" one of the worst branding and marketing disasters in the history of computing"
Give me a break. The history of computing includes more than 50 years. This colossal 'disaster' will be forgotten in another 2 weeks.
Another week, another chapter in what must be one of the worst branding and marketing disasters in the history of computing: what to call the blocky, touch-centric apps designed for the new Windows 8 Start Screen, formerly known as Metro-style apps. What we are meant to call them from now on, it seems, are "Windows Store" apps …
One wonders why they bother. It doesn't matter if something does escape into the wild with the in-house codename or they spend ages listening to whalesong thinking up an a remotely interesting name, it's soon bludgeoned into the "Microsoft/Windows" <whatever> "Software/Server" formula by version 2.0. The only exception is Silverlight but then again that's being quietly forgotten.
Was the worst marketing disaster in the history of computer the Osbourne Effect, or maybe it was Windows Vista, or maybe something else?
Metro is just one element of the Windows H8 launch, which is nicely positioning itself to be Vista 2.
I haven't, you are not alone. I call it ME 3 as Vista 2 is Windows 7, it is what Vista should have been.
I do however agree Win8 is shaping up as ME, something that has no true identity in the market place or even in Microsoft.
Microsoft store apps? I used to download them on my HTC wizard (vario 2) from the microsoft store under Windows mobile 5 & 6.
Hardly new.
Apple just launched a turkey where previously they'd been doing rather well in that department.
Microsoft always had turkeys but salvaged them by spending zillions in marketing. As the article shows, that''s now turned into a fiasco.
Nokia ... well, you get the idea.
This has been another message from 2012's World of Tech Fail:
MS - a blocky Lego UI that no one really wants with an undefined name.
Apple - a new phone that's just like the old phone, but with moar phoniness. (Let's just say there is reason to believe Maps in iOS 6 is *so* not going to be a win in the UK.)
Nokia - burning.
HP - falling.
Yahoo! - flailing.
Google - boring.
Amazon are doing okay. Everyone else - what happened to all that fun cool shiny?
They're giving the impression that anything you see on the start screen could have a price tag. That's a long long way away from the concept of an OS you can buy that does everything a basic user would want, but which can be enhanced if you're prepared to pay.
The Linux version would be the 'Free App Store' - and FrAppStore is a much easier mouthful.
"Metro Apps" - Fantastic name really like it. Crisp modern name easy to remember fits in with UI
"Windows 8 Apps" - Stupid name "Windows 8 Apps" that run on Windows RT which _isn't_ windows 8, but it runs their apps?!
"Modern Apps" - If an apps been in the store for three years when does it stop becoming modern? Stupid name
"Windows Store Apps" - The worst out of them all unfortunately. Some basic users will really struggle to get their heads around the difference between the Windows Desktop apps and the Windows Store Apps......
Anyway I remember when it was Programs and not apps. Oh a quick look on my Windows 7 machine still harks back to the outdated terminology of Programs.......
They should have just paid off whoever owned the name Metro
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I still can't figure out how "Windows Store Apps" are any different from regular programs. Is notepad going to become an app? Are they like the sidebar things, weather and such.. what about calculator, that's a program right? How about charmap?
They really need to stop calling it Windows8 and call it Windows4Tab or something because the whole not-metro idea is completely s**t for desktops and they seem intent on releasing it while Windows 7 is still slowly being adopted.
For the brazen and staggeringly dumb attempt to introduce a clause in the EULA for Delphi Professional forbidding it's use for creating applications that accessed remote databases or N-tier applications.
http://www.deltics.co.nz/blog/?p=1097
They had to back-track when the Delphi community revolted - for many people this was the last straw and a lot of people are now actively looking at alternatives to Delphi, of which there are plenty.
So Embarcadero not only didn't get to do what they wanted but they are going to still pay a large chunk of the price that would have resulted from this action HAD they gone ahead in the first place, in terms of the loss of face and trust and condemnation that subsequently came their way.
Once upon a time El Reg used to report on new Delphi releases. These days even moves of dubious legality to try to screw the existing user base doesn't even warrant a mention.
A sad, sad, sign of the times.
Mine's, the one with the FREE Pascal compiler in the pocket.
Or the one with the Pascal compiler that can produce .NET, Java Bytecode or LLVM runtimes from within a VisualStudio shell.
Or the ... oh you get the idea