Microsoft reduced their forecast for their Internet business. Good grief … this is tantamount to corporate suicide.  Time to fire people, and get back to the drawing board.  Several months ago we expressed disappointment here in Ray Ozzie’s progress …. nuff said. 

I feel strongly about Microsoft … they brought us IE when all there was, was Netscape.  They seemed to get it in the 90’s.

“Microsoft’s Live branding has been tremendously confusing and has hurt the company, and it is very likely contributing to the situation they are in right now. They’ve created another brand and have not differentiated it.”

–David Smith, analyst at Gartner

Its not poor branding that’s killing Microsoft in their Windows Live efforts.  Its combination, of crappy integration, and poor products.

While it’s too early to write the obituary for Windows Live, things aren’t looking good in its first year, analysts said.

“There are concerns that there has been some slippage or (Microsoft) has moved backwards” with regard to its push to better compete against Google in the market for consumer software that is supported by ads, said Michael Cherry, lead Windows analyst at Directions on Microsoft.

Source: Microsoft hurt by poor Live branding, analysts say | CNET News.com

Points to consider from a simple user:

• Live branding is associated with teenagers or at least people who appreciate flashy busy pages.  So why build a replica of MS Outlook to replace Hotmail?  Windows Live Mail is utter crap.  Its slow, busy, and very hard to navigate.  Kill it and build something better than Gmail  …. yes a tall order but just do it.  The good news is that the new Yahoo Mail beta is as crappy as Live Mail, so you have time.
• Windows Live Writer … fantastic product, but try finding it … dead links all over the place.

email and blogging are fundamental for Internet.  Microsoft … get those right first …. promote WLW as the fantastic product it is, and kill the mail beta.  Forget about the Outlook metaphor .. go back to the drawing board.

My ten cents …..