Summary: Microsoft recruits another army of "power bloggers" to promote Vista 7; lackluster reception at the shops nonetheless

JOHN Dvorak has opined for quite a long time that Vista 7 was "Getting Over-Hyped," basically agreeing with something for which there is extensive evidence.

From the country where Microsoft's lock-in is most accentuated [1, 2, 3] we now learn that 777 "power bloggers" (meaning more/most influential ones) are being rewarded by Microsoft for Vista 7 boosting.

777 Korean power bloggers are invited by Microsoft Korea and 777 should come from Windows 7€¡€¯s €¡€°Seven€¡€±. I€¡€¯ve been many bloggers events which held in Korea but this is biggest blogger event that I€¡€¯ve ever seen. MS prepared light dinner meal and Windows 7 Ultimate (Eng Ver.) for all the attendances.

How typical. Since the very beginning of Vista 7, namely pre-beta, we have seen Microsoft bribing influential bloggers and offering them special treats; in return, Microsoft's Vista 7 received only good reviews, which then set the tone for the press. It is not a one-time incident, either, and Microsoft does this in Twitter too (more examples in [1-8] at the bottom of this post). Fake Vista 7 hype is everywhere [1, 2, 3], it is paid for [1, 2], and here is another Twitter account that emerges in order to boost Vista 7.

More Twitter Love From Microsoft As It Sets Up @MicrosoftHelps

[...]

According to Perez, the company even talked to Best Buy to learn more about what it could do on Twitter.

That would be the same Best Buy that turned against GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] after Microsoft supplied the staff with highly deceptive material. For those who believe that shops are seeing a surge in sales due to Vista 7 (as in, copies flying off the shelves), see evidence on the ground, not paid-for hype from Microsoft. Here is a message from Saturday.

From: Rex Ballard <rex.ballard@gmail.com> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Windows 7 prices already crashing Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:26:35 -0700 (PDT)

On Oct 25, 12:56€ am, Nomen Nescio <nob...@dizum.com> wrote: > http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=11433&tag=content;col1

> They simply renamed it (and changed a few icons and splash screens)!!

Actually, once you close the Windows 7 "Let me show you my features" application, it's very difficult to tell the difference between Windows Vista and Windows 7.€ € The color schemes are so similar, the menu layouts are similar, and the backgrounds are almost identical.

> Windows 7, I HATE IT ALREADY!!!!

Appearantly, you aren't alone.€ € When I pulled into the Staples parking lot in Piscataway, the parking lot was completely full.€ € I expected to go into the store and see people waiting in line to take Windows 7 for a "test drive".€ € I expected to see every register with carts full of laptops and PCs.€ € Well, it turned out that the parking lot was packed with people going to the Party City store to get their Halloween costumes.

In the staples store, there was one young man, about 14-15 years old, and he was trying to figure out which laptops were running Windows 7 and which ones were running Vista.€ € What was particularly disconcerting was that there was a Vista machine on final clearance for $379, and a nearly identically configured Windows 7 machine around the corner for $429.€ € Both featured 4 gig RAM, 250 gigabyte drive on Vista, 500 gig on Windows 7, and similar speed dual core pentium processors.€ € The Vista machine was the last Compaq on the shelf.€ € Is HP shutting down the Compaq line?

So, less than 5 days after the release of Windows 7, it looks like Laptops will be sold at a loss already.€ € And it looks like prices will be crashing from there.€ € It looks like Windows 7 is being perceived by the public as Vista 2, and a bad remake at that.€ € Kind of like so many movies where the original wasn't that great, and the sequal is no where near as good.

I also noticed that the shelves were still nice and full of Windows 7 upgrade packages, and even at the sale price of $119, it looked like only 2-3 copies had been sold.

Maybe Microsoft should just go back to Windows XP, and offer that as the $90 upgrade to Windows 7.€ € At least it keep them on the desktop, even if it's just as a virtualized Linux application.

As I was leaving the store, I asked the manager if they had been selling any Windows 7, and they said "2 or 3 copies a day".€ € I remember when Windows 2000 came out and these stores were selling 20-30 copies of Windows 2000 upgrade kits per day, at $200 each.€ € I remember when people paid $2000 per laptop for Windows XP.

Microsoft has spent almost a billion dollars not developing Vista 7 but marketing it aggressively as if it's a genuinely new operating system, as opposed to a twist on Vista. By no means do we encourage buying a Mac, but here is a good new Apple ad which is telling.



More Vista 7 posts are coming. We've only just started. ⬆ ______

1. More Microsoft AstroTurfing (aka 'Technical Evangelism') in Twitter
2. User “Microsoft Incentives” Wants to be Your Friend, Too
3. Microsoft's Twitter AstroTurf Continues
4. Who is Pumping MSFT and Pimping Microsoft in Twitter?
5. Microsoft Hires Federated Media for Twitter AstroTurfing
6. Does Microsoft Still Create Twitter Accounts for Guerilla Marketing?
7. Microsoft's AstroTurfing, Twitter, Waggener Edstrom, and Jonathan Zuck
8. Microsoft Twitter Bots, FTC Blowback, and Paid-for Vista 7 Glorification