Erosion

I think about Microsoft a lot. I’ve got a soft spot for them. I remember launching games like Battle of Britain and Wing Commander from the DOS prompt. I remember learning Photoshop and playing Quake 2 on Windows 98. I remember assembling my first PC with friends. Happy memories.

So why do I use a Mac today? Why can’t I even imagine going back to Windows, even if my livelihood depended on it? And why do so many other former Windows users feel the same way?

Erosion.

Every day Microsoft caused us a little more pain. Every bad experience wore us down a bit more, and Microsoft wouldn’t or couldn’t fix it. Then a friend would switch to Mac and rave about it. Then another. And then one day we found ourselves in the Apple store, ready to believe.

Notes:

  • More posts about brand erosion are in the pipe. Understanding why customers leave — especially when it’s painful or expensive for them to do so — is vital in understanding how to keep them.
  • More on this later, but I believe Internet Explorer’s legacy of suck is a huge part of Microsoft’s undoing.

November 21, 2009 / Category: UX Theory / Tags: ,

  • ballance
    Wing Commander from a DOS prompt FTW!
  • I feel the same way. But don't you think this attitude is more common among developers and IT pros -- ones who really saw and could understand the details of the erosion?
  • Regular users were burned by security and other issues too, more on that later.

    Note that techies advise and do tech support for their friends and families. Important to keep them happy.
  • Good point. Devs tend to avoid thinking about virusscan and malware apps (unless they're providing tech support.)

    Plus there is the whole bloatware issue - both pre-installed and driver packaged. That shit bothers everyone.
  • afurth
    @Alexander

    I'm not a developer, and definitely not an IT pro. But I felt the erosion in the bones, and switched too :)
  • I had a Commodore 64, then my dad bought a Sir Speedy in 1986 and it ran all Macs. I've never owned a PC and the only ones we've ever had in our house were work-issued laptops for my parents.

    Apple is a better experience and anyone who says differently is flat out wrong.
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