| Home > News and Views > Vista not getting an easy time in Mainstream media - has Microsoft's free ride come to an end? |
| Vista not getting an easy time in Mainstream media - has Microsoft's free ride come to an end? | | Date Created: 31 Jan, 2007, 02:46 PM |
 So I've been ill in bed with a one day lurgi, yet again (much better today - thanks for asking) and so have been using my RSS reader to follow the Vista shenanigans.
I've looked at quite a few interviews featuring Bill Gates touting Vista's advantages on the mainstream networks, and if I'm not mistaken, he's actually getting a hard time of it.
In other words, he's being asked some challenging questions by media hosts who actually seem to have done some homework. Perhaps because they themselves use Windows Xp and are asking why the need to update, or they're Mac users and, well, same question, truncated: "why the need?"
Whatever, from the video streams I've seen, Bill has got to do something with those flailing hands - has nobody at Microsoft said to the boss, "Boss, you need some media training?"
Some examples: Didn't anyone at MS PR (Edelson or whomever) tell Bill that on the Daily Show, it's customary to sit at the conclusion of the interview while Jon Stewart cuts to a break, and just chit chat? No, Bill, says, thanks, then gets up and leaves before the break. See it here, courtesy of Valleywag. |
 And here are those flailing arms and hands caught on mid-flail - you really have to see the videos to see how he obscures his message delivery by those hands flying all over the screen. It's like watching some one deliver a Powerpoint presentation, while they're throwing up text-based slides... where are you supposed to look to give your attention...? |
 ... and more from MSNBC's interview with Meredith Vieira on the Today Show.
She does a great job of this interview, and indeed forces poor Bill to sit there while the Vista segment starts with a featurette of Steve Jobs's Keynote announcements. And then we see a Mac vs. PC advertisement.
Then she asks him: "You've spent billions of dollars and five years developing Vista - why should I care?"
Now, is it me, or is that touted $500m for Vista product release not going into the right pockets, because I'm sure poor Bill is getting a hard time in these interviews.
From "isn't this just a copy of OS X" (as seen on CNN's with Miles O'Brien) to "What are the compelling reasons to update - shouldn't people just wait", for which Bill doesn't offer particuarly compelling reasons. In one several interviews, he cites Parental controls as being a first in the industry (er, no, I think Tiger got there first...) and Media Centre and Tablet versions as compelling evidence of Microsoft's capacity for innovation.
No, it seems to me that even mainstream media is not going to fall over just to please Bill. Because they too have put up with Windows all these years, journalists have themselves as their own test platforms from which to pitch questions, and from what I'm hearing, Bill is now working hard for his money.
This is no Windows 95 release. I'm seeing a lot of "hrummphing" and shoulder-shrugging in mainstream media's handling of Vista's release. |
 Going back to the Today show interview, Meredith actually asks some tough questions of Bill, who frankly does not acquit himself well with those hands of his - again, his media managers just have to take him to one side and tell him how TV works.
Here are some more shots of Bill's flailing hands... |
The sense I'm getting (probably because I'm sensitive to it) is that Microsoft's free ride is coming to an end...
I've never seen non-techie mainstream media give MS such a hard time... you will find tech journalists going Wow! but by now we know that they are likely to be dipping into that $500million publicity well for their handouts in exchange for uncritical commentary.
But the others... those who just want a system that works... all seems to be asking of Bill tough questions about Apple and OS X and the need for Vista.
About time mainstream media got a little backbone and saw PR spin for what it is... |
And now, to finish with Apple's challenge to Microsoft to start its copiers, which we saw a few years ago at Macworld...
Head to the Microsoft homepage where Bill Gate's video recordings are streamed. The latest one, featuring Vista, has some interesting introductory music. If I'm not mistaken, the music used "What a wonderful world" concluded the 2003 Macworld keynote, which launched Safari, Keynote, and a few pieces of hardware... like Aluminium Powerbooks.
Can't they do anything original over in Redmond? |
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