8 ms·

I think this is a sign of Microsoft's desperation to stay relevant. Most of the Surface reviews have spoken poorly about the device. Windows RT hasn't been wel

by kyro 14y ago

I think this is a sign of Microsoft's desperation to stay relevant. Most of the Surface reviews have spoken poorly about the device. Windows RT hasn't been well received. They've tried to revamp their entire image -- with new hardware, software, and extensive marketing -- with limited success. "Look at how cool our product is" hasn't worked for them, so they're resorting to "look at how terrible their product is." You can tell they've been trying incredibly hard to stay fresh, but nothing has really taken off for them. I've yet to see a Surface in the wild.

fekberg 14y ago
"Most of the Surface reviews have spoken poorly about the device." What reviews have you been reading? Edit: Regarding the actual topic, this is just "normal" PR it's a way to scare people into swapping from gmail to outlook.com unfortunately it works better than many might think. Microsoft aren't the only ones doing PR like this it's a lot more common than you might think. I think PR like this _can_ be good for two reasons: raise awareness of the issue that Google scans your e-mails and make people aware that there are other worthy alternatives to gmail. I noticed that in one of the "cases" listed on the page by Microsoft one e-mail is about a credit card debt where someone might have overused their credit limit and might be in trouble. The ads that pop up from this is such ads giving advice on how to get new loans to cover the credit card debt which is really not a nice way of helping someone that is already in trouble. I think that Microsoft could (and maybe should) have less aggressive PR about competitors and just focus on the good parts about outlook.com. Anyways, I'm probably biased because I love Microsoft and whatever they do and I own all their awesome devices.
- fusiongyro 14y ago
  All of the original Surface reviews were negative. The Surface Pro reviews seem to be mostly positive.
  - fekberg 14y ago
    "All of the original Surface reviews were negative" No they're not? Then you haven't read ALL of them, mine weren't negative and most of the ones I read weren't negative either. I don't think you want to remember the positive ones, but there are a lot of them.
    - firefoxman1 14y ago
      Even if the reviews are positive, I've spoken to many people about the Surface (techies and not) and very few spoke well of Windows 8/Surface.
      - falcolas 14y ago
        How many had a Surface? I know lots of people who pan the Surface, but don't actually own one.
        firefoxman1 14y ago
        That's a good point. Almost none actually owned one. But public perception is often what decides if a product is successful.
      - fekberg 14y ago
        I have both iPad and Surface and I've had the iPad for years. I've asked my girlfriend if she wants an iPad and she told me that she didn't because she didn't really find a use case for it. When I brought home the Surface she said: "Wow, this I can use . Get me one!". I don't really know why but she likes it and everyone that I've show Surface to and that have tried it out do infact like it, a lot.
        abdulla 14y ago
        That's some pretty anecdotal evidence. Just as anecdotally, I have heard to the contrary.
    - fusiongyro 14y ago
rfergie 14y ago
You point about desperation to stay relevant may be correct, but I don't think this has anything to do with the surface reviews. This campaign launched last year before the poor surface reviews came out. http://searchengineland.com/microsoft-attacks-google-with-scroogled-campaign-forgets-its-guilty-of-same-thing-140856 http://searchengineland.com/microsoft-attacks-google-with-sc...
eduardordm 14y ago
I agree with you about microsoft. But what I did not know is that google shopping was not on my side. I used that many times to find better prices, but it turns out the results are completely manipulated. You will find those who paid more in an ad auction, not really the best prices. In fact, they restrict price comparison for just a list of websites and are passing parameters about the click to that website, which obviously is an active actor in this process, read: it paid. I feel betrayed by google, really.
ryanmolden 14y ago
>so they're resorting to "look at how terrible their product is." I'll presume you must have felt the same way about Apple's I'm a Mac/I'm a PC series of ads? Since all they really did was try to paint a picture of how terrible PCs were, and since Windows is the dominant PC OS, how terrible Windows was.
- pyre 14y ago
  I felt that way about the ads. The idea that Macs were immune to virus infection was laughable.
  - bitwize 14y ago
    Until very recently (2010, maybe?) there was virtually no Mac malware in the wild.
    - pyre 14y ago
      Spot the fallacy: X doesn't exist for Y, therefore Y is immune to X.
axusgrad 14y ago
I think the only goal is to show more advertisements, especially shopping advertisements. It's nice having more than one big company for search/webmail/etc.
nivla 14y ago
> Most of the Surface reviews have spoken poorly about the device Ohh so this is what happens when all the pro Microsoft news gets flagged off from the frontpage. That aside, the Surface reviews have been fairly mixed, from biased journalist on both sides to Jeff Atwood seems to either hate it or love it. I like to think of it as a niche product (that is still in beta) than a competition to Ipad or the Ultrabooks.

by kyro 14y ago

fekberg 14y ago

"Most of the Surface reviews have spoken poorly about the device." What reviews have you been reading? Edit: Regarding the actual topic, this is just "normal" PR it's a way to scare people into swapping from gmail to outlook.com unfortunately it works better than many might think. Microsoft aren't the only ones doing PR like this it's a lot more common than you might think. I think PR like this _can_ be good for two reasons: raise awareness of the issue that Google scans your e-mails and make people aware that there are other worthy alternatives to gmail. I noticed that in one of the "cases" listed on the page by Microsoft one e-mail is about a credit card debt where someone might have overused their credit limit and might be in trouble. The ads that pop up from this is such ads giving advice on how to get new loans to cover the credit card debt which is really not a nice way of helping someone that is already in trouble. I think that Microsoft could (and maybe should) have less aggressive PR about competitors and just focus on the good parts about outlook.com. Anyways, I'm probably biased because I love Microsoft and whatever they do and I own all their awesome devices.

fusiongyro 14y ago
All of the original Surface reviews were negative. The Surface Pro reviews seem to be mostly positive.
- fekberg 14y ago
  "All of the original Surface reviews were negative" No they're not? Then you haven't read ALL of them, mine weren't negative and most of the ones I read weren't negative either. I don't think you want to remember the positive ones, but there are a lot of them.
  - firefoxman1 14y ago
    Even if the reviews are positive, I've spoken to many people about the Surface (techies and not) and very few spoke well of Windows 8/Surface.
    - falcolas 14y ago
      How many had a Surface? I know lots of people who pan the Surface, but don't actually own one.
      - firefoxman1 14y ago
        That's a good point. Almost none actually owned one. But public perception is often what decides if a product is successful.
    - fekberg 14y ago
      I have both iPad and Surface and I've had the iPad for years. I've asked my girlfriend if she wants an iPad and she told me that she didn't because she didn't really find a use case for it. When I brought home the Surface she said: "Wow, this I can use . Get me one!". I don't really know why but she likes it and everyone that I've show Surface to and that have tried it out do infact like it, a lot.
      - abdulla 14y ago
        That's some pretty anecdotal evidence. Just as anecdotally, I have heard to the contrary.
  - fusiongyro 14y ago

rfergie 14y ago

You point about desperation to stay relevant may be correct, but I don't think this has anything to do with the surface reviews. This campaign launched last year before the poor surface reviews came out. http://searchengineland.com/microsoft-attacks-google-with-scroogled-campaign-forgets-its-guilty-of-same-thing-140856 http://searchengineland.com/microsoft-attacks-google-with-sc...

eduardordm 14y ago

I agree with you about microsoft. But what I did not know is that google shopping was not on my side. I used that many times to find better prices, but it turns out the results are completely manipulated. You will find those who paid more in an ad auction, not really the best prices. In fact, they restrict price comparison for just a list of websites and are passing parameters about the click to that website, which obviously is an active actor in this process, read: it paid. I feel betrayed by google, really.

ryanmolden 14y ago

>so they're resorting to "look at how terrible their product is." I'll presume you must have felt the same way about Apple's I'm a Mac/I'm a PC series of ads? Since all they really did was try to paint a picture of how terrible PCs were, and since Windows is the dominant PC OS, how terrible Windows was.

pyre 14y ago
I felt that way about the ads. The idea that Macs were immune to virus infection was laughable.
- bitwize 14y ago
  Until very recently (2010, maybe?) there was virtually no Mac malware in the wild.
  - pyre 14y ago
    Spot the fallacy: X doesn't exist for Y, therefore Y is immune to X.

axusgrad 14y ago

I think the only goal is to show more advertisements, especially shopping advertisements. It's nice having more than one big company for search/webmail/etc.

nivla 14y ago

> Most of the Surface reviews have spoken poorly about the device Ohh so this is what happens when all the pro Microsoft news gets flagged off from the frontpage. That aside, the Surface reviews have been fairly mixed, from biased journalist on both sides to Jeff Atwood seems to either hate it or love it. I like to think of it as a niche product (that is still in beta) than a competition to Ipad or the Ultrabooks.