InfoWorld’s J. Peter Bruzzese wants people to leeeeeave Microsoft ALOOOOOOONE!
I’ve noticed an unfair, ongoing trend: If Microsoft does something a little off, it gets bashed into the ground for it. But if Google, Facebook, or Apple (all three of which can be categorized, like Microsoft, as The Man in their own rights) missteps, it generally gets mild reprimands and even support from the media and those drinking the Kool-Aid.
That must be a neat trick, since drinking the Kool-Aid actually kills you.
Seriously, people, read a history book—or even Wikipedia—before you fall back on a trite, overused metaphor.
One wonders if Bruzzese has read some of the fawning coverage Microsoft has received for products it hasn’t even shipped yet and which won’t ship for months. Seriously, that stuff’s so sweet it’ll give you diabetes.
Case in point is the famous iPhone 4 antenna issue (affectionately termed “antennagate”), where holding the iPhone 4 in a certain way would interfere with the cellular signal. Then-CEO Steve Jobs said, “Hold it differently,” and everyone said, “Oh, it’s not a design flaw, we are simply not holding it properly.”
Wha-what?! That’s what people said? Were you in some sort of sensory deprivation tank during the summer of 2010? It is not hyperbole to say the streets literally ran red with hyperbole!
Actually, that’s ridiculous. Of course it is. But there was still a lot of hyperbole.
If Bruzzese is talking about iPhone 4 buyers, though, what they decided was that the flaw, while not ideal, was still outweighed by the other benefits of the phone. And if he’s talking about pundits, the Macalope can easily point you to ones who flew off the handle about it.
But it sure is easier to make a point when you just argue against strawmen! And they sure do burn pretty, don’t they?
Take the brouhaha over the “Smoked by Windows Phone” controversy as another example where a very tiny thing is blown up to huge proportions simply because it is connected to Microsoft. …
… One guy at one store won the challenge using his Galaxy Nexus by displaying the weather of two different cities faster than the Windows Phone did. The store claimed he had to show two different cities in two different states, and he and the blogosphere cried foul. The guy was eventually offered a new laptop and smartphone as an apology.
Yeah, after people made a big deal about it. Does Bruzzese not understand cause and effect? Is that the problem here?
This is a simple case of store employees not knowing what to do and making a bad call…
Now who’s making excuses? The guy won and they refused to honor the contest. That’s not “not knowing what to do,” that’s knowing what they should do but not doing it.
If Microsoft bids to buy patents, it’s a patent troll, but if Google does it, it’s protecting the great open source Android OS.
Well, not the way the Macalope tells it, that’s for sure. Hey, if anything Microsoft has gotten a lot of support from Apple fans recently. That thing where they’re getting $15 for every Android phone sold? Brilliant!
I’m not saying you’re mistaken to praise other companies about their products. But when it comes to product flaws or any wrongdoing (including privacy issues that should worry us all), they should be treated equally. Microsoft is not treated equally.
Possibly Bruzzese just doesn’t keep up with the coverage of Apple. The Macalope would argue that it’s substantially more unfair than what Microsoft has gotten of late, but reasonable people can disagree about that.
What they can’t do is make things up that didn’t happen.
[Editors’ Note: In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]