Sk-etchbook

I saw a episode of Click recently and they were reviewing Windows 7. After the previously over-hyped and subsequent flop that was Vista it looks like the guys at Microsoft have been busy. With the increasing popularity of Apple products and a dwindling market share it seems blatantly obvious that MS are frantically trying to shake both the clunky/crashy/ugly aspects of their products and the geeky/cheapy/boring image they have.

I can imagine it now. Many a heated meeting at Microsoft HQ, fat men in suits, people getting fired, hired and forcefully retired. Pitches & power words, "blue sky thinking", "outside the box" and similar phrases been said far to often. Big money been thrown at a big problem. Who do we know that's "cool", that's "hip"? Bring in the agencies, the advertisers and the marketers, the Trinny, Susannas and Goks to provide an extreme makeover to the ultimate nerd.

Did it work?

Well I must say the "I'm a PC" advertisement was a good move. The Apple commercials were a direct mockery of PC's with a slight hint of school ground bullying going on. The personalization of the product and the heightened emphasis been placed upon PC's commonality and user base within society boosts their credibility. The similar tone or inferred response to the "I'm a Mac" ads has an element of standing up to the bully along with displaying a sense of humor. Wise move also as it's damn near impossible to make a joke of someone if they're already laughing at themselves. So hats off on advertising, wouldn't say there would be any detrimental effect to Apple but PC's can walk away with their head held high.

OK, damage control sorted now the hard part.

After the issues with Vista MS need to ensure this launch is smooth as possible, technical bugs need to be a minimum, it needs to run fast and look good. Some of the major problems with Vista involved drivers not working so people could no longer use printers, cameras and other external devises. This was a problem which used to be quite apparent with Macs not supporting external devices however I have to say I have had a mac for about four years and everything has been supported or plug-in and play on the Mac. The PC has sometimes required installing programs, updating software, restarting several times, slapping my thigh and pulling a funny face. Yes I would have to admit my preference is towards Macs, I find the platform to be more stable, run faster, the file/GUI hierarchy makes more sense and the usability is more intuitive and efficient. Usability is something I believe Apple do extremely well, you can tell a lot of thought has gone in to every aspect. Apart from the stupid-one-button-mouse that is.

Anyway on that point Windows 7 and usability. My first thoughts are to say copycats! They have rejigged the start menu and quick launch menu to create something very similar to the dock. There are also added ways to navigate between window which are very similar to expose and command+tab. There is a built in touch navigation like you get on the iPhone and you can tell they trying to soup up their "we're cool" image by looking at the new selection of built in screen savers.

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