Friday, July 25th 2008

Microsoft Spins Over a 'Mojave' Approach to Grow Vista User-base

Choice is a wonderful thing. Informed Choice is even better, where you choose something after knowing its inside-outs. The very opposite of informed choice is dogma, where you rigidly oppose something and stick to your beliefs. Incidentally, dogma seems to be one of the significant factors keeping users away from embracing Windows Vista OS, of what can be inferred from an experiment by Microsoft in San Fransisco, United States. A group of Windows XP users having negative impressions on Windows Vista were introduced to a "new" operating system they referred to as "Mojave". User experiences on using this operating system were noted and feedback taken. A surprising 90 percent of these users gave positive feedback on this new OS. They were later told that the new OS was nothing else but Windows Vista.

Despite Microsoft releasing numerous updates and fixes to the Vista OS making it a fairly stable, reliable OS close to expectations if not exactly on par, it seems to be mass dogma that's keeping users away from adopting this new OS. Going back to that experiment, a user is reported to have exclaimed "Oh wow", something Microsoft expected users to do with the new OS originally, as portrayed in those numerous television and print commercials going with the tag line "wow". Following the recent announcement of a huge budget allocation towards propagating Vista (covered here) for home and enterprise segments, the message being sent out is that Microsoft is not only being aggressive but also proactive.
Source: CNET
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231 Comments on Microsoft Spins Over a 'Mojave' Approach to Grow Vista User-base

#1
farlex85
Definitely, this is just backing up what many of us have already known. Like I have said before, I think this current go-round has suffered due to the overwhelming strength of the internet, where everybody's opinion matters. People bad-mouth vista to where it's a trend, and people who don't even know about it say they dislike it.

Did these people disguise vista in some way? Its funny to me that 90% of them had such little knowledge of vista they couldn't even recognize it. That's just great.
Posted on Reply
#2
KainXS
those 90% must have been some dumb people to not see vista was vista, I still stand firm saying that I hate vista because the more powerful your machine is the more power vista will suck from it with the exact same settings in my experience
Posted on Reply
#3
EastCoasthandle
...Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks.... The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave...
Where is the video? Why isn't that available along with the report? We need to see the desktop of the OS used, what they were told, signs, banners, billboards, etc. Also, how was it determined that they were pro XP? Come on, there is no proof this ever happened, lol. There were no reporters there to witness this event and they are only going off some marketing email? Hello??
Posted on Reply
#4
farlex85
EastCoasthandleWhere is the video? Why isn't that available along with the report? Come on, there is no proof this ever happened, lol. There were no reporters there to witness this event and they are only going off some marketing email? Hello??
Why would they show the video? This is a market survey not a scientific test. Reporters are not typically present during market research. It's microsoft, so you never know, but this is the kind of trend I personally would expect to see w/ what I've encountered personally.
Posted on Reply
#5
Selene
This just what most of us have been saying, ppl bashing vista never even used it.
Vista 64 SP1 is better then XP SP3 IMO, i have 4 PCs in my house 1 Vista64 SP1, 1 Vista HP SP1, 2 XP SP3.
I use the 2 vista PCs way more then the XP ones, mostly due to them being old, but they do get used every day, by my wife and kids.
Posted on Reply
#6
DaedalusHelios
Vista is fine. People always attack it for what they don't understand. All problems I encountered with Vista were easily fixed within minutes. The more security layers and services you put into something its only natural for it to be more resource heavy than the alternatives. I maintain a large network that includes dual booting Laptops(Mac OSX/Vista). I prefer Vista over OSX and XP. All of our machines are upgraded on an annual cycle. I encountered more problems with XP than Vista.
Posted on Reply
#7
EastCoasthandle
farlex85Why would they show the video? This is a market survey not a scientific test. Reporters are not typically present during market research. It's microsoft, so you never know, but this is the kind of trend I personally would expect to see w/ what I've encountered personally.
If there is no proof, it didn't exist. Just take it with a grain of salt when the email came from their own marketing department instead of a neutral 3rd party. :roll:
Also:
-no information of how they determined someone to be Pro XP
-the video showing the desktop of the OS in question. Also the entire atmosphere of the enviroment
-etc
Posted on Reply
#8
farlex85
EastCoasthandleIf there is no proof, it didn't exist.
Ok well you go on thinking that. All market research is conducted in the same fashion, the only difference is sometimes it's done by a third party which could be said to be less biased, to simply say it doesn't exist is rather presumptuous and biased on your part. Of course you take what comes from a company about their own product w/ a grain of salt, but like I said, I've encountered attitudes this article shows on an everyday basis at work and on the internet.
Posted on Reply
#9
mlee49
Wow when you have to trick the user's to think its something else and have a Major Ad Campain to promote Vista something just comes across funny.

I haven't worked with it, but I realize it's not for my system. I'm good with XP and when I upgrade my computer(hardware) I'll figure out the best os for my needs.
Posted on Reply
#10
narnia
EastCoasthandleWhere is the video? Why isn't that available along with the report? Come on, there is no proof this ever happened, lol. There were no reporters there to witness this event and they are only going off some marketing email? Hello??
no need for market research. I work for a computer shop and majority of our customers dont like vista. I asked whats wrong with it and they couldnt come up with an answer...:laugh:They just said friends tell them it sucks and they've never actually tried it. Go figure :slap: Word of mouth can be good and also be bad..:shadedshu
Posted on Reply
#11
alexp999
Staff
I find vista faster and more stable than my XP ever was. Vista actually speeded up my grandparents PC which at the time was a P4 with 512mb of ram.

I went back to XP for a little while and hated it, came stright back to vista, there are more BSOD cus XP cant recover its drivers and programs like vista can.

i dont understand all these people that hate it. :confused:
Posted on Reply
#12
EastCoasthandle
farlex85Ok well you go on thinking that. All market research is conducted in the same fashion, the only difference is sometimes it's done by a third party which could be said to be less biased, to simply say it doesn't exist is rather presumptuous and biased on your part. Of course you take what comes from a company about their own product w/ a grain of salt, but like I said, I've encountered attitudes this article shows on an everyday basis at work and on the internet.
-This kind of research is normally conducted by a independent 3rd party that has no bias. That did not happen but came directly from their marketing department.

-They tricked people into thinking this was something that it's not. That's not a blind study as it only induced bias in the survey that it was some other product

-They claim they have video of it but isn't shown

There is simply to many holes in this so called study to hold any valid claims that it exist. Also, the methods that were written in the email are questionable at best.
Posted on Reply
#13
DrPepper
The Doctor is in the house
mlee49Wow when you have to trick the user's to think its something else and have a Major Ad Campain to promote Vista something just comes across funny.

I haven't worked with it, but I realize it's not for my system. I'm good with XP and when I upgrade my computer(hardware) I'll figure out the best os for my needs.
Most ad campaigns are designed to trick you into buying something you don't need, nothing really new about that :rolleyes: Anyway took a risk and installed vista x64 and omg it is so fricken sleek :D Nothing major wrong with it apart from Arma which needed patched and that was all. Performance in games is incredible and my apps like internet explorer (Hated it until vista64) now load up quite fast so overall vista = 10/10 from me.
Posted on Reply
#14
farlex85
EastCoasthandle-This kind of research is normally conducted by a independent 3rd party that has no bias. That did not happen but came directly from their marketing department.

-They tricked people into thinking this was something that it's not. That's not a blind study as it only induced bias in the survey that it was some other product

-They claim they have video of it but isn't shown

There is simply to many holes in this so called study to hold any valid claims that it exist. Also, the methods that were written in the email are questionable at best.
Again, it's not a scientific study. There is no need for "blinds." Companies conduct their own market research all the time. They wouldn't show the video, there is no need for it. It's not scientifically sound, who cares, the biases are not made up, I see it all the time, I'm just repeating myself.........
Posted on Reply
#15
narnia
farlex85Again, it's not a scientific study. There is no need for "blinds." Companies conduct their own market research all the time. They wouldn't show the video, there is no need for it. It's not scientifically sound, who cares, the biases are not made up, I see it all the time, I'm just repeating myself.........
agree :toast:
Posted on Reply
#16
EastCoasthandle
farlex85Again, it's not a scientific study. There is no need for "blinds." Companies conduct their own market research all the time. They wouldn't show the video, there is no need for it. It's not scientifically sound, who cares, the biases are not made up, I see it all the time, I'm just repeating myself.........
Basic information of:
-how these results were obtained
-environment in which the results were taken
-what the OS's desktop looked like
-how they determined someone is Pro XP or otherwise
-etc
matters because it can help validate or invalidate this report based on the evidence presented. You can choose to believe it based on an email from their own marketing department. I choose not to believe it because it's "just" an email from their marketing department. And, I question their methods of how the survey is conducted. At this point we can only agree to disagree.
Posted on Reply
#17
candle_86
narniano need for market research. I work for a computer shop and majority of our customers dont like vista. I asked whats wrong with it and they couldnt come up with an answer...:laugh:They just said friends tell them it sucks and they've never actually tried it. Go figure :slap: Word of mouth can be good and also be bad..:shadedshu
thats the issue i have with family members refusing to try vista. My moms laptop is Vista her first words when she got it was "Phillip can you put XP on it" without ever tring it. Thankfully HP didnt have drivers on there website for her laptop that are XP certified so i convinced her i can't, though i could have easily gotten them from Nvidia for her laptop lol. She now enjoys vista, but its simply the word on Vista is its crap. The Truth is you can't judge a peice of software by its release bugs, if we did, no one would use XP either, any remember the BSOD every other day on XP Gold. or the daily updates to get it stable?
Posted on Reply
#18
candle_86
EastCoasthandleIt matters because it validates this report. You can choose to believe it based on an email from their own marketing department. I choose not to believe it because it's "just" an email from their marketing department. And, I question their methods of how the survey is conducted. At this point we can only agree to disagree.
its the same thing other compaines did. Blind Tastes tests with Pepsi Vs Coke in the 80's showed that die hard coke drinkers that hated Pepsi prefer Pepsi over Coke, they didnt know which cola they where drinking though. The users in this test where in the same situation they thought they where getting to try maybe windows 7 and thought it was amazing, same situation
Posted on Reply
#19
narnia
I built my mom a pc 5 months ago with XP Pro...then she bought a brand new notebook a month ago with Vista premium. Guess what she told me...she said she like vista much better than the XP and she asked me if i could install Vista on her main computer. :p
Posted on Reply
#20
EastCoasthandle
candle_86its the same thing other compaines did. Blind Tastes tests with Pepsi Vs Coke in the 80's showed that die hard coke drinkers that hated Pepsi prefer Pepsi over Coke, they didnt know which cola they where drinking though. The users in this test where in the same situation they thought they where getting to try maybe windows 7 and thought it was amazing, same situation
I recall those studies and they didn't put up billboards/banners say "Pepsi" when they were drinking Coke. A blind study is just that, blind. The subject isn't aware of what they are taking. Nor are they influenced in any way that it's one product over another.
Posted on Reply
#21
DaedalusHelios
EastCoasthandleIt matters because it validates this report. You can choose to believe it based on an email from their own marketing department. I choose not to believe it because it's "just" an email from their marketing department. And, I question their methods of how the survey is conducted. At this point we can only agree to disagree.
If you hate Microsoft so much and distrust their methods just use Linux. Microsoft has alot of restraint and does not lack virtue compared to other companies their size. Almost all large companies have done bad things on a much larger scale. Bill Gates gives massive amounts of money to charity just like Warren Buffet. I think people just like giving Microsoft a hard time.

Their are many massive corporations I genuinely hate, Microsoft just isn't one of them. ;)
Posted on Reply
#22
EastCoasthandle
DaedalusHeliosIf you hate Microsoft so much and distrust their methods just use Linux. Microsoft has alot of restraint and does not lack virtue compared to other companies their size. Almost all large companies have done bad things on a much larger scale. Bill Gates gives massive amounts of money to charity just like Warren Buffet. I think people just like giving Microsoft a hard time.

Their are many massive corporations I genuinely hate, Microsoft just isn't one of them. ;)
Don't lie about what I said. I never said I hated anyone or anything. I said that when you conduct surveys like this if you want "me" to believe it there must be something to validate it other then an email from it's marketing department.
-independent survey from a neutral party
-how these results were obtained
-environment in which the results were taken
-what the OS's desktop looked like
-how they determined someone is Pro XP or otherwise
-etc
Posted on Reply
#23
timta2
Well, except those taste tests were a marketing scam. There is no way that someone would not be able to identify which soda was which, unless they had never had them. This was even more true back in the early 80s before soda used High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Posted on Reply
#24
EastCoasthandle
timta2Well, except those taste tests were a marketing scam. There is no way that someone would not be able to identify which soda was which, unless they had never had them. This was even more true back in the early 80s before soda used High Fructose Corn Syrup.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics
Posted on Reply
#25
candle_86
you cant have an OS with a blank name that wont work
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