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Top 10 disappointing technologies

Posted by ctitanic on May 18, 2009 – 10:09 am  Share
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 PC Authority has posted an interesting article about disappointing technologies and there are two Microsoft’s Products that are included in the list of top ten. Could you guess which ones? I’m sure you do: Vista and Zune.

Vista’s biggest problem, however, was its big appetite for hardware. Users who had grown accustomed to the low demands of XP were often shocked to realize how much hardware they would need to upgrade just to run Vista. Many of the high-end features out of the realm of even some brand new systems.
The matter was further complicated when a lawsuit unearthed evidence that the company purposely lowered some of the suggested requirements at the behest of hardware vendors.

Here is what they said about Zune:

The problem with the Zune is that it lacks any sort of killer app. The Xbox had some big exclusive titles and a superior online community. There was nothing of this magnitude to establish the Zune over its competitors. It arguably functions as well or better than the iPod in many ways, but not in any way that was good enough to really make people dump their iPods The music service for the Zune was also lacking, and it didn’t help that the thing was ugly as sin.

I would add that they did a big mistake switching from WMP to Zune Software to manage the music library. Of course I understand that they needed in some way to integrate the Zune Market Place but in my opinion that switch in the middle of the road disappointed many users including me. It was like we bought an unfinished product.

Top 10 disappointing technologies – News – PC Authority

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ctitanic (735 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Working as IT Professional since 1994. IT Manager since 1999. Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Tablet PC/UMPC since 2007. Owner/writer of www.ultramobilepc-tips.com . Published many articles in todoUMPC Magazine, www.todoUMPCmagazine.com, the first online magazine all about UMPCs. Maker of Tweaks2K2, a registry hacking tool for Pocket PC devices (www.tweaks2k2.com).


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  • joe the plumber
    i believe the zune is an amazing device much better then ipod it just has a bad reputation because in are world today there is nothing but ipod. But it is better
  • Of course Avalon came out: it's WPF! WPF is one of the great technologies that came with vista.
  • Thanks for correlating the code name for me. I hadn't heard they were the same.

    However, it appears that WPF is also available for XP SP 2, so I'm not sure it can really be called a Vista feature any longer. If developers can write apps using WPF that work on both Vista and XP, there's no incentive for users to upgrade to Vista.

    Steve
  • I also can't believe they put Bluetooth in the list. They claim that it's useful only for phone headsets, basically, ignoring its use for music, GPS, file transfers and PDA syncing.

    It may not quite have lived up to the hype, but it's hardly in the Top 10 disappointments.

    Steve
  • First, it's good to see that Windows Mobile wasn't listed. :D

    Regarding Vista, I'm not sure that the hardware requirements are what made Vista a "flop" (I use quotes because I personally like most of Vista). I think Vista foundered because of three major issues:

    1. Software incompatibility -- Vista broke lots of software. Sure, vendors could update their software, but if you had to pay for the update, that's a big negative. This is especially true of vertical market applications critical to your business, where vendors often charge arms and legs for updates.

    2. Lack of compelling new features -- Longhorn, which eventually became Vista, was supposed to have at least three big improvements -- the Avalon graphics engine, the Aero user interface and the WinFS database-like storage system. WinFS got dropped, leading some to call Longhorn "Shorthorn" and I'm not sure if Avalon came out. If not, a new UI isn't very compelling to most people.

    3. Annoying security prompts -- The UAC prompts seem to annoy some people to no end. Personally, I don't mind them, but I can put up with Windows Mobile glitches, too. The part I hate is when the OS says I need to approve something, I say OK and then get the UAC prompt. Double confirmations are annoying.

    Requiring additional hardware may hurt upgrades, but upgrading Windows isn't always a good idea, anyway. By the time you're ready for a new PC, it had Vista, which worked OK (unless you got a substandard PC that the lawsuit is about).

    Steve
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