Microsoft reveals Mojave: the new Windows OS with a twist

By Davey Winder
Monday, 28 July 2008 15:54

Strategy

In an attempt to deflect the seemingly unstoppable 'Vista is pants' bandwagon that has been gathering speed even before the Windows OS was officially launched, Microsoft has come up with an unusual answer: Windows Mojave. Tomorrow it will debut video of the 'new' Windows in action...

It all seems to have grown from a seed planted by a clever bod within the Microsoft marketing division, focusing on how to improve the consumer perception of the Windows Vista Operating System. The seed grew into the Mojave tree which was revealed to Windows XP users in San Francisco.

By getting a bunch of happy XP users together, all of whom had expressed negativity regarding Vista and would therefore be unlikely to upgrade, Microsoft was less intent on discovering the root cause of that user angst and more on slapping the negativity right out of them.

The weapon being used was Windows Mojave, the code-name for a brand new version of the Windows OS. After first filming each participant being probed about their Vista views, they were then shown Mojave in action and asked the same questions.

Surprisingly, more than 90 percent of the user group were upbeat and positive regarding Windows Mojave which received the kind of 'wow factor' response that Microsoft had always assumed Vista would get.

The surprise, of course, being that Mojave and Vista are actually one and the same thing!

According to Microsoft Windows Business Chief Bill Veghte, talking to CNET last week, "We have a huge perception opportunity, offering a glass half-full assessment of things. We are going to try a bunch of stuff."

Emil Protalinski, when discussing the story over at Ars Technica, described the experiment as "Microsoft lies to XP users and they start to love Vista."

Is it just me, or does the whole Mojave Experiment smack of desperation just a tad? Find out, along with the location of that Mojave Experiment video, by reading page 2...

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