3 ms·

Whoa whoa whoa, hold your horses their Microsoft. 4 new products in one blog post? And the blog post is pretty plain at that. Where's the sexy animations? Th

Whoa whoa whoa, hold your horses their Microsoft. 4 new products in one blog post? And the blog post is pretty plain at that. Where's the sexy animations? The over the top presentation? If you're going to try and fuck me to the tune of $1,600 for a laptop, at least take me to out to dinner first. Microsoft could really stand to learn a few things from Google/Apple product presentation imho.

whateveracct 6y ago
Million dollar move, five dollar finish
bgroins 6y ago
I'd rather just focus on the 10% that is the detailed content, versus 90% hype, but to each their own. I don't need to be told for 3 hours that every minor feature is an Earth-shattering event.
- eugeniub 6y ago
  Honestly this blog post is 90% gibberish. Skimming over it, I just see meaningless word salads like "navigat[ing] the current environment", "design[ing] a Surface for every person", and "stay[ing] connected to the people and content that matters".
save_ferris 6y ago
Not only that, but I can’t find any review videos for the Surface headphones 2 on YouTube, and I’m looking for new headphones. Whenever a new Sony/Bose/Apple product drops, the reviewers are all over it. No wonder the first Surface headphones flew under the radar so hard.
enumjorge 6y ago
Yeah I’m confused by what their marketing team did here. It’s a super text heavy page with a just a couple of pictures showing the products from far away. Odd way to announce a hardware lineup.
- tasogare 6y ago
  With not even a picture for every product, like the keyboards.
rvz 6y ago
Actually, I like how Microsoft goes straight to the point and does an altogether announcement in one page without the hype and pompous animations and transitions from Apple and Google over a single product page. They saved the whole showcase animations and marketing in the video and not spoiled it into their website.
- jml7c5 6y ago
  Agreed. The "no-nonsense" press release is wonderful. I'm fatigued by the trend of whole-page scroll-to-animate "our new BrandTech3 delivers twice the Foo for <consumer segment>" announcements. Unless there's something /really new/, over-hyping of incremental changes makes the company seem desperate to find things to fill a presentation. And this is the polar opposite of the weak "vague, positive, brand values" ad campaigns Microsoft ran in its more confused days (the Surface "click" ads full of dancers in pastel colors come to mind). Those did little more than make Microsoft seem out of touch. And really, which non-tech people are going to be looking at this? There's not enough regular consumer excitement about "the next big Surface accessory" to suggest anything but the store/product page needs to be flashy. They're much better off drawing general consumer interest via review channels, product placement, and quirk-bait "behind the scenes" videos or collaborations.
- EForEndeavour 6y ago
  Really!? I wouldn't call this announcement "straight to the point" at all. It truly is quite the opposite. First, I get that including a byline in such an announcement is meant to convey the fact that real people worked very hard on this, but I actually think that most people will see the full names and specific job titles as visual clutter. Here's my summary of the announcement. Paragraph 1: times are changing and I think we both know what we mean. Allow me to imply that Windows market share is growing faster than ever (data do not support this: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide, https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-share-of-windows-7/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-sha...). Let's draw a false equivalency between OS and hardware while ribbing Apple for their butterfly keyboard fiasco, and also boast about offering "cameras and mics built in to connect us to the people who matter most," as if that somehow sets us apart. Paragraph 2: again, times are changing, and you know what we mean. Here are the intentionally generic product names again, with no additional information whatsoever. Paragraph 3: as a company, in this time of change, we want you to know that we're more willing than ever to sell to you. We boast about unleashing Microsoft Teams upon the world as though that's a good thing. Here are two tweets meticulously chosen and vetted by very highly skilled marketing and PR teams to further convey our desired brand messages. Panos out. Over to you, Robin. Paragraph 4: in case you forgot, we're announcing a family of new products today. They're designed to work for more than one purpose. Paragraph 5: here's a bullet list of the same intentionally generic-sounding names again. We didn't want to overwhelm you with even a tiny bit of technical specifications at this point. - Sorry, disgruntled Apple refugees considering a switch, we won't tell you yet what the "Surface Go" actually is. Just know that it "delivers incredible value" and is portable -- oh, and it's usable by people who belong to companies or families alike. - Perhaps surprisingly, our newest laptop is also our best one. - Before we go into any meaningful detail, it's more important for me to pass on the message from our brand teams that the headphones 2 -- sorry, the smoothly phrased Surface Headphones 2 -- and the Earbuds "complete your Surface experience." This article is going well. - The Surface Dock 2 is a dock that works like a dock. Paragraph 6: whatever the Surface Go is (a tablet?), it's got a 2:1 screen aspect ratio! Let's take a break from these byzantine tech specs to mention that several oddly specific organizations, about half of which you've probably never heard of, have "chosen Surface Go." More hints as to what it is: it has a compact design, touch screen, keyboard, LTE Advanced, and is compatible with "Pen." Paragraph 7: [jarringly sudden dump of Surface Go 2 tech specs, pricing, and availability, but presented as prose instead of a more sensible table or bullet point format] Paragraph 8: on to the Surface Book. It all started when we set a goal to build a competitive laptop. That laptop has since been used by users. Paragraph 9: [another block of needlessly wordy and sometimes outright redundant tech specs, pricing, and availability] Paragraph 10: We have it on good authority that people use headphones to focus. Ours are designed to fit human ears and deliver sound. We provide a head-spinning 13 levels of ambient noise control, because Bose and Apple provide a measly three, and I think we can all agree that 13 is greater than three. Paragraph 11: Earbuds, also designed for the human ear. Paragraph 12: Dock. Paragraph 13: we're coming out with a new "accessories bundle" of a keyboard and mouse, but we aren't making it clear whether we've updated the devices themselves. Paragraph 14: you can preorder today! But only in "select markets" that probably means parts of the USA, and definitely not Mexico or South Africa. We can't link you to any further information from here. Paragraph 15: as our brand teams would like to emphasize, we really hate to denigrate our products by discussing their tangible, specific, concrete aspects. It's never about that. It's all about "helping people find moments of focus and relaxation." Robin out. I'm probably about as cynical about slick, browser-killing, scroll-synced product animations as the next person, but this is no better.
partiallypro 6y ago
This is just a minor refresh, they do more flashy stuff for big releases.

whateveracct 6y ago

Million dollar move, five dollar finish

bgroins 6y ago

I'd rather just focus on the 10% that is the detailed content, versus 90% hype, but to each their own. I don't need to be told for 3 hours that every minor feature is an Earth-shattering event.

eugeniub 6y ago
Honestly this blog post is 90% gibberish. Skimming over it, I just see meaningless word salads like "navigat[ing] the current environment", "design[ing] a Surface for every person", and "stay[ing] connected to the people and content that matters".

save_ferris 6y ago

Not only that, but I can’t find any review videos for the Surface headphones 2 on YouTube, and I’m looking for new headphones. Whenever a new Sony/Bose/Apple product drops, the reviewers are all over it. No wonder the first Surface headphones flew under the radar so hard.

enumjorge 6y ago

Yeah I’m confused by what their marketing team did here. It’s a super text heavy page with a just a couple of pictures showing the products from far away. Odd way to announce a hardware lineup.

tasogare 6y ago
With not even a picture for every product, like the keyboards.

rvz 6y ago

Actually, I like how Microsoft goes straight to the point and does an altogether announcement in one page without the hype and pompous animations and transitions from Apple and Google over a single product page. They saved the whole showcase animations and marketing in the video and not spoiled it into their website.

jml7c5 6y ago
Agreed. The "no-nonsense" press release is wonderful. I'm fatigued by the trend of whole-page scroll-to-animate "our new BrandTech3 delivers twice the Foo for <consumer segment>" announcements. Unless there's something /really new/, over-hyping of incremental changes makes the company seem desperate to find things to fill a presentation. And this is the polar opposite of the weak "vague, positive, brand values" ad campaigns Microsoft ran in its more confused days (the Surface "click" ads full of dancers in pastel colors come to mind). Those did little more than make Microsoft seem out of touch. And really, which non-tech people are going to be looking at this? There's not enough regular consumer excitement about "the next big Surface accessory" to suggest anything but the store/product page needs to be flashy. They're much better off drawing general consumer interest via review channels, product placement, and quirk-bait "behind the scenes" videos or collaborations.
EForEndeavour 6y ago
Really!? I wouldn't call this announcement "straight to the point" at all. It truly is quite the opposite. First, I get that including a byline in such an announcement is meant to convey the fact that real people worked very hard on this, but I actually think that most people will see the full names and specific job titles as visual clutter. Here's my summary of the announcement. Paragraph 1: times are changing and I think we both know what we mean. Allow me to imply that Windows market share is growing faster than ever (data do not support this: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide, https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-share-of-windows-7/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-sha...). Let's draw a false equivalency between OS and hardware while ribbing Apple for their butterfly keyboard fiasco, and also boast about offering "cameras and mics built in to connect us to the people who matter most," as if that somehow sets us apart. Paragraph 2: again, times are changing, and you know what we mean. Here are the intentionally generic product names again, with no additional information whatsoever. Paragraph 3: as a company, in this time of change, we want you to know that we're more willing than ever to sell to you. We boast about unleashing Microsoft Teams upon the world as though that's a good thing. Here are two tweets meticulously chosen and vetted by very highly skilled marketing and PR teams to further convey our desired brand messages. Panos out. Over to you, Robin. Paragraph 4: in case you forgot, we're announcing a family of new products today. They're designed to work for more than one purpose. Paragraph 5: here's a bullet list of the same intentionally generic-sounding names again. We didn't want to overwhelm you with even a tiny bit of technical specifications at this point. - Sorry, disgruntled Apple refugees considering a switch, we won't tell you yet what the "Surface Go" actually is. Just know that it "delivers incredible value" and is portable -- oh, and it's usable by people who belong to companies or families alike. - Perhaps surprisingly, our newest laptop is also our best one. - Before we go into any meaningful detail, it's more important for me to pass on the message from our brand teams that the headphones 2 -- sorry, the smoothly phrased Surface Headphones 2 -- and the Earbuds "complete your Surface experience." This article is going well. - The Surface Dock 2 is a dock that works like a dock. Paragraph 6: whatever the Surface Go is (a tablet?), it's got a 2:1 screen aspect ratio! Let's take a break from these byzantine tech specs to mention that several oddly specific organizations, about half of which you've probably never heard of, have "chosen Surface Go." More hints as to what it is: it has a compact design, touch screen, keyboard, LTE Advanced, and is compatible with "Pen." Paragraph 7: [jarringly sudden dump of Surface Go 2 tech specs, pricing, and availability, but presented as prose instead of a more sensible table or bullet point format] Paragraph 8: on to the Surface Book. It all started when we set a goal to build a competitive laptop. That laptop has since been used by users. Paragraph 9: [another block of needlessly wordy and sometimes outright redundant tech specs, pricing, and availability] Paragraph 10: We have it on good authority that people use headphones to focus. Ours are designed to fit human ears and deliver sound. We provide a head-spinning 13 levels of ambient noise control, because Bose and Apple provide a measly three, and I think we can all agree that 13 is greater than three. Paragraph 11: Earbuds, also designed for the human ear. Paragraph 12: Dock. Paragraph 13: we're coming out with a new "accessories bundle" of a keyboard and mouse, but we aren't making it clear whether we've updated the devices themselves. Paragraph 14: you can preorder today! But only in "select markets" that probably means parts of the USA, and definitely not Mexico or South Africa. We can't link you to any further information from here. Paragraph 15: as our brand teams would like to emphasize, we really hate to denigrate our products by discussing their tangible, specific, concrete aspects. It's never about that. It's all about "helping people find moments of focus and relaxation." Robin out. I'm probably about as cynical about slick, browser-killing, scroll-synced product animations as the next person, but this is no better.

partiallypro 6y ago

This is just a minor refresh, they do more flashy stuff for big releases.