Microsoft is Getting Things Right This Time

Geeks and some part of the tech world consider it cool to hate everything that comes out of the Microsoft campus. Let me share a few instances. Microsoft develops Vista and the vocal crowd immediately dubs it a failed product although a majority of these people may have never used the software. Microsoft releases a new "I’m PC" ad campaign and that provides some more fodder to *nix nerds because the ad agency, who Microsoft hired to produce these ads, probably made them on a Mac. Microsoft adds instant messaging in Hotmail and blog headlines scream to suggest that Microsoft is doing this "ages after Google". These are the same people who get excited when Gmail adds a "delete" button though that thing has been present in Outlook since birth.Anyway, it seems that the age-old trend to criticize everything "MSFT" is on the decline and that’s because there are some things that have gone right for Microsoft in the consumer technology space in recent times:

1. The Laptop Hunter Ads - Their previous campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates got slammed but the new Laptop Hunter ads are proving very effective especially among the 18-34 year olds.

2. Windows Internet Explorer 8 - IE 8 may not be enough to stop the rise of Firefox but some of it’s unique features like Web Slices, Accelerators, InPrivate browsing and visual search suggestions have received positive attention.

4. Windows 7 - Technically, Windows 7 may have lot of things in common with Windows Vista but it’s better, faster and requires less resources.

4. Windows Live Mesh - This allows you to synchronize file and files across multiple devices include Windows PCs, Mac computers and mobile phones. It’s one of our favorite web applications and others agree as well.

5. Zune HD - The only advantage of having a Zune MP3 player vis-a-vis an Apple iPod is that the former device lets you tune in to FM radio on the go. That perception is likely to change with the launch of Zune HD that features a Wi-Fi enabled touch-screen browser and support for HD radio.

Bing - Just when 60% of Internet users were feeling satisfied with their existing search engines, Microsoft rolled out Bing to take on Google (check out some Bing Tricks). Early reviews suggest that Bing has enough potential though it may not be a "google killer" yet.

7. Office Live Workspace - Enough has been written about the demise of "desktop software" at the hands of "web applications" but the immense popularity of solutions that bridge the online and offline world prove that people still prefer to have both choices.

Microsoft will add Office web applications to their Office Live Workspace service sometime later this year and that might give them an edge over Google Docs as existing Office users are more likely to prefer Office Live because integration between Office (on the desktop) and Office (in the cloud) would be much better.

8. Windows Live Skydrive - Other than Adobe (they have Acrobat.com), Microsoft is the only "Internet giant" that offers a free file hosting service on the web with plenty of storage. AOL have closed their XDrive service, Yahoo! never offered any online storage while rumors of Google GDrive have been circulating on the web for long but nothing concrete yet.