Micro-copycat-soft

Sheesh, just LOOK at Microsoft! It’s a real copycat, you know. Hardly gets anything original done, and then rips off from its competitors. AND ends up winning because once upon a time their marketing tactics were strong enough to give it an edge in the current market. It is THAT monopoly which always bails it out.

Now you may have heard of the Zune, it’s attack on the iPod’s market. Firstly, it teaches all not to trust Microsoft, since it had first promised manufacturers that it’d let them take on the market with its pathetic product, Origami. Since it has obviously failed, Microsoft’s now promptly ditched others and is striking out on its own with a [giggle giggle] brown colored music player.

What prompted this outburst from me though is the changes it has made to its Windows Live Mail Beta service, which obviously shows creativity is the last thing on the planet Microsoft designers have. For the better, it now supports Firefox more readily, unlike the earlier version which kept on nagging you to download Internet Explorer, in the sense that this one doesn’t even ask for it. Seems like the Big M has finally understood it can’t keep on locking users out.

It’s interface though, is a TOTAL rip-off of Yahoo! Mail Beta. Which, me being a Yodel fan, obviously angers me. More themes are there yes, each more garish than the earlier one. And believe me, the rest of the interface is a shameless copy of Yahoo!’s. Well, that goes on to show at least that YMB is good that even its competitors are copying it.

Nothing related, but did want to say this. The ads of its Xbox 360 console, in India, are not something which would entice me to go and buy it. Stupid ad concept, coupled with the fact that the ad has pretty cheap animation effects (both metaphorically and literally). Not something I’d want to see in a next-gen console ad…