In an effort partially geared out to customers who are having a hard time letting go of Windows XP, and partially targeted at much of the Vista bad press, Microsoft has recently launched The Mojave Experiment. Their commercials feature hidden camera footage of real consumers who are being shown a new operating system codenamed "Mojave", only to be surprised by... well, we'll let you watch it and let you see the big ending.
When you're finished, continue reading here... We'll wait!
Done? Good! As a proponent of Microsoft software and computing products, I know it may seem like we are biting the proverbial hand. But rest assured we arent. If we mess something up, we sure hope our customers care enough to tell us so that we can "get it right". And we care, so I'm here to suggest that Microsoft missed the mark on this spot.
It's not the hokey reactions, the premise, or the inherently flawed environment (running operating systems on presumably very high end systems so that the experience is nothing short of optimal) that bother me. The biggest issue I have with the spot is the message that is being implied - your difficulties with Vista are your fault, and not Microsoft's. The ad suggests that the problem is not with the operating system, but rather the customer... who has to be convinced, through trickery, that the operating system "really is great". It flies in the face of conventional service oriented customer relationships.
In traditional software development, software is targeted at the user. Sure, a programming team may work on a project and during the course of it determine that a great feature would be something that their target audience will love... but that's a decision made without the ultimate audience's input - the user. The audience may not think it's such a great idea for a variety of reasons. Are these users now somehow ignorant or stupid as a result? Of course not... but the perception is enough to cause serious problems. That's where I think Microsoft went wrong here.
I personally like Vista. I have had (and continue to have) my problems with it, but overall, it has helped me be more productive, which is how I measure the effectiveness of the software I choose to use. But Microsoft will have a hard time convincing other folks with ads like these that border on arrogance.
What do you think? Do you agree?