Microsoft conducting "blind taste tests!"

[gunug]

This is kind of funny!  Micr$oft went around San Francisco picking out people with negative opinion of VISTA and asked them to try out a new and improved operating system that was actually VISTA in disguise (funny hat and fake beard?):

QUOTE

Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista.

"Oh wow," said one user, eliciting exactly the exclamation that Microsoft had hoped to garner when it first released the operating system more than 18 months ago. Instead, the operating system got mixed reviews and criticisms for its lack of compatibility and other headaches.
Yep, but they were spared a few things: finding drivers, application compatibility, Vista-capable PCs that run the OS sluggishly at best.  Let's do another test and add that to the mix, and see what kind of response we get then.

http://hothardware.com/News/Once_Tricking_...ers_Like_Vista/

[krissel]

I like the comment about how New Coke was liked by testers but ultimately hated by most.

[Gregg]

Shoulda told 'em it was called ATSIV just to see how many would get it.

[gunug]

A road apple by any other name still stinks!

There is more about the aim of this in Infoworld:

QUOTE

"In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1," Ballmer said in the e-mail, which was obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, as well as other news outlets. "But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience."

Ballmer went on to promise that Microsoft would change how it deals with hardware vendors, such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, the world's No. 1 and No. 2 computer sellers, respectively. "Today, we're changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We'll do the same with phones -- providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences."

Analysts struggled to interpret Ballmer's comments, with some unsure exactly what he meant and others willing to read between the lines.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/25/..._success_1.html