Cloud Computing Becomes Clown Computing

From the Desk of Jeremy Story…

First T-Mobile/Microsoft, and now Apple. It hasn’t exactly been a banner week for personal cloud computing.

Microsoft’s Flawed Strategy

From the desk of Jeremy Story…

Do you know anyone who is passionate about a PC? Me neither. But I do know people who slip into a near-clinical depression when they are separated from their MacBooks. Passion is what separates great brands from average brands. Passionate employees develop great products, and passionate customers become more than just customers –- they become brand advocates.

I started thinking about how passion has propelled Apple, and conversely how a lack of passion has been a drag on Microsoft, when I read an article about Microsoft trying to poach Apple retail store employees to run the new Microsoft retail stores. The first problem is that Microsoft’s retail store strategy inexplicably continues a trend of trying to beat competitors by emulating them (the “iPod killer” Zune, the “Google killer” Bing, etc.). But the larger problem is that Microsoft is hiring away people who are passionate about Apple and expecting them to be just as passionate about PCs. It simply won’t happen.