash David Pogue as a member of an iCabal because he's published Apple-related books while at the same time going on a one-man quest to show the world how Vista really is the greatest thing ever... and publishing a book of his own about Vista Secrets? Can you say "blatant self-interest"? Yeah, he runs the window supersite... but also throws stones at fellow journalists and claims to be honest and impartial. Something's got to give. Have a great weekend too! Also, again, be sure to check out spiketruedads.com if you get the chance.

Add the wily John C. Dvorak to the list of people who think this recycling of the "Folgers" campaign call Mojave is a mess: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-stunt-sends-wrong-messag...

Ahh posts that contain a sane, rational looks and objectively at topics... Tayme, Subzero... this is the Supersite right? :) Whether or not Vista is a good OS, whether or not it was ready is hardly the point. I simply find it funny that there are those that actually believe there is a concerted effort out there by the tech media in some sort of clandestine mission to discredit Vista. Ask yourself simply a few basic premises: 1) Was Vista ready at launch 2) Were drivers ready for Vista 3) Did Vista stumble out of the gate? 4) Did the tech media pick up on this and report it? 5) Did Apple use Vista's "issues" to help their casue? So using the premise of old William of Occum which is the most probable outcome: 1) Windows Vista stumbled through its own faults. 2) The vast "clandestine" iCabal of pro-Apple tech reporters results in Vista negative press. My contention is this: Vista's issues are no one's fault other then Microsoft's. That would be akin to blaming others for Apple's issues with MobibleMe. The only difference is that Apple has been working on fixing MobileMe rather then MS pretending that there was nothing wrong with it for the better part of a year. In the end even Dvorak is right (shudder). Tricking people for shock value isn't the best way to go about this nor is it an entirely effective way to do so. Rather call it what it is: A controlled environment with a predetermined outcome. Notice there is only people with positive reactions, I'm guessing that the sample isn't like that for every person show they have been "punked", only thing that is missing is Ashton Kusher... Lastly I applaud your objectivity. Sadly it is something entirely lacking on this site.

I'm really amused by the spin the Apple extremists are placing on this. A few quick comments: They cite articles by people with years of history of writing nothing but anti-Microsoft articles and act like that means something. They compare this to the Pepsi Challenge which is amusing seeing how the Pepsi Challenge was created by John Sculley who was hand picked by Steve Jobs to head Apple and who fired Jobs in the infamous boardroom coup. They present this as "Pepsi did this to show that #2 was as good or better as #1. That means Microsoft admits Vista is #2". Here's a news flash. Windows Vista is the #2 operating system by installed base. Number 1 is Windows XP. (Last time I checked that level of breakdown, OS X was in #5 behind two even more obsolete version of Windows but it may have eked its way up to #4 by now).