Re: Is it so confusing?
"The Microsoft brand has value. And a "Microsoft Lumia 890" may be a phone that sells, and sells well."
Possibly. But where I sit Microsoft is Windows, and Windows is Microsoft. In press surveys of "most respected businesses it is certainly true that a handful of clueless C level types and hangers on will grapple hopelessly in response to "what are the brands you respect?" and after a moment of terror will simply name the names on their desk in front of them. But in the consumer market people buy MS products only because there are few credible alternatives, and the repeated false starts and fails for Windows Phone have left a legacy of resentment. Android and Apple users ask themselves "why change?"
For business this is all rather different and MS has enjoyed an undeserved status as "preferred brand", but coming from so far behind can they possibly catchup now that business has already had to embrace Android or Apple? Blackberry don't look as though they can make up for a few years of complacency, and they started from a dominant position in business, and have a brand that is far less soiled than Microsoft.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
