Where’s Microsoft gone?

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Could someone check down the back of the sofa, please? It’s just that Microsoft seems to have disappeared. To be fair, not the whole thing. I’m pretty certain there’s still a large group of buildings in Redmond toting the Microsoft logo, and Reading for that matter, but if you speak to Microsoft execs these days you can be pretty sure their sentences will start with “Windows…” rather than “Microsoft…”

Of course, it’s all about the brand. Somewhere in a high-level board meeting, someone’s decided that the Windows brand is more important than the Microsoft brand, which is after all creaking at the seams now. There was a time when it was cutting edge to be SomethingSoft, but those were the days of the 80s when Rick Astley was an up-and-coming young hipster. (more…)