bakari.kamau

This is true, but to me, these have all been a blur. There are too many of them and honestly, Android superphones all look the same; ginormous screens and boxy designs. You can spot them in a room of people because they’re constantly tethered to a charger.

This is all to say that in talking to people who like their Androids, the very last thing they tout is the actual OS. They just want the “biggest and baddest”, experience be damned. To me, attachment to a phone is more of a software/OS fixation. Specs are transitory and interchangeable – I think far more Android users over WP users would give up their phones.

The greatest irony of this all is that share prices dropped even further on news of this lawsuit. Seems counter-productive if you actually want your stocks to do better, don’t-cha-think?

I maintain that WP8 will be a significant part of that noise.

If they’re smart, they will market data integration across the ecosystem with the same UI (desktop, tablet, phone, console). I picture these as Microsoft-branded, general commercials. They will probably also market unique features of each form-factor, but again, keeping the focus broad and tying back into the larger whole.

On top of this OEMs would market their individual products and what differentiates them from each other, and this is where partnered brands like Nokia would shine.

It might not even be hard to imagine commercials from Facebook or Skype advertising superior integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem due to partnerships. If Microsoft were a person, he’d jizz his pants seeing an ad like that. That would change minds.

Windows 8 will be OK without a significant push by Microsoft, but they will make that push regardless. The platform underneath isn’t super-duper new, but it looks like it, and they need to control the narrative of how it’s better and why they did it. Marketing will push it past “just ok”.

I mean, if rumors hold true, Apollo is going to invalidate any reasons for owning a BB (other than BBM), beat iOS to desktop/mobile convergence, and out-integrate everyone’s ecosystem with the largest services in the market (Facebook, Skype, XBOX Live). I can’t imagine why Microsoft wouldn’t want to jam that in peoples’ brains as often as humanly possible.

I completely agree, except for your last point. Microsoft is going to market the SHIT out of Apollo features.

Microsoft has to make as much noise as possible for people to realize they aren’t mucking about with some sub-standard Fischer Price UI bullshit. You know and I know that’s not the case, but tell that to people who are totally unfamiliar and then hear “Mircrosoft” attached to the brand.

Microsoft’s been completely overshadowed in the mindshare department and they’re going to have to come out the corner swinging.

I disagree – Rolling out WP8, W8, and any upcoming improvements to the XBOX is a much better marketing plan. You get your products and brands exposed to as many markets as possible at once. You get the opportunity to cross-market, you get the opportunity to speak much louder with a package of products than the competition who will only release a few stand-alone devices. In short, it’s a much more effective use of marketing dollars within a given time-frame.

Think about how many minds you can change if you market these as a coherent ecosystem, especially to people who already have a piece of it. If you ask me, a market blitz with Windows 8 (and all the tablets and desktops which will debut with it), Windows Phone 8 (and all the phones (on Verizon too!) by various OEMs), and whatever improvements come to the XBOX has win written all over it.

They were pissed about that leak too. Super pissed. I would be too. It didn’t do much but confirm rumors, but even still – it’s better that a marketing team confirm rumors than some random blog.

It’s a three-part issue: You want to control the message/timing with marketing, you want to keep competitors in the dark, and you want to keep the nerds from cementing erroneous rumors that they blog and change minds with.

Being a designer who’s involved in political campaigns, I understand what Microsoft is trying to do, and timing is everything.

I don’t think it will be until much later. They’ve already instructed devs how to code for Win8/Win8 RT. They’ve also already instructed devs how to code for WP7.5, whose apps will carry over to 8. Call me crazy, but I don’t think we’ll see Apollo previewed in any significant way until a month or two before launch – that means August at the earliest.

Before the launch of Mango, full-feature lists and previews leaked way too early, and that hurt MS because Apple and Google copied features that would have differentiated WP7.5. Microsoft is not going to make that mistake again.