Just received FastCompany’s new issue fir June, a Wow! what a cover story. Featured is the Ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky who won a $300 million dollar contract with Microsoft, winning over some pretty sweet choices.

Trouble is, on the cover, the question is asked, “Can This Dude make Microsoft Cool?” And just under that reads, “Alex Bogusky is the Steve Jobs of the Ad world. His $300 million mission: To Crush Apple.” You see, I thought , “Wow, this will be great! This is going to a be a juicy read.”

After reading it, I came to one very painful (for Microsoft and CP & B) conclusion: you can’t make a company cool just by hiring an ad agency. You have to actually make products that people want. Focus on the products and you might get somewhere. I found it laughable when the article pointed out that the CP & P agency was built on Macs, and then states, “…Keller and Reilly today are using their team as an early focus group for learning how to persuade Mac lovers to embrace Windows.”

Huh? Mac people switching to Windows? Absurd and strangely intriguing. I’ll post more on this later, but Wow. This made me wince, and I’m open minded when it comes to the great debate. (Okay a tiny bit biased.) At least these guys do know that you can’t create cool by riding on its back, and that chasing cool would be redundant. I’ll give CP & B their due, the Burger King commercials were successful (although creepy) and the TRUTH ads are done very well. They have a long, long road ahead though if they don’t have products that the early adopters want. It just won’t happen.

Zune anyone?

Church of The Apple Mind, On Microsoft… | Comments

Thanks to the people at MacDailyNews, I read this great 2004 response from Steve Jobs on monopolies, specifically Microsoft. Brilliant Steve – brilliant.

Excerpts from a BusinessWeek interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004:


BusinessWeek: What can we learn from Apple’s struggle to innovate during the decade before you returned in 1997?


Steve Jobs: Right, the sales guy. Case closed.

On Microsoft… | Comments

The other day I came across this diddy from MacDailyNews:

“As PC users clamor for Microsoft to continue to support Windows XP, company CEO Steve Ballmer called the Vista OS ‘a work in progress’ at an annual Seattle event on Thursday,” Nancy Gohring reports for IDG News Service.

“While Microsoft recently extended the date when the XP software will be available for low-cost PCs, it doesn’t plan to listen to some other complaints, including that Vista is too big. ‘Vista is bigger than XP and it’s gonna stay bigger than XP,” Ballmer said. “We have to make sure it doesn’t get bigger still,’” Gohring reports.

Ok – how is that possible? Calling your HUGE new product that everybody is counting on, because its been so damn long since an update – a work in progress? I feel your pain people – really. I do.

I can’t count on my fingers and toes how many people I know who have switched because of this, and getting fed up with the work involved with Windows. Of course it helps when they have me as a resource to go to about Apple. I should get a comission. Apple do you hear me?

On Microsoft… | Comments

Microsoft is losing it. First there was Zune, the company’s direct knock-off of the iPod. What was with the Brown option anyway? Needless to say, it tanked. Yes, it may have sold a million or so – but it doesn’t rival the ipod and its footprint as king.

Then came Vista. Way overdue, pushed back too many times, and then when it came out, a good portion of the Windows world hated it. Now comes the XP users who are trying to get Microsoft to extend the “force quit” date for XP, when the company intends to take it off the store shelves and discontinue support. Here’s a pretty one too:

In a January 7, 2004 e-mail, the chief of the Microsoft Windows team, Jim Allchin wrote to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer:

“I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems [our] customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn’t translate into great products. I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft… Apple did not lose their way… They think scenario. They think simple. They think fast.”

Do I have to mention that the Zune wasn’t compatible with Vista? Enough said.

On Microsoft… | Comments