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One of my biggest bugaboos is communications, or more specifically, a lack thereof from the people and companies I do business with. Well, personally too. One of the biggest signs that I had to marry Melissa and (relatively) fast, was that when I told her I suck at hints. If you want something, you need to say so, directly. This applies to all holidays and any other occaision., and her reaction was Okay, and she followed through.

I know there's degrees in marketing and PR, and all, but I've never understood why. Those are the two simplest things in the world. Here, I shall now give you what you need to know to be a top - notch marketer:

Talk to your customers clearly and concisely, and listen to them with an open mind. The customer is not always right, in fact, they're frequently stupid. But they are always the customer and as such, deserve a place in your thoughts near the front.

So now of course, the OMGMSLOCKINGOUTOFFICEMAC crap has started, and this is a case of being precisely one day too late. Had Microsoft posted their information about the Microsoft XML converters on Mac Mojo the day before the crapfest started, it would have been a really smart, albeit hard thing to do. Now, I do not know why they didn't do that, and I'm not going to ascribe maliciousness to it. From the Windows side, sure, but not the Mac BU. They've earned the benefit of a doubt, at least from me. However, the fact is, by being just a day too late on this, they look worse than they could have.

However, the fact remains, they did post the information. Not only on Mac Mojo, but on Erik Schwiebert's blog and Rick Schaut's blog as of this writing. Between those three posts, they've explained what's happening, and a pretty good explanation of why it's happening the way it is. The only thing I'd like to have seen on the Mac Mojo post is the phrase, "We're sorry". That's a powerful phrase, and it's not used enough IMO.

But here's a counterpoint: Had they posted before the hysteria started, had they said "We're sorry", it would have changed nothing. The attitude and the screaming would have been just as bad. Face it, in the Mac market, the Mac BU is always the bad guy. I really do think that the interview process for that unit has to involve R. Lee Ermey treating the interview like one of the recruits in Full Metal Jackets, so they know what's in store for them. At least the Win Office team gets some love from its customers.

So I can understand the impulse of we're fucked either way, why do any more work to get yelled at than we have to?

I am not thrilled with the translator issues, but I have to give them credit for doing more than the standard PR release on it. That's far better than some other Mac developers do when they screw up.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Mac BU

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