YouTube Strikes Again: Microsoft's Vista Dismal Demo Caught On Video

Windows Vista Demo Goes Awry


As I wrote a less than a month ago, websites like YouTube have opened up a new era in "small" media commentary. Now, video may be provided with commentary and analysis like that on this blog. My earlier example was for illustrative purposes, and not exactly "timely."

This one is.

I was watching CNBC this morning with a cup of capuccino when I saw a story featuring this video. As soon as the pieced had finished, I dutifully went to this computer, found the clip, and captured it for this post.

So, two points.

First, as I wrote last month, now it's possible for a totally "free" and expenseless source, me, to access news videos, as well as written pieces, like the post about Michael Wolff's Time Warner piece in Vanity Fair which I just published. The world of non-major-media analysis and commentary is expanding at a breakneck clip, and not just for trivia.

Second, if you still thought Microsoft was a successful, smoothly-functioning "technology" company that matters, watch this clip. How many total return performance failures and fundamental business operating gaffes (like delayed releases of the company's major products) does a large company need to make in order to be seen for what it really is- a once-successful tech company now in its dotage?

This clip of Vista's malfunctioning voice recognition capabilities is a howler. Do you not wonder how this could have occurred? Were you Steve Ballmer, would you not have required this experiment to have been tried successfully about, oh, 25 times, before allowing it to go "live" before the press?

Talk about mediocre, inept management. And Ballmer still can't explain the last five years of Microsoft's total return performance. Neither can Gates. See my posts here, here, and here for details.

I think this video clip is just one more example of why Microsoft has become a large company that was once a tremendous driver in the technology field, and also once a tremendous growth investment opportunity. But no more. Now it's mired in difficulty simply executing in its major product areas. As if, by the way, anyone really "wants" to be forced to buy a new operating system, rather than, say, simply receive a more secure, upgraded version of XP. For free, so it functions like a modern operating system "should."