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Comment by recoiledsnake | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft has a marketing problem, they have a lot of cloud services like Skydrive, Live Mesh etc. but are not able to grab the attention of consumers or media like Jobs is able to, on stage.

However, Windows 8 seems to be coming with a ton of integrated cloud features so I don't know about the humiliation part.I just don't see that their marketshare is affected more than 1% specifically due to the cloud services in Lion.

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Taking all Apple's emphasis on design, marketing, etc., aside. It starts very simple: Steve Jobs looks like a sympathetic guy on stage that we could easily emphasize with. Steve Ballmer looks, let's put it bluntly, unsympathetic and rude.

This difference is clearly visible in every fiber of marketing material from both companies. Apple marketing feels friendly and fresh, while Microsoft's tends to feel aggressive. Sometimes Microsoft attempts to copy Apple's marketing style, but it feels faked or superficial.

Don't underestimate company's 'soul'.

"If you don't have an iPhone, you don't have an iPhone", (neener, neener, neener).

I don't think the issue here is that Jobs looks frail while Ballmer looks like he's been eating for two. People aren't buying tens of millions of iPhones out of pity.

Apple has made its recent success off developing and marketing products that consumers want to buy and that make them happy to use (look at how many people by an iPod or iPhone and go on to become Mac owners.) Microsoft mostly makes it way off of enterprise sales and bundling with PCs. That's fine, but it doesn't tend to lead to a culture that creates products that end consumers get really juiced about.

How do you market MS-only products when all the early adopters are using Macbooks?

"all the early adopters"? Isn't that's a bit hyperbolic? Can you clarify this?

Not an uncommon view. There are people who believe that no competent developer uses Windows machines for development, for example

What does MS-only mean ? They actually provide client apps for macs, if that's what you meant.

By MS-only, I refer to Microsoft technologies and development tools for Windows, Windows Phone, Azure. Early adopters (alpha geeks, developers, etc) generally use Macbooks now which you can see for yourself at any tech conference. Microsoft really doesn't market to this group, it pretends they don't exist.

When Microsoft makes something, it gets a little coverage and then everybody forgets about it. I agree, they don't publicise their Internet-based products enough.

Microsoft does not really care too much though if these products do not take off because in their eyes there is not enough money in them.

Using SkyDrive to augment your Office installation is great. Hopefully, they integrate it with Windows as a whole. I have a feeling though that when they think about that integration Microsoft wonders if the antitrust hammer will come down on them.

I don't think it's a marketing problem, I think the problem is that the products suck.

I think you're only partially right.

There are numerous Microsoft products where I just shake my head and wonder why they don't publicize/market/tout it more.

OneNote is one example. PowerShell was, for a long while. And many other miscellaneous bits of software.

I'm sure Windows 8 will be a huge improvement over iOS5. It has to be to adhere to corporate needs. No large buiness is going to want to put anything in Apple's datacenters, and iOS5 will not allow any type of serious adminitstration or configuration, or it would threaten what Apple is trying to build. i.e. iOS5 comes in any color you like, as long as it's black or white.

When Win8 is released, it will be the defacto standard inside Fortune 500s and that's all Microsoft really cares about.

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