The PasteBoard

I am not going to turn this into a Microsoft bashing exercise. Enough people are doing that. Is Vista a dud? Well I have been using it mostly in a virtualisation environment on my Mac Pro. It does what I need. My expectation was for it to be a step ahead from XP. A modern operating system that would run fast, be nice and slick with a bit of eye candy and most important of all that it would be secure. Not too much to ask for the 21st Century?

Some of the criticism aimed at Microsoft has been some times a bit over the top. Certainly the service pack has made a reasonable difference. However the release of Vista is by no means what it should have been and I think everyone is more or less agreed on that.

In my opinion Microsoft's problems go deeper than just a dud release of an OS. With the stinging criticism of late I am fairly sure that they will be doing their utmost to push the boat out and get a much better release in Windows 7, or whatever they will call it.

No, Microsoft are suffering mainly because people are bored with them. People are not excited by the brand. People use the software for "work" and Apple have cleverly played on that in their (infamous?) Mac Vs PC ads. Let's face it, for most people work is a chore. A place you go to to pay the bills. There is little in the way of excitement. Excel, Word, death by Powerpoint are all making us feel listless and that boredom is spreading to Microsoft as a brand.

Apple, on the other hand, are producing "Office for the rest of us" in the form of the iLife applications. You know, the fun stuff. Taking pictures of the family. Using that video you shot and turning it in to a really cool movie that you can all watch with a bit of excitement. No digging out the photo album and the projector and boring people to death. iTunes, the iPod and now the iPhone. All cool things that people want. Things that are energising people and engaging them which is why the once stagnant Mac brand is now suddenly growing at unprecedented industry rates. Now, there is more to that story than meets the eye and OS X is certainly at the core of it but that is the truth of the matter.

Microsoft are making themselves irrelevant.

To try and make themselves less so they are running an advertising campaign, at first using Seinfeld and now an "I'm a PC" advertisement. Take a look...

Seems ok on the face of it? Maybe so, but I will tell you what. I may be an Apple user, but I am also a Windows user and a very infrequent Ubuntu user, but one thing I am not, I am NOT a Mac. I don't define my life as such. I use a tool. A tool I enjoy using. If someone uses Windows and it makes their day, then go right ahead. This Mac user will not be objecting, nor will he look down on you for your choice of computing platform, but please, for God's sake, don't label me as either a Mac or a PC. I have no intention of dressing like Justin Long, hell, I am 45, I would look like a tube.

But what is more strange in this ad, is that it actually makes a reference to the Apple Ads. Is the first rule of advertising not to acknowledge the opposition? This is why I find it a bit strange. Does this not tell everyone how successful the Apple Ads are and will subliminally infer that Apple are the cool kids, the guys with the good stuff and Microsoft are just playing catch up?

Microsoft do have problems. And while everyone on the planet have product problems it now strikes me that Microsoft simply have credibility problems. The same kind of ones that Apple had in the 90's and I was there and it was painful. "Beleaguered" the word used to describe Apple in the 90's now the word most fitting to Microsoft. Is Balmer going to pull a Jobs and turn the company around?

My bet, is that with him as CEO, the answer is no.