I have been meaning to post about this for a long time, but finally today the announcement of that MS Portable Media Center thing pushed me over the edge. I have noticed that Microsoft has begun to come out with products simply because another vendor has had success with the product. Now this is OK, if Microsoft wants to try and compete with another product or company, I am fine with that. But the problem is that Microsoft does not really want to dominate the market, they just want to do enough to get something out there and grab a little market share. I call these me-too products, basically Microsoft just wants to also have a product in this market... but they are not really going to try and innovate or push to be the best. This annoys the crap out of me.
Examples you say?
Well, MS Portable Media Center is a perfect example. . Apple is making a little change from selling Ipods and songs, and now Microsoft has to try and do something too. Now, if Microsoft came out with a kick ass product that beat the Apple product in design, battery life, size (both dimensions and hdd size), and maybe throw in wireless or bluetooth... then I would be like "Holy Shit! This is why I love Microsoft!". But instead we see pictures of this huge ass "hand-held" device with an LCD the size of a PDA that looks like it could drain the battery before you could get through the long version of "Inna Gada Davita". This product does not look like it is going to kill anything, let along the ipod. I don't think that Microsoft should have ever tried to get into this space... and here are a couple reasons.
1) MP3 players need to have a long battery life, Nino may be willing to plug his smartphone in every night but I doubt he wants to plug his MP3 player in as well.
2) For it to be worth Microsoft's time and effort, they need to be selling software. For the software to be complex enough that a vendor will buy it, as opposed to just writing there own, it will need too much processor power, which needs more battery power, see number 1.
3) MP3 players don't need complicated software, software is what Microsoft sells. (Hell, I saw an MP3 player the other day that had two buttons)
4) No one needs a device that plays movies on a 4-inch screen... If someone wants to watch portable movies they will buy a portable DVD player. (and those dont even sell very well, which should tell you something)
That is only one example, there are other examples as well. I think the smartphone and the pocket pc are also somewhat me-too products, it does not seem that Microsoft is really putting all the effort they could into these products. I might also lump Microsoft Money and Movie Maker in there.
The only reason this pisses me off is because it gives Microsoft a bad name, if they want to do something then they should go all the way. I love .NET, I love Windows, I love Office, because they are kick-ass products that in my mind beat everything else on the market. If Microsoft is not going to put 110% into a product I would rather them not even do it, and let someone who wants to put 110% into it do it... otherwise it is just a waste of time and money. (I am not saying the people who make up these teams at Microsoft are not trying their hardest, but that Microsoft as a company is not putting the resources and effort into this product)
The XBox has not done as well as they wanted, but at least I see that they are trying to do everything they can to dominate that market. I see innovation and effort, I just don't see that in these other ventures and I guess more than anything I am just dissapointed.
(Oh, and here is a prediction for 2004. They build a music download service into Windows Media Player, deploy it with Service Pack 2, and get sued by everyone and their sister.)
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