WhatsWrongWithU

Like many products of late from Microsoft targeting
competitive consumer
markets, the XBox has been a *financial* disaster, costing 
the company
billions in trying to buy marketshare, only to be propped up
by the sheer
incompetence of its main rival Sony. The slow uptake of XBox
360 in
Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea has been a problem
for Microsoft.

So like any other "user-centric" company Microsoft
has decided to blame the
user: they've launched "WhatsWrongWithU.com". No,
I'm not making it up. You
can go there, email Microsoft and tell them what's wrong
with you.

Has anyone seen another example of a site purely dedicated
to blaming
(potential) customers for not buying a company's product? Or
is this pure,
edgy, counter-culture Redmond genius at work again?

---
Ziya

If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.



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> So like any other "user-centric" company
Microsoft has decided to blame the
user: they've launched "WhatsWrongWithU.com". No,
I'm not making it up.

The best part about this is (if you click through their cute
little
forms) you get a message that says: bookmark this page - fun
updates
coming soon. But, it's a popped out window with no browser
chrone
containing a flash movie. You CAN'T bookmark it. It is
actually
impossible. Nice one!

I gotta say, I love my xbox, and the user experience on the
thing is
amazing. But their build quality is crap and everyone I know
is on
their first or second warranty-replaced unit. Microsoft has
got to be
bleeding money on this thing. I appreciate their sacrifice,
but it
does make my wonder about their sanity.

~ James

-- 
James Melzer
http://www.jamesmelzer.com

http://del.icio.us/jam
esmelzer
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Somebody wrote:
> So like any other "user-centric" company
Microsoft has decided to blame the
> user: they've launched "WhatsWrongWithU.com".
No, I'm not making it up.

Whois says this isn't owned by Microsoft:

    	e-Crusade Marketing Co. Ltd.
    	Room 1902-04, 19/F Chinachem Exchange

My Asian language comprehension isn't that great -- is this
actually a 
Microsoft site, or a spoof?
-- 
Skot Nelson
skot (at) penguinstorm (dot) com

      Music is my saviour / I was maimed by rock and roll
           - Jeff Tweedy
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On Feb 6, 2007, at 11:58 AM, Ziya Oz wrote:

> So like any other "user-centric" company
Microsoft has decided to  
> blame the
> user: they've launched "WhatsWrongWithU.com".
No, I'm not making it  
> up. You
> can go there, email Microsoft and tell them what's
wrong with you.
>
> Has anyone seen another example of a site purely
dedicated to blaming
> (potential) customers for not buying a company's
product?

Umm -- any website of any computer security vendor?

> Or is this pure,
> edgy, counter-culture Redmond genius at work again?

You're funny. Counter-culture at Microsoft consists drinking
a quad  
tall mochachino and unleashing your inner howler monkey at
the  
afternoon staff meeting. I happen to live less than a mile
from the  
local zoo, which harbors a troop of howlers, so I can attest
to the  
aural and behavioral similarities.

Getting to specifics, WhatsWrongWithU.com is looks like the
filler  
that results from "third bullet point on the right and
straight on  
til morning" strategizing by people whose families have
lived in The  
Suburbs for three generations.

More seriously -  Microsoft's advertising these days, like
IBM's  
before it, is to real marketing as Muzak is to Tom Waits,
and there's  
a fundamental reason why the edgiest marketing efforts of
both  
companies wind up feeling so flat.

They are designed to neither confuse nor offend their 
_real_  
customers -- the officers of large corporations.

- Will
Will Parker
wparkerChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge
are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier


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On Feb 6, 2007, at 12:24 PM, James Melzer wrote:

> I gotta say, I love my xbox, and the user experience on
the thing is
> amazing. But their build quality is crap and everyone I
know is on
> their first or second warranty-replaced unit. Microsoft
has got to be
> bleeding money on this thing. I appreciate their
sacrifice, but it
> does make my wonder about their sanity.

When the first version of the XBox shipped, it was a
well-known fact  
inside Microsoft that the company _lost_ $200 per unit sold
at the  
original price of US $299. While cost (and selling price)
dropped  
over time, I seriously doubt that Microsoft ever made any
money on  
XBox hardware sales, and it looks like MS is losing similar
amounts  
of money on the 360 consoles.

Microsoft's default business strategy, ever since the OS
deal with  
IBM, has been to think of a product not as an end in itself,
but as a  
means to secure future revenue streams. In the case of the
xBox, the  
revenue streams in question are XBox Live subscriptions,
direct sales  
of XBox games, and licensing of technologies related to the
XBox.

It's all about the subscriptions and licensing fees.
Everything else  
is incidental.

- Will
Will Parker
wparkerChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge
are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier


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