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Vista Branding Confuses Vista Marketing Exec
by , 2:15 PM EST, November 28th, 2007
In the lawsuit against Microsoft and its use of the term "Windows Vista Capable" on PCs even Microsoft's director of marketing was confused by the term, a term that Microsoft Corp. claimed wasn't confusing at all, according to C|Net on Wednesday.
According to the plaintiffs, Dianne Kelley and Kenenth Hansen, Microsoft wasn't being upfront when it authorized the label "Vista Capable" on PCs. In their complaint, they claim that the label suggests that the computer could run all versions of Vista when, in fact, it could only run Home Basic.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs pointed out that even Microsoft's director of marketing, Mark Croft, had become confused during testimony. Mr. Croft explained at first that "capable" meant that the PC could run any version, as opposed to the term "ready" which would have the connotation that the PC would run in some improved way.
After a consult with his attorneys, Mr. Croft said that he'd made "an error" and retracted his previous statement, and said that "capable" means that the PC would be "able to run a version of Vista."
The plaintiff's attorneys keyed in on this confusion quickly: "Mr. Croft understood Microsoft's logo to be telling customers that PCs would run not only the stripped-down Vista Home Basic, but also what plaintiffs contend are the 'real' versions of Vista: the ones that include Microsoft's heavily marketed 'Vista features.' Ironically, Mr. Croft's understanding of what 'Windows Vista capable' means is the same understanding that Microsoft asserts no consumer would be justified in having."
Microsoft claims that it had informed OEMs, retailers and press about what "Vista Capable" means.
Observer Comments
Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:46 pm Subject: I only have one comment:
Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:14 pm Subject: Vista's View = Clear as mud.
In order to get all the "bells and whistles" with Leopard you MUST have a video card that is fully supported by CoreImage.
While the core functionality of Leopard will be there, the eye candy may be missing if your machine lacks the required hardware.
This is in many ways similar to Vista, except Leopard comes in a feature-complete package and dynamically/transparently disables features your hardware can not support, as opposed to expecting users to pick and chose the features they desire.
Microsoft blew it with 6 versions and only 1 that actually has the full features of Vista in it. It's called being greedy and taking your money with the other 5 knowing someday you'll want to buy that ultimate version because it doesn't have the features in the other 5 versions. Tests just released also show that Vista is twice as slow as XP.
So get a Mac with leopard pre-installed and you'll have the ultimate version because Apple wants you to take advantage of all of Leopards features all the time. And leopard runs faster and is 32/64 bit native. No special 64 bit apps to worry about too.
Microsoft made a mistake in creating so many different versions of Vista. I personally wish they would go to a single version.
As far as this lawsuit goes, you might as well sue Apple for selling laptops labled "capable of displaying millions of colors," oh wait, that already happened.
Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:59 am Subject:
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