Microsoft: Give me a Million Dollars to market Windows Vista for you

that the shipping version of this OS is late beta, at best. This is a serious blow for Microsoft – the fact that someone so publicly aligned to them would rubbish their latest OS cannot be good. I wonder does this mean Chris is withdrawing his offer to market Vista for Microsoft for $1m!!! It looks like Steve Ballmer’s assertions that Vista’s poor sales were due to excessive piracy were a bit off the mark. No-one is going to want to pirate a duff OS.

seven dour CEOs lined up on chairs below a large screen that reads “The ‘Wow’ starts now”: Um, fellas, if you, the grand poobahs, can¹t at least look excited — how are we, your target customers, supposed to believe the graphic behind your head? Chris Pirillo on why $1 million is his price for helping actually “wow” this thing: You¹ve got your work cut out for you with a mindnumbingly lackluster launch – and the remainder of your media blitz needs to be coherent. Chris has long been Microsoft’s best evangelist, by the way. Just look

seven dour CEOs lined up on chairs below a large screen that reads “The ‘Wow’ starts now”: Um, fellas, if you, the grand poobahs, can¹t at least look excited — how are we, your target customers, supposed to believe the graphic behind your head? Chris Pirillo on why $1 million is his price for helping actually “wow” this thing: You¹ve got your work cut out for you with a mindnumbingly lackluster launch – and the remainder of your media blitz needs to be coherent. Chris has long been Microsoft’s best evangelist, by the way. Just look

but I was surprised to see the operating system from fresh eyes and realize that Vista is not just an incremental improvement over XP. It’s a serious change in the usability of Windows. Maybe we need to take Chris Pirillo up on his offer.

Steve Jobs. Five years and millions of dollars worth of development have finally come to fruition. The question is: how will it be received by an audience already made skeptical by a mixed bag of early reviews…? Needless to say, the techno geeks, bloggers and business press are all over this story. For a bird’s-eye view of the new operating system, and a balanced review, I checked out senior editor Peter Lewis’s article in Fortune Magazine. He actually tested the software for a couple of months, so

It might be too little, too late, but Chris Pirillo’s got an offer that Microsoft might want to consider: give him a million dollars, and he’ll market Vista. He writes: You’ve got your work cut out for you with a mindnumbingly lackluster launch – and the remainder of your media blitz needs to be coherent. You need to begin illustrating Vista’s biggest strengths and benefits:

And give me a million to market the Zune – or ask the Windows team to do it – relatively speaking, the latter have done a far better job. Talking to Zune insiders has been fruitless, CES Press credentials to no avail. They just don’t want any promotional help!

I admit I am primarily an OSX user. I do have XP running under Parallels and do support quite a few Windows users so even though I prefer OSX I do keep my eyes and try to stay relatively current on the OS with the largest market share. I went to a recent Microsoft event targeted to I.T. people and sat through one of the most boring presentations I have even experienced as the presenter kept switching between multiple virtual machines running off an under powered laptop no less with no Internet connectivity. You would think Microsoft will all their resources could have arranged to have had a local server and/or Internet connection at the Hyatt this was presented. In that event and in mass media advertising I heard no mention of the benefits you mentioned above. I have heard about them from from bloggers and tech sites but most people would have to dig to get that information up front. What have I learned lately? How NOT to make a presentation and how NOT to communicate benefits to customers. I hope to use these lessons to make my own company clients will love. I’m not saying this as an “apple fan boy” but as a small business person.

Hey Chris, let’s do 50/50. I’ll help you with my Mac ;-)

[...] It might be too little, too late, but Chris Pirillo’s got an offer that Microsoft might want to consider: give him a million dollars, and he’ll market Vista. He writes: You’ve got your work cut out for you with a mindnumbingly lackluster launch – and the remainder of your media blitz needs to be coherent. You need to begin illustrating Vista’s biggest strengths and benefits: [...]

[...] Chris Pirillo says Microsoft: Give me a Million Dollars to market Windows Vista for you. He figures he can do it better and cheaper than the expensive and lackluster efforts so far. I don’t doubt it. [...]

[...] The new Start Menu can help you find things faster Fast USB sticks can speed up your system instantly Program-independent volume control will keep your sounds in check The Windows Explorer exposes tons of file metadata Parental controls will keep Mom and Dad happy Checking for updates and problem solutions has never been easier Guided Help takes interactive learning to the next level Both wired and wireless network management are smarter There’s an infinitely more stable video driver model in place Hardware-accelerated eye candy on the desktop is awesome It’s not just about selling a new operating system, though! Continue At Source News Source: chris.pirillo.com   [...]

Mmmm. Program-independent volume control. :)

i think they should just make vista cheaper its not as if MS need any more money, maybe then people might actually get official releases instead of pirating the OS. At the moment the price tag for vista is too much for people to even consider upgrading.

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ibox-security.net/blog
http://seanprice.net/blog

The Devil only needs to buy your soul once.

[...] Chris Pirillo would like to market Vista for Microsoft.  [...]

Chris, You are going to have to do better then that for your million. Your biggest strengths and benefits list is aimed at the consumer techie space. Hardly worth even a thousand in the consumer space. Microsoft really doen’t need your help in the consumer space when Best Buy and Circuit City is happy to do the heavy lifting for them. Dell and Gateway will soon join in and help. You seem to forget that all of above companies are marketing machines and their near future success in the consumer space rides on Vista.

The heavy lifting and Microsoft Vista marketing challenge is in the Enterprise. The many diverse verticals markets Microsoft needs to convince to upgrade from XP to Vista. Your list is weak there and will not create the horizontal upgrade movement that Microsoft would like to see there.

Remember most enterprise verticals only moved from Win2000 to XP because of XP’s later security enhancements. Before SP2 there wasn’t much of a reason to argue the move. Which on afraid right now is the case with XP to Vista.

Nice try!!

[...] Dave Winer points out that Chris Pirillo is willing to market Windows Vista for $1 Million. [...]

Three words: rent my chest.

[...] That’s what Chris Pirillo wants. Take a look here.Technorati Tags: chris pirillo, luca filigheddu, one million dollars, windows vista commercials [...]

Well, heck. How about this special deal from wonderchicken industries: I’ll do the same for 100K, and I won’t even swear (much)!

(Sorry, Chris…)

All the marketing from Microsoft won’t make up for the only feature that really would have helped me on a daily basis, WINFS, not being delivered. Sure I guess there are some other minor functional improvements but I’m fighting hard to find anything that will actually improve my daily life and have already found many features that actually hinder my ability to get work done.

Wow that is some work you have done checking out Vista. I am still researching the 2nd hard drive to load vista on. I am planning on keeping xp and all my working software etc… running. I admire your passion for beta testing though

[...] Microsoft made an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” It was a fun piece and Bill Gates handled it well, I think. I think it was a wise move and humanized the new release for all of us. All in all, he was a good sport. Then we had this “interesting” concept of marketing Vista’s release. Whatever, it’s Microsoft’s money to waste, I suppose. Then again, Pirillo has an offer that, after watching the same thing on TV he did, I think may be a better choice for Microsoft’s next release? Anyway, moving on. [...]

No need to give you a million dollars when just about every OEM have all preloaded it with every new PC which is where Microsoft makes most of its cash. If you are referring to get existing XP users to upgrade to Vista, no need to worry about that either. When the consumer goes to a store like Best Buy, Circuit City, Comp USA and see the new OS on store shelves, they will ask staff for help about deciding to buy and upgrade to the new OS.

[...] And I think he’s probably right. Actually I think anyone could do a better job. Pirillo not only thinks he has better ideas but could do it cheaper, say for a cool million, which is considerably less than Microsoft spent. Again, I agree. How much was spent on those folks dancing on the side of a building, I wonder? [...]

The new Start Menu can help you find things faster – which is mere window dressing and didn’t need a new OS to do

Fast USB sticks can speed up your system instantly – (Buy more crap so your system will run the way you’re used to)

The Windows Explorer exposes tons of file metadata – since Microsoft is hopelessly dependant on a registry based system. Come look at all the new endless chains and bloated OS requirements for the file system!

Parental controls will keep Mom and Dad happy – because they are clueless that the kids are already getting around them

Guided Help takes interactive learning to the next level – So . . . more handholding? Less of an improved OS?

Hardware-accelerated eye candy on the desktop is awesome – Until that hardware that is now interlinked to the OS decides to take a dumb. Then you are not only screwed on your OS. You are now screwed on your hardware

People aren’t stupid. They are much more computer literate, and the understand an idiotic, fat, bloated OS with pretty window dressing when they see it. And thus, Vista is a failure. It is quickly going the way of ME

my wish is have $1000000 for have good life