Yesterday I wrote about how 2009 had been such a bad year for Apple. This compares to a fantastic year for Microsoft. Windows 7 has made them acceptable again, people have stopped complaining about the company, it’s supporters in anti-trust and other legal cases have grown considerably and it’s become respectable again to like the company. This is great news for Microsoft, terrible news for Apple (for whom public opinion seems now to be turning against them) but it’s not something that Microsoft should be complacent about. 2010 could be a very difficult year for the company.
It’s only a single product launch, Windows 7, that’s made Microsoft’s year and in 2010 we’ve only got a new version of Office. Okay so it’s a very good edition of Office but at the end of the day its no Windows. It’s a tool you use now and again on your PC and that, no matter how wonderful it is, is quickly forgotten.
We’ve nothing else major, certainly not in the consumer arena coming in the next twelve months. There’s no new version of Windows now until 2012 which means no hype until 2011, and a new XBox for 2010 would seem unlikely. Finally their launch of the Zune worldwide in the next year is likely to be met with subdued enthusiasm considering the best thing about it is the software.
Microsoft is a warhorse and one that thoroughly enjoys, and shouts about, its battle-hardened victories. Okay so they had the end of 2009 to do that with Windows 7 but the public’s bored now. They need to keep themselves in the public imagination in 2010, and to do this they need some very good new year’s resolutions.
For this we need to look at what will happen with Windows 7 in the next twelve months. The media, and us in particular here at Windows7News will be keeping a close eye out for stories that show any shortcomings or insecurities in Windows 7. With nothing more exciting to talk about, the minor failings will suddenly become big news. This would hit Microsoft’s good public image hard.
The next challenge will be Google Chrome OS, at least until people start to use it anyway. Once they realise that they can’t use the small plastic brick they’ve bought 90% of the time because it has no files or software on it they’ll go back to installing Windows, but 2010 is going to be Google’s year, publicity-wise, and Microsoft are going to have a hard time keeping up.
Could there be a bumper surprise for Windows 7 users? If I were running Microsoft I’d certainly recommend it. The only big release coming for Windows 7 will be the first service pack, due at the end of 2010, but Microsoft have publicly said they’re not doing major OS updates in these any more.
This is a policy that needs to change if Microsoft are to beat the behemoth that is the forthcoming Google publicity machine. They should take the opportunity to fix some fairly minor things in Windows 7, but that in turn would add in and fix some significant functionality problems with the OS.
Here’s my list of fixes and resolutions for Microsoft and Windows 7 in 2010.
- Fix the final few problems with the new ‘superbar’ and allow people to pin a program to it by right clicking on a file associated with that program.
- Add in functionality to Libraries that they so badly need such as being able to create libraries of certain file types.
- Microsoft needs to rediscover it’s Windows 95 roots and go back to creating wizards. They need to release free tools to enable people to use libraries properly by making it easy for people to add tags, ratings and metadata to their files.
- Update Windows Media Player to the Zune software
- Include native Blu-Ray Video support.
These are just four resolutions I’d recommend to Microsoft. What would you suggest they do?
