Strange, but sometimes things that are expected to happen, actually do happen. Microsoft announced a hostile bid for Yahoo.

I so like the bid to succeed. That’s because I feel strongly about the result of this take-over and I would love to verify my hypothesis.

My hypothesis is that the market shares of the two do not sum up. MSFT will lose focus and instead get entangled in restructuring of Yahoo!. Users will get the combination of the two worst, in my personal view, experiences - Google will be able to differentiate even more strongly through simplicity and focus, playing contrast to the new behemoth with combined dna of committee-driven software factory and a portal.

Or maybe the above will be proven wrong and Google will at last get a worthy competitor.

(Even though falling price of MSFT stock indicates that I’m not alone in my opinion of the contrary.)

In any case, this merger going ahead will be decisive, this way or another, for both Google and Microsoft.

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Nick White explains why users encounter sound problems in MS latest and greatest OS.

Thoughts…

1) It’s nice thing that such communication occurs at all and MS should be credited for it

2) However, nothing can explain why people who bought new expensive hardware and new operating system from MS get worse experience than what they had 5 years ago… and, as people comment, other OSes deliver better experience on the same hardware

3) I wonder how MS images anyone buying into “PC as entertainment hub” if they can’t even get the simple audio playback right

4) All this makes it scary to think about need to buy a new computer in the nearest future. But new computers should fare better than old ones upgraded to Vista, and hopefully some of these problems will be solved by then.

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Apple did it again. Reached agreement with EMI and will offer its music library unprotected (and higher quality, though more expensive) in May. So in the end I finally might buy something from iTunes, since EMI’s portfolio seems to include also Radiohead.

It’s just funny how Apple is able to leave Microsoft far behind on every turn. First with its closely guarded DRM castle, now, when Microsoft copied its approach (poorly), it comes out of the castle and scores as a digital freedom fighter. Microsoft, following Mini-microsoft description, like a “lumbering idiot”.

Still, already 6 years into digital XXI century, and still the only idea to get more songs of Budapest Klezmer Band seems to go to Budapest and buy some CDs.

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It’s either because I didn’t think about it, because I didn’t care, or simply because Mike’s Torres post does such a good job in explaining it, that only today I started to appreciate the grand idea of Microsoft’s “experience” (emphasis mine):

It isn’t about Windows Vista vs. Mac OS X or Google vs. Windows Live. It’s ultimately about the digital lifestyle and convergence. It’s about the complete “stack” from your PC to your mobile device, television, the web, and beyond.

The thing is: Windows isn’t just a PC operating system anymore; it’s quickly becoming the best seamless end-to-end experience. Windows Vista, Windows Mobile, Xbox 360 (Windows Media Center Extender), and Windows Live. One without the other will work just fine, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

It isn’t about the web any more than it’s about the office… or the mobile device… or the living room. The key is to make it all work together like magic. And Microsoft, more than any other company in existence, is in a fantastic position to do this.

And why shouldn’t be Microsoft pursuing this “experience” strategy. Like Google, which started online, then moved to desktop, and then started to put itself on the mobiles. Like Apple, with its “iPod lifestyle” environment.

However, while the other guys can leverage on the reputation based on simple and elegant solutions which “just work” and try to stretch them further, Microsoft might have more difficult time trying to convince people that experience with Windows is the one they want to see extended.

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Dustin Hubbard, Microsoft’s Mobile PC team Group Manager, gives some background for the buzz generated around “Origami” project:

http://origamiproject.com/blogs/team_blog/archive/2006/03/09/19.aspx

The buzz started when the “leaked” video featuring device was discovered, however, Microsoft claims this was not staged:

Myth #2, we leaked the Origami video to create more hype. I can guarantee you that the discovery of the Origami video created by Digital Kitchen was completely unexpected. No one at Microsoft even knew that video was publicly available until someone posted it after finding it by doing an Internet search.

Anyway, the story makes an interesting case study of the viral marketing.

When the device was finally unveiled at Cebit, it turned out to be a smaller version of Tablet PC:

In the meantime, quite interesting “Origami” turned into a dull, but not unexpected given Microsoft’s record in (un)inspiring naming, “UMPC” for “Ultra Mobile PC”.

Not that the product itself is much more exciting than the name - it is reported to have a battery life up to 3 hours and cost around 1000$; why it would be better than the smartphones, PDAs and portable game consoles already on the market is anyone’s guess.

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Sanaz Ahari is a program manager at Microsoft, working on live.com portal; originally it started as start.com but then was included in “Windows Live” branding push. Nowadays, as far as I can understand, start.com is supposed to be a testing groud for components to be included in live.com, which is, however, still called “beta”.

Anyway, I just read an entry on her blog, with some comments comparing her today’s work to the start.com days:

one thing i would say is:
during start.com it was all about: experiment, iterate and improve a concept and make customers happy by listening to them. and who did everything: a few ppl, end-to-end for design, pm, dev, test, planning, marketing - everyone basically wore all the hats.

live.com: it’s different. there are many more stakeholders, some justifiably so and some maybe not. so many stakeholders that it’s hard to keep track. some are stakeholders and some think they are. the biggest challenge is making sure the right ppl are involved - the more ppl the longer it takes to just get shit done. and that is hard - very hard, but absolutely crucial. it’s the balance of how do i keep the project going, while keeping everyone happy. and keeping everyone, or at least most folks :) , happy is crucial if you actually want to succeed in the corporate world…

it’s almost like start.com had one set of customers: our users, live.com has two, the internal teams/stakeholders and our users :) so my rule of thumb is, if the teams/stakeholders can help us build a better prodcut for our customers then that’s great! if not, let’s not waste eachother’s time.

It reminded me an interview with Marissa Mayer of Google, in which she elaborated on how it works in her camp. I read the article half a year ago, but one or two search queries located it in Businessweek: (read more…)

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Microsoft announced it’s next “bet the company” move and declared embracing web services with its “Windows Live” platform. Even if I failed to see any value in MSFT’s site at this moment, the news got me interested in some of the web services guys whom Microsoft is targeting and trying to “innovate” from with this another “me-too” initiative of theirs.

I paid a visit to Salesforce.com, which had me quite impressed. In case you didn’t know it already, the company is providing an online CRM application. No software required. No integration projects needed. And it seems that it’s working:)

I wonder if someone is already doing this kind of stuff in Poland.

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