Microsoft: Facebook Home Is a Copycat, Windows Phone Is the 'Real Thing'

colinneagle writes "Frank X. Shaw, VP of Corporate Communications at Microsoft, did not seem happy about Facebook's Home announcement when he wrote, 'I tuned into the coverage of the Facebook Home event yesterday and actually had to check my calendar a few times. Not to see if it was still April Fools Day, but to see if it was somehow still 2011. Because the content of the presentation was remarkably similar to the launch event we did for Windows Phone two years ago.' Shaw also posted Microsoft's 'Put people first with Windows Phone 7.5' video before writing, 'We understand why Facebook would want to find a way to bring similar functionality to a platform that is sadly lacking it.'"

Companies are becoming like political parties

[Morgaine]

[No axe to grind since I use neither MS nor FB ...]

Stories like this one remind me of politicians playing party politics and slagging off everything the opposition does and says instead of focusing on whether it's a good idea or not.

It seems that long gone are the days when the top companies competed on product and politics was (ostensibly) about doing the best for the nation. Doing good work has become quite secondary to politicking (in the worst sense of the word) in both areas.

NIH

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is just mad that they were too caught up in Not Invented Here syndrome that they did not think of embracing Android and building on top of it like Facebook did. So much money wasted reimplementing a whole mobile operating system when they could have just built Windows Phone as a custom UI on Android.

Re:Children, children...

[Grishnakh]

Have you ever known Microsoft to do anything really intelligent to win good PR and sales? Every one of their marketing campaigns has been a complete debacle (remember the people running around in MSN butterfly outfits? Or the commercial for Microsoft SongSmith?). I don't know where MS gets their marketing people, but they're probably the worst in the Fortune 500.

Chanting this in the hallways...

[SethJohnson]

Are they also upset that they invented the Tablet PC in 2002 and then Apple ate their lunch eight years later by actually delivering it in an appealing form factor that people actually wanted ?

I'm not sure how you're sourcing this, but this is actually a very accurate depiction of Microsoft's deluded perspective. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was working as a consultant on some projects with Microsoft and was flying to Redmond frequently. I asked him if the people he was working with were feeling disillusioned about where they've been heading and their prospects against the competition. He related that they were proud that their company had already invented the tablet several years ago.

Internally, they must be bragging about that as a morale-booster or something in the face of pretty daunting prospects for what they're working on now.

Seth

Windows Passion

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody is excited about Windows phones. There is no passion for the platform. But its not not just Windows phones.

I think the game is up for Microsoft. They are delivering some amazing things now but nobody can see it. I'm not saying that everyone is blind, but Microsoft has lost our attention. Top SQL admins are moving to SQL 2012, but out side of them, I don't see much. Organizations are just now making the move to Windows 7. That's a good 3 years of a good product lost. Server 2012 is the most significant server OS they have ever released, yet nobody is excited about it. Windows 8 Phone is actually a good product, the hard part is getting it into people's hands. Windows 8 start screen actually works well with the Surface Pro, just not on any real computers. (Sorry MS, I gave that start screen an honest try but it has to go on my desktop/laptop)

I know I come across as a fanatic for writing this, but every IT group that is a Microsoft shop should be this passionate about the new stuff. The fact that they are not should be a big issue for Microsoft.

Re:because microsoft is always completely original

[alen]

the kinect was originally made up by an israeli defense contractor
they pitched it to apple first but didn't want to sign NDA's and agreements not to pitch it to anyone else even if apple refused it
MS loved it and took it on to develop it further

Re: because microsoft is always completely origina

[SilenceBE]

The original version was vastly more superior then what kinect is offering. There was a lot less lag and overlapping bones weren't any problem. Microsoft removed hw stuff and countered that with software, but the end result was a system that was usuable but a step back from the original design. I wouldn't call that innovation.

Re:Children, children...

[phantomfive]

None, which is why there was huge infighting among the execs at Microsoft. It's a total change in the way Microsoft does things.

I suspect part of the problem may be that, at the OS level, everyone is pretty happy with Windows 7. They don't really want new features added. Business people aren't giving them feedback, so they're kind of directionless on what new things to add, but still want to create a new OS.