In the previous post we showed Microsoft losing ground on the Web. This is true not just when it comes to deployed technology; it's also true when it comes to Web news coverage, which is why Techrights decided to de-emphasise Microsoft, just as it de-emphasised Novell when it was put up for sale and then stopped doing anything of significance.
Office 2010 won me back as a power user after Office 2003 stunk, Office 2007 was good but not great, and both OpenOffice and Google Apps had become quite compelling. Office 2010 was just so powerful and feature-rich that it was hard to ignore.
Consumers have turned their backs on Microsoft. A company that once symbolized the future is now living in the past.
Microsoft has been late to the game in crucial modern technologies like mobile, search, media, gaming and tablets. It has even fallen behind in Web browsing, a market it once ruled with an iron fist.
[...]
A rundown of Microsoft's major consumer projects finds trouble in almost all of them.
Internet Explorer's popularity has been waning for years, and one recent study showed that for the first time in more than a decade, more people are using alternative browsers. The browser is becoming the single most critical piece of software on a device -- potentially eclipsing the operating system -- but all of the major innovations of the past few years, like tabbed browsing and add-on extensions, came from outside Microsoft.
Windows Phone 7 has promise, but Microsoft dug itself an enormous hole with the subpar Windows Mobile platform. With its market share currently sitting below 5%, developers are taking a "wait and see" approach.
I did not have to wait long for perfection. Laura Didio is quoted in this CNN puff piece about the death of Microsoft as a "consumer brand".
"In this age, the race really is to the swift. You cannot afford to be an hour late or a dollar short," says Laura DiDio, principal analyst at ITIC. "Now the biggest question is: Can they make it in the 21st century and compete with Google and Apple?" Some influential analysts think not.
The rest of the article is devoted to downplaying the obvious irrelevance and reduced profitability of the company. They run through the littiny of failures, Zune, IE, Vista but pump up supposed business purchases of Windows 7 as evidence of hope for the company. They do point out that people prefer other program when given the choice at work, but GNU/Linux and other free software is not mentioned.
Laura Didio's revival as an analyst is a little less surprising than the revival of O'Gara. Didio was a principle promoter of the Amitiville Horror fraud back in the 1970s. Her Wikipedia article suffered a ghostly deletion but most of the info is still in the wikibin and the fun parts are:
While still in collage and working as a News Assistant and News Writer at Channel 5 News in NYC, DiDio contacted Kathy and Lee Lutz who agreed to let the then Metromedia (now Fox News) news outlet have exclusive access to film a seance in the house. The seance was organized by Connecticut based paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens invited a number of other psychics to the seance including representatives from Duke University's School of Parapsychology. DiDio served as a producer for the evening's events and assisted reporter Marvin Scott in his reporting of the seance, which was televised on the Channel 5 10 O'Clock News broadcast. She later also accompanied well-known paranormal investigator Hans Holzer into the house to document a follow-up seance he did using trance medium Ethel Myers-Johnson. The events surrounding the alleged haunting at 112 Ocean Ave, Amityville, NY served as the basis for a book "The Amityville Horror" by Jay Anson and several movies. The topic remains one of intense interest to this day. DiDio has been interviewed frequently on the subject, but she herself has never published any articles or reports on "The Amityville Horror." DiDio believes that something extraordinary did happen to the Lutzes to cause them to flee 112 Ocean Ave, Amityville after only 30 days.
A true story! After that, she went on to her career as a Microsoft booster, which was crowned by pretending the SCO case had merit. Seven years after signing the SCO NDA and claiming the now failed copyright extortion was on solid ground, it seems she may rise from the discredited and promote again. A happy Halloween, indeed.
Apple has jumped the shark.
Yes, I’m willing to say it—and yes, now, when Apple is poised to revolutionize computing again, making everything touchable, mobile, and user-unservicable. I imagine, Gruber’s going to mock me, and big Steve is going to order my phone remotely bricked. I don’t care, because I get the distinctive evil vibe that I remember all-too-well from before. Back in the early days. Back before Microsoft destroyed the software business.
By Bertha Worms (1868–1937)
Comments
Agent_Smith
2010-10-29 18:32:40
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-10-29 19:27:45
mcinsand
2010-10-28 12:41:10
I agree, but I would state it more emphatically. Apple is different from Microsoft, in that Apple is more evil when it comes to consumer's rights than MS could ever be. Had Apple won the PC wars of the 1980's, I have no doubt that we would struggle to put alternative OS's on the hardware that we buy, to the extent that we would be facing prosecution and persecution. The only reason they ever allowed a boot loader onto their hardware was because Apple is still in the minority; it is part of their own version of Embrace and Extend. I am thankful that Apple never had the actual power to Extinguish!
Regards, mc
NotZed
2010-10-28 12:27:42
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-10-28 13:00:01
mcinsand
2010-10-28 12:03:08
Regards, mc
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-10-28 12:11:46
Apple is different from Microsoft, it's not better.
twitter
2010-10-28 13:35:55
In news that combines both Mac and Microsoft non-freedom, the new version of Office for Mac requires "product activation". It looks like Apple's unFair Play digital restrictions are just the start of Apple annoyances because any non free software author can make the installation and use of their software as difficult as they like.
There are other silly restrictions for the Mac version about how many times the software can be installed, etc. The point of this difficulty is baffling when you consider Microsoft's absolute failure to get people to use their new non-standard OOXML.
The Windows version, of course, is not much better. The supposed leniency is a bizarre game of function hide and seek that lasts 180 days if the user knows all of the tricks.
Everyone is better off dumping all of these silly restrictions by moving to free software. Why bother with either Windows or Mac when you can get a free office suite on a free OS, both of which work better, treat the user with respect and use real standards without loss of Microsoft's legacy formats?
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-10-28 13:48:29
Agent_Smith
2010-10-28 17:27:13
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-10-28 17:35:25
What makes Apple revered by some is the price point, which makes the buyer feel better about him/herself. Ask people why they buy Armani and Tommy Hilfiger. The PR industry has established an appeal to psyche which makes all this possible, often appealing to our insecurities or inferiority complex. Apple sells the 'medicine' like some religions do.
twitter
2010-10-29 13:14:29
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2010-10-29 13:30:49
twitter
2010-10-30 01:50:30
Thanks also for the link to the B3 home server. Projects like this demonstrate clearly that ARM is ready for laptop use if Zuarus and iPhone did not. For the $500 they want, I'll stick with a cheap netbook like the EEE PC 701 which can be had for about $140. The B3 would be excellent for small business. I wonder when the Microtards will get around to extorting Excito with Imaginary Property monopolies that the EU does not officially recognize.