Even Microsoft execs were ‘burned’ by Vista marketing
A Microsoft Vice President complained to colleagues that he’d been “burned” by a laptop marked as ‘Vista Capable.’ It’s just one embarrassing revelation in the latest batch of e-mails uncovered during ongoing legal action over the marketing campaign.
Earlier today I wrote about the problems with Apple’s lack of policy over how employees deal with e-mails. While I stand by my conclusion that this is a legally risky way to do business, some of the Microsoft e-mails certainly show why companies aren’t keen to leave a permanent record of internal discussions – and why they can be an important part of legal cases against a company.
As you may remember from my article last week, Intel successfully pressured Microsoft to relax the criteria for ‘Vista Capable’ machines to include its recently-released 915 series of chips, despite them not being capable of running some of the most publicized Vista features.
The latest series of e-mails includes one dated Feb. 25, 2007 from Microsoft Vice President Mike Nash to several colleagues reading in part:
I personally got burned by the Intel 915 chipset issue on a laptop that I PERSONALLY [bought] (eg with my own $$$). Are we seeing this from a lot of customers? I know that I chose my laptop (a Sony TX77DP) because it had the vista logo and was pretty disappointed that it not only wouldn’t run [Aero] Glass, but more importantly it wouldn’t run Movie Maker.
The problems weren’t limited to internal debate, however: they affected relations with other firms as well. HP complained to the firm about its support lines being “overrun” after delays in Microsoft sending out upgrade discs for Vista. Meanwhile, when Best Buy approached Microsoft with concerns about exactly what would be in Vista, a Microsoft worker told colleagues, “it appears [Best Buy] is whining.”
It’s also now clear the firm was well aware Vista would get a poor reception thanks to features being announced and then dropped before the system’s release (which explains the comparative secrecy over Windows 7). Technology analyst Rob Enderle even warned of the type of headlines the firm might expect, including:
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- Microsoft Charges More For Less
- Buy Tablet And Media Center Or Else
- If You Doubted Microsoft Was A Monopoly
- Windows Consumers Get 4 Choices, Business Gets Screwed
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