08.21.08
Quick Mention: Microsoft Still ‘Buys’ Bollywood for Mass Appeal (Updated)
We saw this before [1, 2] and it’s happening again.
Well, Microsoft has tried out many ways to promote their current generation console in India. They had tied up with cricketer Yuvraj Singh and Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar. They even came up with an Indianised Marcus Fenix! Now Microsoft has partnered with Yash Raj Films for the Bollywood movie Bachna Ae Haseeno.
Other recent Microsoft promotions included the ‘recruitment’ of NASCAR vehicles and the star of “Jackass”. What is the company thinking? What message does that send the customer? The “Mojave experiment” has already (dis)served quite a rude message: “You, our customers, are dumb.” █
Update: With this breaking news, Microsoft clearly resorts to comedy in order to market what it possibly perceives as a joke (Vista).
WSJ: Microsoft hires Seinfeld to bite Apple
Continually painted by Apple and other rivals as uncool and unsafe, Microsoft plans to spend $300 million on a new series of advertisements, designed around its “Windows Not Walls” slogan, that will feature Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
David Gerard said,
August 21, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Not that anyone could think Microsoft was out of touch.