DIGITIZING MANANGEMENT
PING NA THALANG
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| The first Japanese customer displays a package of Microsoft's new operating system Windows Vista at a Tokyo electric shop early on January 30. — AFP |
Microsoft Vista has been officially released through the usual extravaganza marketing, using the same old "better, easier, safer" tune that accompanies many new products. For me, it's just another product launch that re-emphasises the fact that, when it comes to consumer software products, it is supply that drives demand. Ronald Reagan would have been proud.
Supply-side economics by Microsoft? You bet. Do you, as end-users, think Vista was produced because users need to upgrade to Vista? Or do you upgrade to the new OS because it's already here in the market and it looks really cool?
I would speculate that you might be among the type of user, like myself, who is forced to upgrade to the new OS because we have to - there's no way out of it.
The way software makers force end-users to upgrade is often done like this: First, by making deals with the hardware manufacturers. When someone buys a new PC, it is bundled with the new OS. The new OS provides best support for new software, like Office 2007, where it sports the spanking new data file format.
Next, as more people start using the new Office 2007 suite, their compatriots with older Office versions cannot effectively communicate with them without the converter (which may not be fully compatible with all new features of Office 2007). So these poor souls have to eventually shell out hard-earned money to upgrade to the new version - even though their current software can still serve them well (and don't forget the new OS to go along with it.) This is what the marketers call "viral marketing" at its best.
When you buy a car, on average you'd spend around five to six years using it before you trade in for a new model. But there are many people who still use their cars well into double-digit years.
This is possible because you have mechanics who support your car, with spare parts available. If there are no spare parts from the original manufacturers, the mechanics would scout for parts from used cars or junk heaps. For classic cars, some parts are even remade to maintain these antique cars.
In the world of aviation, the equipment's life expectancy is even more astounding - airworthy aircraft can be 40-50 years old. There are many of the these aircraft serving passengers commercially around the world thanks to the air transport industry infrastructure, which provide the world's safest mode of transport with one of the best life expectancies for the tools of the trade.
Back to the future: where can we see the Apple II, IBM XT, or AT in service now? Forget that, how about DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows ME? Does it mean that in the world of software, there are no mechanics to support the old generation software? Does that mean software manufacturers cannot carry the spare parts to fix old programs? It's not about the software, ladies and gentlemen - it's all about how you do the work that you do.
When you look back at the history of the PC, you can see that its power has grown leaps and bounds. But when you look back to the history of your own productivity, do you see that same leap reflected on your profit statement? I doubt that you do, because if your productivity has jumped up the way software's power has increased, we'd see not one Bill Gates jet-setting around the globe - there'd be millions of them.
So far, the only people to see skyrocketing growth of productivity are the people who make the productivity software for those who yearn for better productivity - and that's the price we all pay when society allows a defacto standard to be born from a single, profit-oriented company.
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