Microsoft: A Case Study in Corporate Success (And Failure)

[adamsmith2011]

Microsoft is a NSA front

[SeltsamerAttraktor]

I don't really get what this Windows VS Mac fuss is all about. I run Linux, only.

[angelwhite]

@SeltsamerAttraktor Some people actually want a user experience ;)

To be fair, I know there is Ubuntu, but until Linux as a whole gets over its aversion to non free software, your options are going to be heavily by developers, for developers. And most users are not developers.

Also, this video has very little to do with OSes.

[SeltsamerAttraktor]

@angelwhite My user experience is superb, thank you.

And regarding non-free software: To each his own, there is no "typical Linux user". Furthermore from my perspective the zealots have clearly become a minority. Proof for this? The advent of the Ubuntu Software Center (=App Store nowadays), the Humble Indie Bundles, Desura, and ever more (small) game/software devs cropping up and making paid stuff for Linux now.

"Also ... OSes." It was in regard to some flamewar in the comment section.

[darkmater4tm]

xbox succeeded because it targeted an audience that wasn't cared to. PS is a product of japanese culture. The rest of the world used it because there was no alternative. Xbox was designed for the american gamer, that's why it took over the west.

ipod on the other hand did not adress a specific culture. It did not judge your taste. Microsoft had no landing ground on this market.

[usops88]

i love the gory messy games. sadly the 360 has moved from that :/

[thisscreensucks]

uhh, iunno, im only 26 and sure, i grew up on nintendo NES.

but i knew lots people who had atari's

[brongarago]

Fuck that speaker. He sounds like a douche.

[realjuancho]

ps2 kicked xbox ass... he didnt get that fact right

[ulktz]

@realjuancho

NOPE

[brongarago]

@realjuancho The pos2?

[JuseJamez]

I remember Atari and I AM NOT OLD! 32 aint that old.. ok.. well im old.

[uch]

this is not right. The biggest challenged microsoft faced in the 90s was the internet and Microsoft was already into PC gaming and even hardware well before Xbox

[BizWiz2000]

Microsoft waited too long to react to the iPod and release the Zune: 2001 for iPod not until 2006 did they release the Zune. The Zune three years earlier would have been a success.

[whoo689]

I was "forced" to use Mac products against my well (iMacs) ALL THROUGHOUT HIGH SCHOOL because those were the computers in the computer labs, for whatever reason. God, they sucked ass! :P

[uch]

@whoo689 it was sony that changed the demographic of the console gaming industry by taking it on on par with Pc gaming demographics of

18-35, why is this guy talking about something he doesnt know about

[kaz3kag3gaara]

@uch

It was a huge success with males 18-35, but it wasn't designed for them. It was designed for Japan.

Asian markets are radically different from western markets, things working in both are just sheer luck, look at the PSP. Xbox was designed specifically for males 18-35, because Microsoft realized that the market was there, and that they could make a console better than the PS2. And it worked.

[hallotelephone]

That's my professor! Dev is great...fun to hear him speak again. Fantastic professor, teacher, and lecturer, as well as a very nice guy.

[lanceawatt]

Microsoft wasn't completely unfamiliar with games as such because they had established software and game developers within the PC market (e.g. Halo 1 was original designed for PC I think.)

Plus PC kicked the shit out of consoles back in the PS2 era UT, Quake 3 :D

[Visfen]

The success of Xbox and the Xbox360 is rooted in something much more simple, as was the success of the PlayStation 2:

Piracy.

[RedEggsCereal]

@Visfen PS3 and PC have way more piracy.. Hell, so does the Wii and DS

[Visfen]

@RedEggsCereal PS3 doesn't have more piracy. PC sure, but that's not a game console.

Wii and DS does bad on that front.

Trust me, I ran the biggest file dump in Sweden a wile back. It was all Xbox.

[anonforuz]

@Visfen a huge push in Online play, developing a strong, devoted community. before other consoles

[Visfen]

@anonforuz Sure as hell not as big of a factor as piracy.

[anonforuz]

@Visfen what Piracy are you focusing on?

[Visfen]

@anonforuz The fact that the Xbox was really easy to mod and then you could download tons of games to it with ease. That's what won the market.

[anonforuz]

@Visfen as someone who did mod their xbox. thats not what made it great for me. And I dont think that is what made the Xbox a hit. the population that modded their xboxs was small.

...would be like saying, the Reason the iphone was such a hit, was because of stickers you could put on it.

[Visfen]

@anonforuz I think that is what made Xbox a hit, definitely. Free games. What can beat that?

The reason iPhone will fail is because of open source. The reason Mac failed is because everyone standardized after the Microsoft platform.

[johnstall5350]

@Visfen iPhone will not fail. Open source does not mean shit to the majority of people. People want a device that gives the best experience. For some people open source is great and they love being able to do anything and everything with their device, but these people are blind to the fact that not everyone is like that. The reason the mac failed in the past was because they stopped innovating, which allowed microsoft to over take them.

[Visfen]

@johnstall5350 iPhone is failing. But considering you're part of the occult, I don't think I will be able to reason with you.

Oh, and Mac is a PC, you're thinking of computers who run Microsoft OS, which happens to be 95% of the computers.

[johnstall5350]

@Visfen How is iPhone failing?iPhone is 26% of the market, and android is 36% and both are growing at the expense of blackberry. Saying I'm part of a cult doesn't make me less correct.

When I said PC I do include Macs, computers running windows, and even Linux hence "PC market on the whole".So as I said PC sales, meaning all computers with desktop OSs, are shrinking, but despite that Mac's market share steadily continues to grow.Mac makes up 11% of the market, not 5%.

[Visfen]

@johnstall5350 iPhone is losing market-share to Android.

Mac's market are douchebags and people too stupid to own a PC. Which one is you?

[johnstall5350]

@Visfen You are making claims with nothing to back them up. iPhone is not losing market share to android. The iPhones market share is growing, thats a fact. The only person losing market share is blackberry. Prove me otherwise.

Again where do you come up with this? You clearly are biased, and make unjustified statements against anything apple, and the people that use their products. I've never seen statistics that show that undereducated people are more likely to buy a mac.

[Visfen]

@johnstall5350 Just look at the commercials or take the stats. They are more expensive for less hardware. The marketing is targeted at people who can't even turn on a computer. The biggest segment of mac users are douchebags, people that work in the movie and music industry and drives convertibles, for instance.

[werdnativ]

@Visfen Maybe it's not just about the hardware and price as the bottom line: I don't think you understand what you're talking about. Why do so many professional developers run a Mac if it's just targeted at "people who can't even turn on a computer"? Go to a developer conference and take a head count sometime...

[Visfen]

@werdnativ Sure that is what matters, what else could possibly matter?

They don't. You're making stuff up. Computer nerds run Linux and Windows and think Macs are for idiots.

[johnstall5350]

@Visfen what commercial targets people who can't turn on a computer?  Yes you spend more for similarly speced PCs, you also spend more for a BMW than a lot of other car with similar performance. Premium products just cost more. If you think you get a better value from a windows computer, by all means get a windows computer, but a lot of people also feel that paying more for a mac is money well spent. Do you have some way up substantiating your claim that most mac users are "douchebags"?

[Visfen]

@johnstall5350 Search "mac users idiots" on youtube.

Premium products? All it has is a brand and a lot less settings to it. You get better value from buying a PC and installing Mac OS yourself! Macintosh business plan has been about a package deal, well it's a bad deal.

A lot fewer people, Apple has a very small market share for a reason. And the only market they really control is the brand-oriented industries like the music and movie-industry. Douchebags: People who buy shit to look cool.

[lllraverslll]

@Visfen i love the fact that windows does not always run perfect.. it has thought me over the years so much about hard & software and search engines.

all this new crap that is comping out these days (pads, apps phone ) do nothing but promote to leave your data in someone else hand rather then your own hard drive. not to mention all the spy app`s and or services.

he thinks he is cool , i think he is an idiot with a reason not to date him.  lol

[angelwhite]

@Visfen Not really true. A lot of devs use Mac, because it's the most usable *nix. Most Mac apps, focus very heavily on UX, which simply makes it much more enjoyable to use a Mac, most of the time (there are, of course, exceptions).

Personally, I need the *nix env, and my happiness is worth the extra cost.

[Visfen]

@angelwhite In my experience devs run linux.

[angelwhite]

@Visfen as a dev, only one person I work with runs Linux, and he runs it on his MBP. 1 guy runs Windows. The rest (and all the office computers) are Mac. The clients we consult with are all on Mac (some non-devs are on Linux and Windows). Our domain is primarily Rails, though we do some Clojure, and Objective-C, and our clients' product also has bindings to Java, .NET, Python, PHP, Node, Perl. I've been to 2 Ruby conferences, I'd say 80% or more were on Mac.

[Visfen]

@angelwhite Fair enough. Maybe it's that I live in Sweden and have more connections with the scene (used to run a file-dump, one of the largest in Sweden) than with professional programmers.

Anyhow, only a tool would actually BUY a mac. You can just buy a regular laptop and install Mac OS on it.

And if you're ever considering having a serious computer game a mac is somewhat worthless.

[angelwhite]

@Visfen IDK, my hackintosh got stale pretty quick. My Mac is on Lion (latest Mac OS) and my Hackintosh is on Leopard (2 releases behind). Seems to me that hackintoshing it kind of defeats the purpose. There is an Apple mantra "it just works", that's what my real MacBook Pro gives me.

[angelwhite]

@angelwhite oh, my NIC on my Hackintosh is also intermittent. Other than that, haven't had any issues, but being a dev, that's kind of a big deal.

[Visfen]

@angelwhite Hackintoshing saves you like 20-30% of the cost of buying a Mac.

[johnstall5350]

@Visfen Also can you provide some proof that the majority of mac users are also movie/music people, and people that drive convertibles, and are you saying that these people are under your definition of douchebags? From my experience a lot of music/movie people own macs, but do not make up a majority of owners, and even if they did so what? From now on please start backing up your claims.

[liquidminds]

@johnstall5350 i agree... some people don't need devices to use them, but rather to have them and to show them around, because they feel important then.

nevertheless, the Android OS is superior to the IphoneOS... it's common knowledge that the iphone is unusuable for most people when not jailbraked...

[johnstall5350]

@Visfen And currently Mac is the only OS growing in share while the PC market on the whole continues to shrink. So the Mac certainly is not failing.

[Pundit2k]

@johnstall5350 But Mac still sucks. Until they get the broom out of their hole and stop trying to control everything, Mac's are always going to lag behind PC's in terms of innovation, price, speed and use-friendliness.

[johnstall5350]

@Pundit2k to say they suck is ridiculous. Record unit sales, and increased market share would not be happening if they sucked. I'd love to know how people like you develop such cynicism over a brand that no one forces you to use.

[Skindoggiedog]

@Pundit2k "Mac's are always going to lag behind PC's in terms of innovation, price, speed and use-friendliness."

Two our of four ain't bad. Well, two out of six if you're counting apostrophe placement.

[genxtargetmarket]

@Pundit2k

I don't find that to be true. And I'll support that statement in the same manner as you've supported yours: none.