Not Again, Microsoft...

In the latest endeavor by Microsoft to be like everyone else but Microsoft, the brand is yet again under fire for the Yahoo/Microsoft integration.   Can it be done?  Will it be a viable competitor to Google?  Will it go smoothly?  Ad Age doesn't think so.  They point out five reasons on what makes this merger hard to swallow.  The 4th quarter timing "seems to offer marketers a lot of risk for very little reward."  Marketer's learning curve in terms of how Yahoo ads and Bing ads will perform together.  Microsoft's execution seems a little short given that "AdCenter isn't ready to handle the volume."  Yahoo and Microsoft's working relationship may be iffy at best as the company hasn't been the easiest partner to work with.  Given that Bing's queries appear to "be coming directly from Yahoo" so will it impact the search market at all?  If everything goes as planned, we should be finding out soon.

This leads me to think that Microsoft as a brand lost cache a long time ago.  That much of the brand, for a long time, has been reactive then proactive in their initiatives.  The fact that Apple surpassed Microsoft as the stronger and more profitable brand is evidence enough.  This is significant as it changes the trust in Microsoft as a brand and company.  Straight from the horses mouth, “Apple is showing high growth, with the launch of its iPad and its new iPhone coming out, and while Windows is a great competitor versus the Mac, Microsoft just hasn't come up with new areas of growth."  "Wall Street believes in Apple because Apple continues to put out new products that capture the imaginations of the press and tech pundits.  Microsoft just hasn't been able to come up with a new multi billion dollar business like Apple."  The stronger Apple gets the more Microsoft seems to be backing into a corner, blindly swinging and missing every time.

A few of Microsoft's FAIL products:  

Zune

Vista

Surface