April 28, 2006

Hotmail

ZDNet on Hotmail revamp

I say dumping the Hotmail brand would be a big mistake. People who use Hotmail don't think of it as Microsoft or Windows, it's just their mail. The Windows brand isn't an asset to Hotmail, quite the opposite, they're trying to leverage the Hotmail brand to promote the new "Windows Live" which is a desperate attempt to keep Windows fresh.

3 comments:

chad said...

yeah hotmail is one of the biggest names on the web. even microsoft's product marketing people aren't that incompetent.

Composing said...

I think the danger isn't so much the marketing department, but too much commitment to Windows in the higher-echelons of MS.

Allegedly, the idea is that Ray Ozzie with his P2P / internet perspective is meant to be correcting that. But I think there are people wedded to the Windows brand who sort of see "Live" as something which will be a simple continuation of the product range and power-structure; when perhaps MS really need a shocking discontinuity.

chad said...

maybe you're right; either way its pretty clear their current live/msn/* branding strategy is about as bad as hailstorm was.

whats amazing to me is these big guys are all still trying to own "eyeballs" at the end of the day. no serious thoughts about making a business from catering to independent sites with a suite of plug-in services. other than maybe amazon.