#Why I won't upgrade
8 messages in this thread
First off – your previous post may have been better titled "My Beef
With Microsoft" versus "Why I Won't Upgrade"
As an ex-employee, I can speak to the Windows 95 issue a bit more:
From Marketing's perspective, they saw survey after survey, saw report
after report from Product Support that showed that of the 50+ users
of Windows (3.x), most didn't even *know* when they were behind the
upgrade curve. There are a lot of folks out there who don't
subscribe to the computer rags, who don't have subscriptions to the
on-line services, et cetera, who just didn't know about 3.1, or 3.11
(Win4Workgroups).
Microsoft's logic is that if they name their operating system
products by year, people will automatically know they're behind the
curve. BUT – contrary to you point, that doesn't mean that they'll
have an upgrade every year. Also, the stickler I brought up in a
recent conversation with some friends who still work there – what do
you do in the case of a minor maintenance release? Call it Windows
95-June? Windows 95a? It's silly, and there's a lot of
resistance to this new corporate edict from within the Applications
groups, who would just as soon have it called Excel 5.0.
I basically agree, that the idea's stupid. But I will cede to
Microsoft on the point that if you're trying to get everyone firing
on the same cylinders, you've got to find some way for them to find
out (outside of the PC press) that an upgrade HAS occured.
Thom Kozik
The Persona Group
Whatever happened to sending announcements to registered users? Pretty
hard to miss those
Hi Tim,
>>Whatever happened to sending announcements to registered users? Pretty hard
to miss those<<
Remember that those people that are "out of the loop" of the PC press
and who don't even know that they are behind the upgrade curve, most
probably won't know that they should register their products, even if
the software tells them to do so at installation. Besides, even
veterans of the industry sometimes won't do it.
So I think that is isn't always a sure bet…
Alex K.
>>sending announcements to users…
Many (most?) users use the software exclusively at work. They get
hired long after the software has been installed, they have no idea
what version it is. Someone at some point registered the software
then quit a year later; their mail gets thrown into the wastebasket
by the clueless receptionist, so it never reaches the current user,
who has never seen the manuals which are in a seldom-used cupboard in
the accounting department. If you ask them if they're running VGA or
SVGA they give you a blank look. They do their job well within a
limited scope. They've never even thought of reading a magazine or
calling for support.
I do a lot of training in many packages, and at corporate sites I see
more of this than the other scenario (user up on latest upgrades,
reads manuals etc.) I try to get them up to speed on newer versions
by finding recent reviews in magazines, but reading magazines is not
part of their job (ie. they don't get paid for it) so why should they
continue after I leave?
Putting the year on a software name would certainly get the message
across to these people. But the bigger problem is reaching them in
the first place. Big software companies would do well to make a big
sweep every year or so, calling up all their registered users and
getting the right name on the mailing list. They could probably
double their sales with this act alone.
>>Many (most?) users use the software exclusively at work. They get
hired long after the software has been installed, they have no idea
what version it is. Someone at some point registered the software
then quit a year later; their mail gets thrown into the wastebasket
by the clueless receptionist, so it never reaches the current user,
who has never seen the manuals which are in a seldom-used cupboard in
the accounting department. If you ask them if they're running VGA or
SVGA they give you a blank look. They do their job well within a
limited scope. They've never even thought of reading a magazine or
calling for support.<<
I suppose this is true. A large portion of the people I work with
don't have a clue as to what type of computers they have, or version
of software. And we only have about 50 employees. Of couse knowing
all this is my job. I am paid to read magazines and be up on all
this, but I would anyway, even if I wasn't being paid. That's how I
ended up where I am today, instead of wandering into work day after
day with tunnel vision, doing exactly what I am trained to be doing
and nothing else, and never broadening my horizions. In fact I just
got a pretty serious job offer today to do tech work for a local
computer builder, but I am not sure I want to diagnose peoples
computer problems and fix their machines all day (even though I do a
fair amount of this already where I work), even if it would involve a
lot bigger salary.
Who knows. It isn't every day I get a job offer. Kinda flattering.
Also, Windows comes on your computer. You don't have to do anything to make it
work. The box comes from UPS. You plug it in and it works. Cool. What's this
thing? Ah, paper work. Maybe later. Gonna play now. I just filled out a bunch
of registration cards 'date of purchase: Dunno, maybe 10-93?'
PMJI, and I don't plan on getting involved in this thread, because I
really don't care what microsoft names their products.
>> I basically agree, that the idea's stupid. But I will cede to
>> Microsoft on the point that if you're trying to get everyone firing on the
>> same cylinders, you've got to fi some way for them to find out (outside of
>> the PC press) that an upgrade HAS occured.
If someone sees a product called SOFTWARE 4.2 and they are currently
using SOFTWARE 4.0 it seems to me that they will know that this is a
different version and probably a more recent version. If they don't
read any magazines and have never heard of SOFTWARE 4.2, what makes
you think that they would have heard of SOFTWARE 95? Just askin…
<< they would have heard of SOFTWARE 95? Just askin…>>
Probably that people will ask questions like "Did they just change the
fenders and the rear ligths or do they put a new engine ? What about
the seatbelt !!!