Microsoft

Who is the oFone really making fun of?

05.09.07 | Comments

My day started off with the dose of hi-larity below. I present to you, the oFone:

Yes folks, Microsoft does indeed have a sense of humor (on occasion). I really wonder how the Zune guys feel about this though. The ludicrous lengths that this mock-PR video follows feel eerily similar to Microsoft’s attempt to combat the iPod. Specifically, it speaks to horrible product design that completely misses what consumers want and the subsequent blindness by its creators.

I’m still waiting for J. Allard to apologize for that abomination. How could a man who did such a great job with making the Xbox a compelling product for Microsoft completely fail with the Zune? What’s worse, how could you get so close to making a compelling product only to gimp its most enticing feature? (Wi-fi, if you haven’t been paying attention)

This video seems to be poking fun at the corporate mentality that leads to a failure like the Zune in the first place. The fact that its Youtube page also links to the “Microsoft Redesigns the iPod Packaging” video is no coincidence in my mind. And it definitely seems to be an in-house project–the link at the end points to this MSDN site for the Windows Mobile Home group.

It’s exceedingly strange to me that they spend much more effort making fun of themselves than at their competitor. Then again, the iPhone has already been spoofed dozens of times by now. This segment from Conan O’Brien is my favorite:

Now it’s well known that despite its borg image, Microsoft is in actuality composed of many different groups. These groups mostly act independantly of one another unless they’re working on a major corporate project. That the Windows Mobile Home guys were smart enough to create such a captivating promo isn’t necessarily telling of a general change of attitude at the corporate level. But if the response to this ad is good, I’m certain it’s going to make some waves in the company.

In the end though, I suppose it doesn’t really matter who Microsoft was making fun of. The fact that it was a hilarious and well-produced PR spot was enough to grab attention, and places it among other great ads like the “Get Perpendicular” video from Hitachi. I’m a fan of quality comedy, so I certainly wouldn’t mind if this becomes more of a trend.


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