01.01.10
Gemini version available ♊︎Colossal Mistake: Verizon Puts Microsoft Before Customers
Summary: Verizon breeds customer resentment by dancing to the tune of money from Microsoft rather than the needs of customers
IT WASN’T so long ago that we wrote about Verizon removing choice in exchange for payments from Microsoft. Verizon is rumoured to have been paid $500,000,000 by Microsoft to remove Google (shades of Murdoch-Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]). Based on TechFlash, Verizon is also adding what Todd Bishop calls Microsoft “Crapware”.
The icon for Microsoft’s Bing search engine has been showing up, unrequested, on the home screens of BlackBerry users on Verizon’s network in recent days. In an era when people carefully decide what and what not to put on their phones, the move is angering many Verizon customers — particularly savvier users who treat as sacrosanct the contents and arrangement of their mobile home screens.
What about the needs of customers? Do their preferences not matter? The Microsoft-faithful Bill Snyder is generally unhappy with Verizon this week, going as far as comparing them to the very abusive AT&T [1, 2].
At the end of the day, it’s not about what matters to customers. Verizon just wants to maximise the payments from Microsoft and this is typically the point where companies go wrong. Microsoft will waste more money and Verizon, in turn, will just drive customers away. █
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