Funmurphys: the Blog

Branding Done Wrong

Eight months of searching for a product name for the latest incarnation of Windows, and Microsoft comes up with Vista. How I would love to be a consultant. How MS could take eight months and not come up with an improvement on Longhorn (who really wants their computer OS named after a large, stupid ruminant) is beyond me. Accurate maybe, but we're talking marketing here. Heck, I could have made random picks out of the dictionary until I got a better name much quicker and cheaper.

I guess MS is hoping that Windows Vista turns out better than AltaVista, which was once a cutting edge search engine, dethroned by Google (for those of you too young to remember.

I suppose that the boring, focus group driven name fits the boring, focus group driven product. And hopefully diverts attention for just how late the product is. I have to wonder what the effect of all the top management of a company being rich beyond the dreams of avarice have on a company; in the case of Microsoft, it would appear that the combination of money and a lack of competition have caused it to become downright lazy.