

IE ad: The browser you loved to hate - seshagiric
http://browseryoulovedtohate.com/post/41285259307/i

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Adaptive
It's not hip indie music and bright colors that make products seem appealing
in an ad. Ads succeed when they allow the most appealing parts of a product be
revealed simply and cleverly.

Microsoft has always failed on this single issue when it comes to marketing:
they are simply too heavy handed and unwilling to let products speak for
themselves.

A lot of their products also suffer from simply not being compelling enough,
but even when the product is compelling they go overboard on the "forced fun
soundtrack" and stock-people.

Stepford advertising at its worst.

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rogerbinns
Apparently the only reason to reconsider IE is because it is old? Could that
ad have had any less useful information?

Never mind I'll quickly give IE a go. Oops, doesn't work on Linux. Never mind,
I'll try it on the Mac. Oops. How about the most profitable mobile platform?
No luck. The most populous? Forget it. Out of all my numerous devices (~8) and
computers (5) the only one that can run IE requires using a virtual machine!

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eclipticplane
They abandoned the second largest platform to doom them to a third rate
browser.

Sure, there may have been aspects that wouldn't run on XP (new text rendering
that Vista+ brings, for example) but both Firefox and Webkit/Chrome/Safari are
both gracefully handling the disparate technologies just fine.

~~~
mynameisvlad
XP is on it's last dying breath, and Microsoft realizes it. Others should too.
The fact that's its last build was released 4 years ago, and the original 11
years ago should show how old it really is and how important it is for people
to finally ditch that outdated OS.

It reached EOL almost 3 years ago now! It's just insane to me that people
still use it.

It's also only at ~21% install base, so it's not the biggest loss ever to not
support it. Just entices people to upgrade to Windows 7/8, and actually be
secure.

Anyone defending XP now should stop. It's a horrible idea to actually use the
OS in the present day, especially with the much better alternatives out there
right now.

~~~
rogerbinns
> It's also only at ~21% install base

You do realise that is around 250 million machines, which is the same size as
the entire iOS installed base a year ago? There is still 15 months of support
left.

Perhaps the most important thing about a browser is the other stuff it drags
with it - for example you are likely to use the identity services (eg using
Chrome makes having a Google account more conducive) plus other things
(storage, photos, email etc). It is in Microsoft's interest to bring people
into that.

> Just entices people to upgrade to Windows 7/8, and actually be secure.

You can't practically upgrade from XP. Well maybe _you_ can, but the general
public can't. It is a fresh install which means losing all your apps,
settings, and personalization and worrying about what data you will lose (who
has perfect backups?) And then you have to learn a new user interface. This
still applies if you buy a new device. (Yes Windows Easy Transfer exists, but
still has issues.)

If you are going to experience such a shakeup you may as well consider all the
alternatives. My dad (as a data point, I mean anecdote) upgraded from XP to an
iPad. That is even more secure!

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beagle3
I watched this only to see if Microsoft finally got an ad right.

But the only feeling I had was "there's a reason all these things are no
longer around." Either I'm not the target audience, or the nostalgic items
they chose were ... wrong.

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chris_wot
I'm not buying a new tablet just to use IE10.

I'll just install Chrome or Firefox. Microsoft is paying for their slowness
and attempts at being anti-competitive.

~~~
mynameisvlad
... I don't even... What?

How did you get that you need a tablet to use IE10? It's available in all
Windows 8 installations, and there's a Tech Preview out for Windows 7 too.

~~~
chris_wot
Forgot to add that I'm also not going to upgrade to Windows 8.

~~~
mynameisvlad
Going to be released for Win7 eventually. I believe the release preview is
pretty close to the final version, but probably needs some optimizations for
Win7.

~~~
chris_wot
I wasn't aware of that. In that case, I'll give it a try.

~~~
mynameisvlad
Yeah it was released in November I think, so definitely after Windows 8 was
released with IE10. Don't know what's taking them so long with releasing the
final version for Windows 7 though.

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brackin
I can just imagine someone in the ad agency saying "We should create a Tumblr
blog around the ad".

