Microsoft: we've woken up and we're ready for a fight

 

Gallery

By Barry Collins

Posted on 9 Jul 2008 at 15:19

A leading Microsoft executive says the company has "woken up" and is ready to take the fight to Apple.

"You thought the sleeping giant was still sleeping, well we woke it up and it's time to take our message forward," said the company's vice president of Vista marketing, Brad Brooks, Speaking at Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference, according to a report on Information Week. "We've faced these challenges before, and we're going to solve them again. There's a conversation going on in the marketplace today and it's just plain awful. We've got to get back on the front foot."

Brooks admitted that mistakes had been made with the launch of Windows Vista. "We broke a lot of things," he said. "We know that, and we know it caused you a lot of pain. It got customers thinking, hey, is Windows Vista a generation we want to get invested in?"

Microsoft's Vista sell hasn't been helped by Apple's continued sniping at the operating system, and Brooks said it's time Microsoft got off the canvas and started to retaliate against Apple's barbs - something that PC Pro was urging Microsoft to do over a year ago.

"We've got a pretty noisy competitor out there," Brooks said. "You know it. I know it. It's caused some impact. We're going to start countering it. They tell us it's the iWay or the highway. We think that's a sad message. Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life." Although that argument was rather undermined by by the new Vista Compatibility Center, which has broken down on day one.

Yet, even though he admitted to mistakes in Vista, Brooks claim the work hasn't gone to waste. "Windows Vista is an investment in the long term," he said. "When you make the investment into Windows Vista, it's going to pay it forward into the operating system we call Windows 7."