aks's Profile

  • Oct 03, 2008
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Latest comments made by: aks

  • Oh.. I forgot to mention that when MS tried to provide their own HW, via Zune, they didn't get the user experience right -- which not only includes appearance, usability and content, but also includes import, export, and accessibility. All of these factors are related, and if you have superior delivery in most of them, the others can be less important. For example, Apple -- now being the market leader in portable music players and online music downloads -- does not need to focus on lots of export features -- which is why they provide only a simple, not-very-easy-to-use conversion to MP3 feature in iTunes. MS, in contrast and with uncharacteristic position in the OS and office software market, does have to provide lots of import and export features, in order to make it easy for people to switch to their service, and to reassure them that they won't be stuck. It's one thing to be "stuck" with the best service, but it's altogether another thing to be stuck with an also-ran service. Until you are the best, you must try to outperform the competition in all areas. Just like Avis used to say: "We're #2 -- we try harder!". And, in the music download business, MS is not even #2..
    United Statesaks had this to say on Oct 03, 2008 Posts: 4
    The Devil Gives Sleigh Rides or I Think I'm Feeling Bad For Microsoft
  • The problem with MS vs. Apple is that MS is a software company while Apple is a solutions company, where a solution is hardware, software, and service. The few times that MS tried to provide service, few were willing to become even more encumbered with a "walled garden" solution because MS did NOT provide the hardware, and did not control it -- thus did not control the user experience. Apple, in contrast, controls the user experience completely, starting with the style (aka "sex appeal") of the hardware, the usability of the software, and the reliability of the service. No matter that Apple may have stumbled on their me.com launch in the area of reliability (this stuff is hard, you know?), most consumers recognize when the solution is high-quality. So, ads won't change the perception that MS sells parts and not solutions. MS must change their approach to business in the modern software world -- and sell solutions. For a good model other than Apple, they should check out IBM.
    United Statesaks had this to say on Oct 03, 2008 Posts: 4
    The Devil Gives Sleigh Rides or I Think I'm Feeling Bad For Microsoft
  • Any app that takes 2 minutes to boot up needs competition. I also don't need to see the name of every person who ever worked on it. Sheesh! It's just like today's movie credits: Even the broom sweepers are probably credited! And why in the world did Adobe feel the need to replace the native browser with its own "Browser"? Instead of integrating seamlessly with the built-in folder/file browser APIs, they wrote their own! I hope _somebody_ writes an easier-to-use image editing program for the Mac. Oh Google Dev Team: please please please please port Picasa to the Mac. Please?
    United Statesaks had this to say on Aug 17, 2007 Posts: 4
    Is Apple Building A Photoshop Replacement?
  • Sadly, I've not found the equivalent of Picasa2 on the Mac. It's the best photo-management software I've ever used on both PCs and Macs. Perhaps someone has knowledge of a nearly comparable photo-management tool?
    United Statesaks had this to say on Nov 21, 2005 Posts: 4
    The Applications You Really Need