Text 18985, 68 rader
Skriven 2007-06-23 09:43:38 av mike (1:379/45)
Ärende: From the ‘I’m glad I’m not a Vista salesperson’ files
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From: mike <mike@barkto.com>


http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=528


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All the recent career advice I’ve received from Mac zealots has really got me
thinking about my future. (The “go back to baking muffins and taking care of
the kidsö e-mail from one reader definitely gave me food for thought.)

If I ever decide to hang up my blogging hat, there’s one job I’ve already ruled
out: Windows Vista sales/marketing. (Actually, I should make that two jobs
ruled out: The other is working at the Genius Bar at an Apple store.)

I feel for the folks hawking Vista right now. There are too many conflicting
pieces of information coming out of Redmond to figure out what to tell
customers — especially business customers — who are wondering when/whether to
upgrade. Consider the evidence:

Exhibit 1: The “Don’t Wait for Vista SP1? fact pack. APC Magazine has the
skinny on a new set of marketing materials Microsoft is circulating among its
OEM partners that they can use to convince customers that they shouldn’t wait
for Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 to deploy. “To help partners and customers get
the real story, Microsoft has created a comprehensive set of fact-rich
materials illustrating how Windows Vista is ready today and tomorrow,ö
according to the blurb for the fact pack. (My ZDNet blogging colleague Adrian
Kingsley-Hughes has more on the fact pack.) Many business users — in spite of
Microsoft’s proclamations — have a policy of waiting for at least SP1 for any
operating system before upgrading.

Exhibit 2: How to downgrade to XP is at the top of Microsoft’s “Top 5 Licensing
Questions.ö In a posting to Microsoft’s UK Partner Team blog, a Microsoft
employee lists the five questions most often asked last month via the “Ask
Partnerö Hotline. The most commonly asked question was “What downgrade rights
does Windows Vista Business have?ö (Not a question you want to hear asked if
you are trying to convince customers that upgrading, not downgrading, is the
way to go.) The second most frequently asked question: “What media and key can
I use when downgrading?ö Again, not exactly a resounding endorsement of Vista
from volume licensees.

Exhibit 3: Vista is still a work in progress. Microsoft released Vista to
manufacturing in November 2006, seven months ago. This week, we learned that
Microsoft has decided to head off more messy, protracted antitrust litigation
by agreeing to make changes to Vista to accommodate third-party desktop-search
products. (All those new Google lawyers and lobbyists in Washington must be a
formidable bunch!) Microsoft will deliver some of the required changes via
Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 — a first beta of which some of my sources were
expecting to see this summer, but now may show up any time between now and
December 31 (based on what Microsoft has told federal regulators).

Unlike “Marketing Pilgrimö Andy Beal, I don’t think Microsoft wants to postpone
SP1, at this point. I think the company realizes its attempt to get customers
to change their SP1-waiting ways hasn’t worked. All the Vista SP1 secrecy has
backfired and drawn more attention to the whereabouts of the Vista update.

What do you think Microsoft’s Vista marketing team can and should do to end
customer confusion and uncertainty around Vista? If you were a Vista
marketer/salesperson, what would you be telling customers, at this point?
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Lots o'links in the original article.

 /m

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