I was chatting with a friend who has worked at Microsoft for about 15 years about why the Tablet PC, Portable Media Center, and the Media Center PC haven’t taken off like Microsoft had hoped they would. This got me thinking about some of the less popular Microsoft products that are “best of breed” in my opinion. Here’s the list we came up with:
Microsoft Publisher – Why can’t all MS products be this polished and easy to use out of the box? I’ve used this product for five years and I’m still impressed with each version.
Photo Story 3 – A hidden gem. Taking photos and putting them in a nifty sideshow to music and narration has never been this easy. A fantastic product for everyone with a digital camera.
MSN Messenger – Ok, this doesn’t qualify as a less popular product because so many people use it but it doesn’t get much recognition for being a very simple, straight-forward product that even my technophobe mother can use. My only worry is that MS appears to be cramming this product full of additional features in the same manner as ICQ until it became a bloated piece of junk. Keep it simple!
Media Player 10 – iTunes gets all the press but Microsoft has slowly taken a very bland product and made it into a very easy to use media player. Again, I hope that MS keeps things simple and doesn’t try to push MSN Music in the same manner that made me discontinue using MusicMatch. I just want an mp3 player, not an online music store shoved in my face.
MSN Spaces – This product caught me by surprise. In a short period of time, Microsoft has put together a very nice blogging service that rivals those that have been around for years. For first time bloggers who don’t want to muck with code and configuration, this should be your first stop. MSN is back in the game.
Digital Image Suite 10 – No, it’s not as powerful as Photoshop. Doesn’t matter because for people like myself that don’t have weeks to learn the in and outs of the Adobe product, this is an excellent solution. I still use Photoshop for some tasks but features like “auto red-eye removal” make quick work of the problem compared with other products. I thought MS was going to kill this product a while back and I’m glad to see they didn’t.
What do all these products have in common? They are easy to use! Why haven’t the Media Center PC and Portable Media Center taken off? IMO, they are too difficult for the average person to setup and use.
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