As many longtime readers know, I am no big fan of Windows. It’s a solid OS, and I know that there are many people that like it; that’s great, but Windows just isn’t for me. The way I work is more suited for the Mac environment. It’s strictly a personal preference issue. As for Microsoft itself, I really only have one big problem with the company. No, it’s not that they have a stranglehold on the operating system market. No, it’s not that they are Microsoft, so therefore everything they do obviously sucks. My biggest problem with Microsoft is that they try to go in every direction at once and make things more convoluted for their customers than they should be. I’m not talking about the operating system itself, either. This all comes down to marketing.

Fuzzy Math

“Lies!” you say? Well, let’s look at some examples. First, let’s look at Microsoft’s endeavors in the digital music business. In the past two or three years, Microsoft has launched three music services: MSN Music, URGE (in conjunction with MTV), and Zune Marketplace. The first two use Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM scheme (Note: MSN Music no longer serves as a music store; instead it links to Zune Marketplace and Real Rhapsody). The other uses whatever DRM the Zune uses (I don’t think the marketing gurus in Redmond have yet come up with a name for it). Now why in the name of cinnamon sticky buns does Microsoft see it necessary to support two DRM technologies that not only are completely incompatible, but compete against each other? Why does Microsoft insist on competing against itself? The result of these overlapping technologies is, of course, customer confusion.

Now what about Windows? Back in the old days of 1999, Microsoft had two versions of Windows which were wholly distinguishable from each other: Windows NT and the DOS-Based Windows 98. The names were clear enough that you knew what was what. It was fairly simple and straightforward to figure out which version of Windows you need.

Things began to change with Windows XP. When Windows XP was born, choosing the right version of Windows was still easy: you had the choice between Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional Edition. Of course there were versions like Windows Embedded floating around, but the general public never saw them. Sometime around 2002, the first tablet PCs and Media Center PCs hit the market. Figuring out which version of Windows you wanted was still fairly easy, because the edition names made sense:  Home, Pro, Media Center, Tablet. It also helped that XP Tablet and XP Media Center are only available on a Tablet or Media Center PC, respectfully.

This brings us to Windows Vista. If you’ve been following the news surrounding Vista for the past few years, feel free to jump right past this paragraph. There are eight--count them, eight--editions of Vista: Starter Edition, Home Basic, Home Basic N, Home Premium, Business, Business N, Ultimate, and Enterprise. In the United States, four editions will be widely available: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. There are also upgrade versions of each. A recent Joy of Tech comic illustrates the edition fun nicely.

The same can be said for Office. With Office 2007, there will be no less than eight editions available: Basic, Home and Student, Standard, Small Business, Professional, Ultimate, Professional Plus, and Enterprise. If I am a home user, for example, which should I get? Basic sounds like it’ll fit the bill, but Home and Student is specifically geared towards me. But then again, so is Office Standard. If I’m a small business owner, I imagine I could do just fine with Office Standard, but then there’s the Office Small Business edition that’s marketed towards me. But hell, why shouldn’t I go for Office Professional? Or Office Professional Plus? Or for that matter, Office Ultimate?

I need Office. Which edition should I get?

This is where I scratch my head. I work in a computer store. We will carry Vista and Office 2007 beginning January 30. I fully expect confused customers will wander in and ask me which edition of Vista they will need. While I respect Microsoft’s need to offer various editions of the same product (for example, the “N” editions are the result of antitrust measures taken by the EU), but I get the feeling that Microsoft goes a little overboard. I think, for one, that Home Basic is nothing but crippleware. I won’t say it’s completely useless, since the Word-and-email-only users out there would get by just fine with Home Basic. The problem is that for not much more, users can get themselves the Home Premium edition, which includes most of the more exciting enhancements in Vista from an end-user’s perspective.

I don’t think end users need to be product professionals to buy a piece of software. Yes, smart shoppers should do their homework, but I could imagine even the smartest of non-geek shoppers staring blankly at their computer screen trying to figure out which is which (remember; you might have every feature of edition of Office and Vista memorized, but not everyone is into this sort of stuff).

A method to the madness

Let’s be honest; as I alluded to earlier, the fact of the matter is that Microsoft has no choice but to offer multiple editions (to some extent, anyway). Microsoft’s customer base is extremely broad and varied. Some point to Apple’s spartan product line as a better way to go but Apple’s customer base is far, far smaller than Microsoft’s. On one hand, the iPod has become a mass-market consumer product, and the iPod product line is still fairly simple. On the other, it’s not as simple as it used to be, but it’s still not overkill. Despite selling over 100 million iPods, though, Apple’s technology does not power 90% of the world’s personal computers. there has to be a balance somewhere.

Doing it right

Okay, so quick recap: products that compete with each other coming out of the same company is not a good idea (I’ll give the Zune a partial pass since it strives to be a different paradigm).  Too many editions of the same product is a bad idea. Multiple editions are inevitable for a company of Microsoft’s size. Finding a balance between addressing your customers’ needs and not overwhelming your customers with choices is a good thing.

The easiest target to shoot is Windows Vista Home Basic. Microsoft could conceivably eliminate Home Basic, lower the price of Home Premium to somewhere between Home Basic and Home Premium’s pricing, and call it Windows Vista Home Edition. There would be only one consumer edition and one “N” edition. That leaves us with Starter, Business, Business N, Ultimate, and Enterprise as the other editions. I imagine it’s possible to combine Business and Enterprise into one “Vista Professional Edition”, which would bring us down to a more manageable five editions. Even without combining Enterprise and Business, the reduction in consumer-oriented editions would be huge. You’ve given the average American consumer two editions of Vista to choose from instead of three. That brings us to Office.

Office Basic, Home and Student, and Standard could easily be combined into one Office Standard Edition. Office Small Business and Professional are similar enough to be combined. Professional Plus makes no sense whatsoever; why does the Professional edition have Outlook with Business Contacts manager and the supposedly better Professional Plus just have the standard Outlook? Professional Plus, Enterprise, and Ultimate could be rolled into one “Ultimate” edition. Boom, just like that, eight editions becomes three: one for home users, one for small businesses, and one for power users as well as larger businesses.

Freedom of choice?

I believe in choice. I think choice is good for the customer most of the time. Too much choice, especially in the case of Vista where there are many editions of the same product, can and will lead to customer confusion. Microsoft, please be kind to your customers and all those sales assistants out there who try to give customers guidance. Get a grip with this whole edition obsession. Just for me? Please?