I took some time to watch the Windows Vista and Office Product Launches on webcast.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0701

It runs just over an hour but I stopped watching after 45 minuets.

Why?

Well the annoying pseudo punk band (angels and airwaves) certainly didn’t help. This alone helped to define the un-coolness of it all.

Bill Gates did a speech (badly) he looked at the autocue when listing every security feature.

They rolled out the executives from Dell, Intel, AMD, Toshiba and Sony and each executive got a first pressing of Windows Vista and a photo op with Bill Gates.

Then a Microsofty came on and did an on-screen demo and saw his life flash before his eyes when something didn’t work quite as quickly as it should. You can see the panic on his face.

A typical American family were rolled out. This family had been part of the consultative period during the development of Windows Vista. This is when Microsoft asks real people what they wanted. Apparently you have to thank the Mother of this family for the “Burn” Icon on Photo Gallery, because she asked for it.

Then that annoying punk band came back and I clicked off feeling sorry for all the internal Microsoft Developers who sadly and secretly wished someone with passion (who lived on the same planet as the rest of us) was launching the most important work of their lives.

Don’t get me wrong Vista is a cool product, but getting your Dad to tell you its Cool just doesn’t work anymore.

At this point Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are doing more harm that good in the public arena.

The first wave of Windows Vista publicity also does not seem to be working.

This poll from BBC news site suggests a less than stellar initial reaction.

Think back to the launch of Windows 95, it had people at Retail stores at midnight to get a copy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 9:27 am and is filed under Blog Entries, Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.