Vlad Savov about yesterdays Microsoft keynote at BUILD:
Steve Jobs’ keynotes for Apple, which may now be consigned to the past, stand as the gold standard in delivering news about a company’s next generation of consumer tech products. What resonates from each of the last few major announcements Jobs and his team have made is the stupendous simplicity of Apple’s message. The original MacBook Air fit into a manilla envelope, the iPad was “magical and revolutionary,†the third-gen iPod touch was “a great gaming device,†and the fourth-gen iPhone “changed everything.†Pithy. Memorable. Emotive.
Never mind how credible you may consider each of those claims to be, the fact is that you’re aware of them today, even if you’re not obsessively tracking Apple’s fortunes. That, dear friends, is having focus. If you can spend an hour introducing a new product or upgrade or device category and end up with almost your entire audience on the same page, rehearsing the same talking points, you’ve done your job. Apple’s leadership recognizes just how brief an attention span the general public has for tech product launches and tries to capture attention with just one headline-grabbing, market-leading advantage. Microsoft, well… doesn’t.
That’s pretty much what it comes down to. Even the chosen photo says more than enough about the differences. Go read this, as it summarizes the issues that Microsoft is having with their communication.
The same applies to regular press releases and common issues. Apple tends to be silent about these and prefers to take its time to figure out what exactly the problem is. Only then they usually come out with a precise solution, if they see something is a real problem.