Microsoft's Problem: Microsoft

This one's been coming for a while, I just haven't gotten around to writing it yet, but it came up again on the NeoGAF forums today, so I figured I'd go ahead and put it into words.

This revelation occurred to me shortly after the launch of Windows 8. Like most tech-heads, I passed on Win8 because it had absolutely nothing to offer me. Worse, it would have made my system more difficult to work with and to do the things I do.

When it comes to computers, it's true that many people don't know that much about the technical side of things. But chances are, they know someone who does. So there's usually someone they can ask, besides the salesman at Best Buy, about what they should and should not purchase. This is what happened to Windows 8. Everyone knew about it thanks to Microsoft's aggressive marketing, but even the people that didn't know any better were warned off by the people that did.

Here's Microsoft's problem: They can't see beyond their own marketing. Every salesman loves to talk about how great their product is, it's part of being a salesman. But a good salesman also knows the truth about the product, even if it's something they never talk about. They know the areas to avoid discussion, they know how to downplay faults and lean the conversation over to the positives. But the important thing is that they're aware of the issues, and why their product isn't for everyone.

Except Microsoft. They appear to actually believe the shit that comes out of their mouth at trade shows like E3 or on their television commercials. In the case of Windows 8, the result is that they're genuinely baffled by the low sales figures. It's true that people aren't buying Windows 8. Microsoft blames the OEM manufacturers for "not making enticing hardware" that can easily be sold with Win8 on it (but wait, MS.. I thought that Win8 itself was reason enough?). The manufacturers have it right.. they're blaming Microsoft for forcing them to install an operating system that no one wants to buy. Microsoft can't see this side of the argument because they refuse to believe that people actually don't want to buy their amazing product.

Seriously, this is their problem... they honestly cannot understand the concept of someone not wanting to buy Windows 8. It's so incredible, it's so amazing, it's so revolutionary, everyone must want it, but why are they not buying it? They're placing the blame on everyone but themselves, refusing to acknowledge that they didn't actually make something that real people want.

This is something I've seen crop up now and again with different companies, but Microsoft is far and away the worst at it right now. They believe in their own marketing so much that they expect everyone else to do so as well, for no other reason than because they said so. Windows 8 is the second coming of the PC operating system because Microsoft said it was. Kinect is the true future of gaming because Microsoft said it was. Surface is the true tablet experience because Microsoft said it was. And they can't see beyond that "because we said so" mentality. And they're going to continue pushing crap onto the market, and they're going to continue being surprised at the lack of sales, and eventually they're going to run themselves into the mud doing it.

On the subject of Kinect, I think MS is about to create a schism in the gaming industry by packing the thing in with every Xbox Infinity (or whatever they're going to call it). They're going to push Kinect so hard (most likely demanding that all games feature some kind of Kinect functionality) that developers will stop making games for them in favor of PS4/PC games that use traditional control schemes. It's too early to tell, really, but that's my prediction, we'll see what happens.

Unfortunately, marketing can be a powerful tool. Look at the recent announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. Underwhelming and second-best in nearly every way to the HTC One, but destined to sell ten times more because of marketing. When it comes to computers, people ask the tech-heads around them. For some reason, they don't do this with smartphones, even though they are just computers themselves. My recommendation: Buy the HTC One. That's what I'm buying.