Product Naming and Numbering Oh My
I attended a Windows 7 seminar last night and it was pointed out that Windows 7 and Office <xxxx> were different products and that got me thinking a little bit.
When Microsoft pushes a new version of Windows out the door and then a new version of Office it seems that some people get confused by the two. For example, my mom has Office 2007 at work running on Windows XP. When Windows 7 came out she was sure that she needed to get Office 7 to support any coming changes, but Office 7 would probably not run well in Windows 7 given that the current Office version is actually 12 (soon to be 14).
I do not think it is bad that people think this way, but I do think it something easy to correct. The problem has been around since the Rolling Stones’ “Start me up” was used in a Windows campaign, yup… Windows 95.
It really is a confusing problem if you look at it from an average point of view. Windows 95, Office 97, Windows 98, Office 2000…. etc. The fun continues to present day with Office 2007 (and the forthcoming Office 2010) and Windows 7.
The numbering of applications and operating systems is a good idea, especially since there is only a rare occasion when the OS and Office Suite get to shelf in the same year (though Office 2010 and Win 7 are close… loosely). It keeps the product simple and easy to understand like all marketing it isnt perfect.
I guess user education is the key here. For me, referring to Windows 7 simply as 7 needs to stop as it confuses some people. That is afterall why the product is called Windows 7 (oddly not Windows 6.1 or Vista but better) to differentiate it from other numbered products like Windows Server 2008 R2 (2008) and Office 2007 or 2010.
Simple separation
Surely the separation of Office Products from Windows products should not be terribly hard, afterall the users must shell out separately for them both. Since I cannot buy a PC with Office and get too far without Windows (or some other Operating System) but I can buy and run a PC with Windows and not Office.
Educating users and consumers, friends and family, and anyone around you might be the best thing to prevent the installation of Office 7 and Windows 2010 (until Windows 2010 actually hits… if ever).
My question here is simple, does Microsoft think about these things? Surely people on the Windows and Office teams have seen/heard this before. Also… which version of Office was Office 7, I am curious to know if there was one.
