desideratum

Microsoft’s Future Vision of Productivity by the Microsoft Office team

I’d love to live in a world where high-tech was this ubiquitous, even if a bit preposterous. But I agree with Gruber:

This video encapsulates everything wrong with Microsoft. Their coolest products are imaginary futuristic bullshit. Guess what, we’ve all seen Minority Report already. Imagine if they instead spent the effort that went into this movie on making something, you know, real, that you could actually go out and buy and use today.

Microsoft made a similar video two years ago. These videos demonstrate that Microsoft has a creative, compelling vision for the future. But if that vision doesn’t translate into a product I can drool over and— in the near future—buy/use, then aside from entertaining me for a few minutes, there’s really no point. Even if Microsoft actually releases the Courier and makes my fridge see-through ten years from now, that’s still ten years of brand equity and my business they’ve lost.

…on second thought, maybe they can get $8.50 from me if they turn these concept videos into a feature-length movie.