Windows 7

[5829]

What do tupperware, mary kay cosmetics, amway and windows 7 have in common?


http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091001/ ... ch_parties

Microsoft video gets a little too much attention
By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer - Thu Oct 1, 2009 5:08AM EDT

SEATTLE -

You almost have to feel bad for Microsoft. The software maker isn't known for hip marketing tactics, and now that a Windows 7 video has hit it big online, people are laughing at the company, not with it.

Few details for the launch of Microsoft Corp.'s next PC operating system have been made public, though it's a safe bet Oct. 22 won't feature acrobats climbing buildings and unfurling banners in New York, as was the case for Windows Vista in 2007.

One thing we do know is that Microsoft hired House Party Inc. to bring the Windows 7 buzz into living rooms around the world.

House Party, based in Irvington, N.Y., and Denver, helps companies get in front of real people by supplying materials for, well, house parties. The agency vets volunteer hosts, then sends decorations, products and suggestions for activities. Upcoming parties will promote things like Hunt's canned tomatoes, Martha Stewart's line of craft tools and avocados from Mexico.

And Windows 7.

The plan surfaced in early September: People in 12 countries including the U.S., India and Mexico could sign up to be hosts. Example photos on House Party's Web site showed friends and families smiling, laughing, drinking, eating and peering intently at laptops. Hosts would get a copy of Windows 7, plus items like Windows-branded napkins, a table centerpiece and tote bags for guests.

Now, Oct. 22 is fast approaching and hosts are busy planning! To help, House Party posted a series of instructional videos on YouTube. And there the fun begins.

A video entitled "Hosting Your Party" takes place in a balloon-festooned kitchen. Two men and two women of various ages reflect on their own Windows 7 launch party experiences while scuttling about preparing food platters. Chummy laughter and knowing smiles abound as they dish out advice.

Such as: "When everyone was there and settled, I led an overview of some of my favorite Windows 7 features. I showed my guests things from two of the Windows 7 orientation videos, and it took like 10 minutes," gushes a perky blond woman. "Oh, and you know what was great? It was totally informal. Like, everyone just kind of crowded around the computer in the kitchen."

The banter — and overacting — continues for six minutes, though keen observers noticed that hours elapse on the oven clock in the background. There's lots of talk of "activities."

Online news sites and bloggers latched on to the painfully earnest production. A parody emerged in which someone bleeped out references to Windows 7, making the whole thing sound dirty. The original video has logged more than 800,000 views.

It's enough to make you wonder if one of the actors was speaking his mind and not just reading from a script when he uttered this line in the video: "Can you believe that Microsoft put the launch of Windows 7 in our hands? Are they nuts or what?"

To be fair to Microsoft: It did not make these videos, though it reviewed them before they were posted.

Nor did House Party set out to make slick TV commercials for Windows 7. The videos were put together quickly, said Kitty Kolding, House Party's CEO, as an alternative to handing party hosts a software user manual.

"Keep in mind that what we are trying to create an experience around in people's homes is an operating system," Kolding said in an interview. "It's not a cool gadget, it isn't a new potato chip, it's an operating system."

Kolding said House Party tried to find the right tone for demonstrating activities like burning CDs, editing photos and learning a new task bar interface — things that, let's face it, aren't obvious party activities.

The results may have invited high-profile mockery but the idea resonated with hundreds of thousands of people who applied to be hosts.

"Make fun all you want," Kolding said. "Microsoft got an incredible global response."

___

On the Net:

The video, hosted on YouTube:

[AYHJA]

I'm a host... :)

Waiting on my kit as we speak...

[5829]

Do you get a free copy of Windows 7? Or anything else?

[AYHJA]

I got 2 copies, both the 32 and 64 bit "Signature" Ultimate Edition versions...I'm extremely pleased, as I've also been lucky enough to get a licensed version of Office 2010...I'm really pro Windows now, Windows 7 is as awesome an OS I've seen since 2K Professional...

[jdog]

I got 2 copies, both the 32 and 64 bit "Signature" Ultimate Edition versions...

Most likely both use the same license (key) though, correct?

[5829]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/174237/w ... izzle.html

(links in story and comments not reproduced here)

Windows 7 Launch Parties Fizzle

Tony Bradley, PC World | Friday, October 23, 2009 10:25 AM PDT

Are you just waking up and nursing a hangover after hosting one of those wild Windows 7 launch parties? No? Well, you at least attended one, right? Invited to one but had a scheduling conflict??

Let's face it, the Windows 7 launch party concept was a complete and utter failure. The YouTube video Microsoft created to market the launch party concept certainly got attention, but for all the wrong reasons. It was almost universally mocked and parodied. Just look at the endless list of ‘Related Videos' making fun of the launch party promotion.

One reader commented in the PC World forums to lament his attempts at hosting a launch party. After receiving only one response, which wasn't even the official RSVP, the reader examined the RSVP in more detail and found "it looked like the whole TON of apparently life-sucking legalese I had to agree to in order to HOST a party. With even GUESTS having to agree to everything short of giving up their BIRTHRIGHTS to Microsoft and its subsidiaries, heirs, etc., how is ANYBODY supposed to actually get people to do the "official RSVP?!?"

Even PC World's Rick Broida got so little response to his own Windows 7 launch party invites that he simply canceled the event.

My PC World colleague David Coursey believes that Microsoft intentionally played the Windows 7 launch low-key. After the wild spectacle that accompanied the launch of Windows Vista, and the subsequent backlash against that OS, it makes sense that Microsoft would take a more practical approach this time to avoid any proverbial egg on the face.

I agree with Coursey that the official Windows 7 launch events had less hoopla by design. However, the Windows 7 launch party concept and Microsoft's attempts at igniting hoopla at a grassroots level demonstrate an attempt to hedge its bets and have its cake and eat it too. Unfortunately, nobody was having any cake at Windows 7 launch parties.

Remember high school--cool kids went to parties and had fun while nerds hung out at math club and played Dungeons and Dragons? Well, the two don't mix. Hosting a party where you play Dungeons and Dragons or discuss algebraic functions doesn't make you cool just because you put the word ‘party' on it.

Microsoft has had many failed attempts at being hip and cool. Microsoft Bob. The Office paperclip character. The Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld ads that seemed to require some sort of psychotropic mind enhancement in order for them to make sense. It just doesn't work.

Apple is cool. I don't agree with the premise of many of the Apple "I'm a Mac" ads, but I almost always find them entertaining and compelling. Apple didn't waste any time coming out with a new series of the "I'm a Mac" ads targeting Windows 7 too.

Microsoft does much better when it accepts its nerd-factor or at least sticks to more practical advertising. The "I'm a PC" campaign, mocking the "I'm a Mac" ads and embracing the fact that Windows is not Mac OS X, or the more poignant Laptop Hunters ad campaign, are both examples of Microsoft making a point without trying to be cool.

Let Apple be hip and cool. Apple has gained some operating system mojo lately, but it is nowhere near posing a threat to Windows dominance. Windows 7 already had word-of-mouth momentum from the unprecedented Beta and RC (release candidate) preview access and the Windows 7 launch party was a bad idea that just gives Microsoft opponents one more thing to ridicule.

Windows 7 is cool, as far as operating systems go, but not worthy of drinks and appetizers while everyone loads it up and shares tips and tricks with each other--not even for uber nerds. The only launch party I know of that was even a remote success was this one hosted by PC World senior editor Robert Strohmeyer.

He didn't even save me a piece of cake.

Tony Bradley is an information security and unified communications expert with more than a decade of enterprise IT experience. He tweets as @PCSecurityNews and provides tips, advice and reviews on information security and unified communications technologies on his site at tonybradley.com.

[jdog]

Wow! Big news for Microsoft here: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Window ... rt-838114/

That's almost as much as Apple's Mac OS X and Windows 7 has only been out for a month!

[AYHJA]

That's awesome man...I'm just glad I have my legit copy, but I even read somewhere that it wasn't even expensive, like $100...It's certainly worth that, I can assure everyone here...

[jdog]

Yeah, I got the Windows 7 Home Premium OEM for $109 so it's not expensive at all to own a legit license. :p

[Deepak]

I just upgraded from vista to windows 7 ulimate 32bit edition. It is looking pretty damn good so far.