Microsoft kills Windows Live brand
Windows 8 incriminated
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Microsoft is killing its Windows Live brand ahead of launching Windows 8, citing "customer confusion".
In a mercifully short Windows 8 blog Microsoft said it’s ripping the meaningless umbrella from a bunch of online services.
Windows Live covers Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger and is the prefix to its Web 2.0 me-too properties Live Photo Gallery, Live Movie Maker, and Windows Live Mail.
Windows 8 is the catalyst for this change. In some self-justifying meeting somewhere deep inside Redmond it seems to have been decided calling something “Windows Live” implied the internet was an imperfect bolt-on "experience".
From Microsoft marketing central we have this:
Windows 8 provides us with an opportunity to reimagine our approach to services and software and to design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience, accessible in Windows desktop apps, Windows Metro style apps, standard web browsers, and on mobile devices. Today the expectation is that a modern device comes with services as well as apps for communication and sharing. There is no “separate brand” to think about or a separate service to install – it is all included when you turn on your PC for the first time.
There’s plenty o' talk about how Windows 8 will be “cloud-powered".
Microsoft has promised it will share more on this hot-button marketing call in the coming weeks. Long term, expect Microsoft to do another 180° with as much confidence, self-justification and pomp as when it launched Windows Live back in 2005.
It’s classic Microsoft, fretting over how something is perceived internally and externally, rather than simply delivering something that works or is wanted.
The more meaningful outcome of this particular episode will be that Windows and Window Live group president Steven Sinofsky’s job title takes a haircut. ®
COMMENTS
Stick to a ruddy name will you
citing "customer confusion". I'm sure its more confusing that they keep changing ruddy names
Isn't the problem their endless confusion over who their customer really is?
The problem is that Microsoft have failed to identify who their customers truly are. Is it the cool kids with their smartphones, busy tweeting their masturbatory self-aggrandisements? Is it the Reg reader, who needs to install 300 copies of Windows by Thursday but who would much rather be trading witty banter with Verity Stob? Is it the great unwashed masses stuck in their cubes churning out emails and powerpoint decks?
What we've seen in the last few releases is the infantilization of their product set. I crank out hundreds of emails and documents a week at work and I don't give a stuff about Windows Live .NET MSN Zune Picture Player or whatever it's called this week. I want something that is fast, stable and professional looking.
I respectfully suggest that the Microsoft team do the following.
1. Give up trying to chase the cool kids. You can't do it, and it demeans you. Get over it.
2. Forget about branding the add on products as any other than "Microsoft". Not "Windows Live", "MSN", "Windows SkyDrive" or whatever. You are playing on a field where the Windows name confers no advantage and your apps must compete with everyone else. It should just be Microsoft SkyDrive. Microsoft Instant Messenger. And so on.
3. For the love of god, produce some themes and customization bundles that mean something more than fluffy clouds on my desktop. When I'm at work, I want to be in power user mode: all the fluffy sh** turned off and everything sacrificed to speed, stability and efficiency. When I'm at home, I don;t mind a little fluff. Go ahead and show me your metro doodah.
"There’s plenty 'o (sic) talk about how Windows 8 will be 'cloud-powered'."
Well that's another good reason for me to stay away from it.
(And shouldn't that be "plenty o' talk"?)
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