Yup, there are all of the old jokes:
If Microsoft built your car, your car would crash randomly three times a day while you were driving down the road… and every time you made a left turn.
or
If Microsoft built your car, every few months you’d have to reinstall a new transmission, but you wouldn’t be able to figure out why.
or
If Microsoft built your car, all the warning lights are replaced with a single dashboard indicator which lights up to read ‘Your car has experienced an unexpected error” - but it is only after the engine is ‘unable to recover.’
Microsoft doesn’t immediately bring to mind stability, reliability, or even functionality. If Ford’s main marketing pitch for the Focus is letting people know that they’re integrating Microsoft technology, they must really be in trouble.
Would anyone truly be motivated to purchase a car that was ‘powered by Microsoft,’ regardless if it is the automatic transmission or in-dash bluetooth stereo? If that’s the main selling point, Ford has nothing else to say about the Focus. Sorry, Ford. I’d trust my old ‘91 Escort (RIP) before picking up a new Focus that forced me to interact with highly cumbersome and wholly unreliable Microsoft technology.
But it’s not just that I wouldn’t buy a car powered by Microsoft: I’d prefer not to be driving down the interstate next to someone driving a new Focus when they’re trying to figure out how to use their new toy.
User failure is inevitable (particularly before coffee)… more so when it comes to Microsoft products. And even with voice activated products, there’s room for distraction from the road, and there’s definitely room for error.
Some things just aren’t sexy. And some cross-marketing initiatives just aren’t smart.
Sorry, Ford. FAIL.
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