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Microsoft: back with a Bing

Mon, 10 Aug 2009

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A week can be a long time in the world of technology. After looking for some time like it’s on the precipice of disaster, attacked on all sides – and failing miserably well enough on its own, thank you very much – Microsoft is staging something of a comeback. You could even say it’s on a bit of a roll at the moment.

Here at Macworld we’ve had plenty of fun and fear from Microsoft over the years. Our guy, Apple, has always been the underdog – and that’s the coolest side of any battle to the death; just ask Goliath.

I’ve got a lot of time for Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, but when it comes to the UI-thieving, shameless feature copyists over at Microsoft’s Windows division I’m left shaking with rage – and later laughter when it yet again just doesn’t seem to get the point of what it’s supposed to be replicating from the majestic Mac OS.

But recently even I have felt a little twinge of sympathy for the seemingly beleaguered mighty Microsoft. Just as its bending down to pick up its pants after the mess that was, and still is, Windows Vista, along comes smug new boy Google aiming a kick up its bloated rear end. BAM!

Google has been kicking more than Microsoft’s butt when it comes to search, and Bill Gates’ old company has been writhing on the floor clutching its vitals as its Live search engine spluttered along in its wake. SWACK!

Then Google launched free online business applications to threaten Microsoft’s cash-cow Office software. BOFF!

So when Google casually announced that its was working on developing its own operating system (called Chrome OS), you can imagine the pain felt at Microsoft’s Redmond HQ. Could anything get worse? First Live, then Office and now bloody Windows! CRACK!

Another Microsoft market leader is its Internet Explorer web browser. This, too, has been in a steady decline for years. And as soon as the Ballmer boffins had reacted to Google’s Chrome browser by showing off IE8, Mozilla’s Firefox 3.5 arrived to much open-source fanfare. OOOF!

I won’t go into the abject failure of Microsoft’s Zune in the face of iPod ubiquity or the ignominy of Windows Mobile, ridiculed by Apple’s iPhone. That would just be rubbing it in.

So with its crown jewels well and truly bruised we should expect to see Microsoft on its knees and begging for mercy (in a very high-pitched voice) or at least mounting one valiant last stand against the young pretenders.

But no. Microsoft has something of a swagger about it these days. It just doesn’t seem to care about all the other guys and their new toys. In fact, it’s almost like Microsoft is laughing at us for daring to believe that it is finished. Instead, Microsoft appears to be in rude health.

The software giant has just been named the UK’s number one top “Super Brand” above both Google and Apple. The results of this annual survey, based on interviews with hundreds of experts and over 2,000 consumers, put Microsoft in first place, while Google has dropped from top spot to number three. Apple – supposedly the über brand – languishes at number 9, probably below Lidl and Morrisons.

And Microsoft’s new Bing search engine appears to be gaining traction. Despite being launched only a month or two ago, Bing has already overtaken Yahoo in the search market, according to StatCounter Global Stats.

And Microsoft bigwigs are doing a good show of sniggering at the threat of Chrome OS.

“The Chrome OS thing is highly interesting,” says CEO Steve Ballmer, adding, “Who knows what this thing is?”

Old man Gates just points out that Google’s Chrome OS is merely a reskinned version of Linux, which has tried and failed to topple Windows for years: “There’s many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways,” shrugged Gates. “The more vague Google is, the more interesting Chrome is,” he winked.

The magnificent 7
And brushing aside the horror show that was Windows Vista is its successor Windows 7, which surged to the top of Amazon’s software chart just hours after it became available for pre-order on the online retailer’s site. Amazon said more copies of Windows 7 were pre-ordered in its first eight hours on the site than Windows Vista achieved in its entire 17-week pre-order period.

Microsoft is even to open its own stores practically next door to Apple’s, and it has hired one of the Apple Store’s top men to help out.

But maybe the biggest shot in the arm to Microsoft is the news that Apple has started to plead with it to get rid of its anti-Mac TV ads, currently airing in the US.

Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner is claiming that Apple’s legal department called him to request that they stop running their Laptop Hunter series of ads that joke about how expensive Macs are. Far from being scared by Apple’s legal team, Turner was delighted: “We got a call from the Apple legal department saying, ‘Hey, you need to stop running those ads, we lowered our prices.’ They took like $100 off or something. It was the greatest single phone call that I’ve ever taken in business. I did cartwheels down the hallway.”

I doubt that still-recovering Apple CEO Steve Jobs would have done something so obviously weak. Steve would have commissioned a new set of ads biting right back at Microsoft.

(Cartwheels or somersaults, Microsoft did quietly later alter the advert to reflect Apple’s lowered pricing.)

Apple appears rattled. And maybe Google is a little frightened now that Microsoft has announced it’s to launch free online versions of its dominant Office applications. What chance do Google Apps have in the face of online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

When things looked bleakest for Microsoft the old giant has suddenly roared back to life, and it’s Apple and Google who are left looking like frightened little boys just moments after apparently slaying the beast. The higher you are the further you fall, but those nearer the bottom can fall just as easily.

Posted by: Simon Jary

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Comments received


James Donevan said on Monday, 10 August 2009

Don't really give a rat's tail who swings the bigger stick but Jay's blog isn't well founded:

Opening stores is a far cry from successful stores. Check Zume. Launching a player is a far cry from a successful player. The Microsoft story is awash with carbon copy efforts that failed miserably.

Huge pre sales for a highly hyped product is standard. It's fairly easy to create a groundswell for anything if marketing has any smarts. Most companies don't pop the champagne corks until they see the first month's sales.

Challenging erroneous advertising is no indication of being rattled. It's due diligence by legal. As a publicly owned company Apple is obliged to pursue anything that could be seen to devalue its business. In the way they have to enforce trademarks & patents.

More noteworthy is the fact that Microsoft has to trumpet the news of its projects in advance. That kind of pre-emptive effort to prove success isn't usually regarded as a good sign in business. As Jay should kn

Anthony Clarke said on Friday, 28 August 2009

Bing can be downloaded for free and it works very well. Bing the application written by Pierre Beyssac way back, that is, which measures the RAW bandwidth of a remote network link. Or are you talking about something else?

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