On Friday Microsoft abruptly rebranded its Windows 8 interface, which has been known as “Metro” since it was introduced for Windows Phone 7. Instead of the simple “Metro,” the tile-based interface will now — and according to online reports, forever — be known as “Windows 8 style UI.” At the root of this change is a potential trademark dispute with Metro AG, a major German retailer. But though the “Metro” moniker may seem to be a metro-sized headache for Microsoft, the software giant claims it was just a code name all along.
I do, among other things, corporate identity for companies. This includes logo design and naming. For Microsoft to make this kind of foolish error boggles the mind. Metro is a cool name, and...rather common so it would have behooved MS to do a Google or Bing search regarding said term to make sure branding the most important software upgrade in MS\'s history would be ok. If not, move on and redo the name. This is a fubar big time and responsibility for same goes to Balmer as he is the honcho of the company and the buck should stop there. Shooting oneself in the foot is not good practice, something MS has done in spades since the rise of the net.
OK so I think Microsoft knows by now that Metro has brought on some real emotional feelings about where Windows is going on the PC. I cannot believe they did not see this coming. Someone at Microsoft really needs to hire a human physic expert to explain how people are split on extreme changes. Some embrace it, some do not. A simple option to give users a selection to opt in to Metro desktop or stay with a classic Windows would have eliminated this discussion and we could have focussed on Windows 8 and its features. Maybe now Microsoft has decided that it needed to redirect the focus off of Metro and start getting people interested in Windows 8 as a whole. Trouble is that it does not change anybody's view of Windows 8. Some will hate it and some won't. The real problem for Microsoft is the haters. I don't see that changing the name will help people's opinion of Metro or whatever its called.
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Microsoft's Not Stuck on 'Metro'
Posted by: Peter Suciu August 3, 2012 11:54 AMOn Friday Microsoft abruptly rebranded its Windows 8 interface, which has been known as “Metro” since it was introduced for Windows Phone 7. Instead of the simple “Metro,” the tile-based interface will now — and according to online reports, forever — be known as “Windows 8 style UI.” At the root of this change is a potential trademark dispute with Metro AG, a major German retailer. But though the “Metro” moniker may seem to be a metro-sized headache for Microsoft, the software giant claims it was just a code name all along.