[hardcastle]

Originally Posted by pl001

Igorance goes both ways, apparently. Zune is what brought consumers subscription based music, a service that Microsoft still offers today through XBOX Music Pass and it spurred other services. It's not exactly the same service, no, but everybody knew that wasn't a viable long-term business model.

I was wrong about the subscription example.

But my main point still stands. Microsoft drops what they have, comes back rebranded or retooled, and then they nuke it again and again and again and again. Zune becomes Xbox Music, and I bet you that will be forgotten just as quickly and rebranded as something else soon enough.

Originally Posted by pl001

XBOX 360 was no longer "making waves", it was outdated and needed to be replaced just as the PlayStation was. Yeah, they made some "anti-consumer" decisions and I don't condone that but don't pretend Google and Apple don't do that as well.

I'm not talking Playstation, Apple or Google. I'm talking about Microsoft.

The Xbox 360 needed to be replaced eventually, I agree. But note: the Xbox 360 (in brand, software and hardware) was doing great in 2012 and 2013, and they could have continued in that direction, making a bigger, better 360 successor. Instead, they launched this weird, half-baked new Xbox brand and hardware. It was the most baffling revamp of a brand I've ever seen. This is indicative of the pattern I'm discussing.

Originally Posted by pl001

IE has some issues, and being locked into it is the reason I'll probably never buy another RT product. But at least I can use the whole web with it. And to claim it is "abandoned" is ridiculous. For one, it's a free product. Yeah, so you have to update to a "new" OS that is over 4 years old to use the latest version. Like no other software would ever require you do that.

Microsoft is far from perfect, but let's try keeping things in perspective here.

I am not talking about other software. I'm talking about Microsoft. The crimes of the industry in no way invalidate my criticisms of Microsoft. Obviously Apple, Google and the tech industry as a whole are worthy of plenty of criticism. My criticism of Microsoft in no way implies that they aren't.

I'm just trying to make a point about Microsoft's company culture being unable to sustain long-term consumer products. If you want to argue with me, argue with that.