I think his reasoning is more like "I see a fundamental design flaw in all other cars which Toyota has recognized and addressed in a way that I like, and wish other manufacturers would adopt that solution or one similar to it."
You don't have to agree, but don't poo-poo his desire for a unified, simple application purchasing experience in his OS of choice. That's a customer talking about what they want out of a product.
My point was more along the lines of "unified purchasing experience" != "good purchasing experience." You could have all apps unify on a horrible purchasing experience, no?
> It's a test update, one whose sole purpose is to help Microsoft work with the carriers to figure out how to roll out updates.
If it's a test update, why is anyone who doesn't work for a carrier and/or Microsoft aware of the problem? If real live customers are having issues, that's not testing, that's screwed up deployment. It doesn't matter how minor the update is.
After two years and a rant that happened to get posted to a major tech news site. Doesn't really sound like "paying attention to customers" to me. How many times has this happened in the past two years and why haven't things gotten any better?
Just wow. Fire the entire mobile division and get out of the market; you're cursed and/or hopelessly incapable of executing properly on anything in the space.
Actually, my solution was to fire the whole division AND get out of the market.
And this isn't a technical problem; it's a process and culture problem. MS almost certainly has the technical and financial resources to have prevented this. The fact that they didn't points to an utterly dysfunctional company. Getting out of a market that they're rather obviously too hidebound or screwed up to compete in, is definitely a solution.
Yeah, like they got out of the game console market when they were getting red rings of death. Or that time Windows ME was complete and utter crap, and they completely got out of the operating system market. Or that time they did something else wrong, and instead of firing everybody and getting out of the market, they learned from their mistake, came back, and fared very well or perhaps dominated it.
Microsoft, for all their power and ability, are not remotely above mistakes. They also do a pretty decent job of learning from them. I don't know of a home that doesn't have an Xbox 360 in it, or a home that doesn't have some installation of Windows in it.
Sure, it takes them awhile to hit their stride, but the worst thing anybody can do is discount them as a strong competitor, in any market they're in.
The fact is; Microsoft continues to make the mistakes because it never hurts them to make them. By now everyone expects this of MS [1] and everyone is used to not doing anything about it but complaining.
[1] As supporting data, I point to the other HN front page thread that points out the exception that proves the rule: Windows 7 has SP1 and no one cares.
Not necessarily disputing your point but those figures are for 2008.
Current sales figures are roughly 50m worldwide sales for the 360, 48m worldwide for the PS3 (having been available for a year less), 85m sales for the Wii. For reference worldwide sales for the PS2 are currently 150m (and still selling).
All figures for Dec 2010 / Jan 2011. Worth noting that if those figures don't tally with what you see around you, the Xbox360 is way bigger than the PS3 in the USA (18m to 10m I think), the PS3 either equals or beats it in all other markets (notably Japan and Europe).
So yes it's "one of the top selling consoles" and 50m units isn't exactly chopped liver, but it's pretty much third equal in the market. Also worth noting that the whole Xbox division has lost massive amounts over all time (though it's now profitable, it's never recouped the original investment).
But I would agree with the point that while they take time to hit their stride, they do get there and I think Kinnect is a good example of the fact that they're now executing pretty well in this space and indeed innovating which isn't usually a word you'd associate with Microsoft.
Nah, I'm serious - lot of folks have no interest in game consoles, and for those who do, my understanding was that the Wii outsold them both put together.
Your solution is rash and doesn't do much more than illustrate your ignorance. This article is one of the first reports, and doesn't even contain numbers in terms of how many users are affected.
Sit back and wait for the real story to unfold, then make an analysis and contribute something. Simply bursting out with "Fire them all!" and the first report of a problem is childish at best.
Woah, that's a whole lot of bashing. It sounds like a serious fuckup, of course, but we don't know a single detail yet. It could be carriers screwing with firmware, for example.
Is it because your post is a bunch of poorly conceived bullshit? Is it because you don't really give any time to consider the intent of what's being said and the social context of the terms employed? Is it cause you're looking to be offended?
If you can't provide some analysis of the origins of thoughts and feelings which are presumably your own, maybe you should keep them to yourself till you can.
The solution, ultimately, is for the site to wither and die, and be replaced by something else that will have the same fate. This is what happens to all things, and to all human social groupings in particular, from ancient Rome on down to your nuclear family.
If you're tired of it, start something else. Or hang out and jump ship when the next great thing comes along. Trying to preserve the golden age is rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.
I think I get an email once a week or so that tells me what people I'm connected to have changed. That's basically the only time I ever even consider checking out LinkedIn's site.
Part of the selling point of iOS is that it works well.
And it does. And 3rd party plugins that Apple has no control over reduce the quality of that experience, increase support costs, and generally add instability.
You don't have to agree, but don't poo-poo his desire for a unified, simple application purchasing experience in his OS of choice. That's a customer talking about what they want out of a product.