Microsoft has finally admitted what the rest of the world has known for years: The Windows Live brand is a kludge and deserves to be put to death. Microsoft announced that it is finally doing that, in preparation for the cloud-based services that work in conjunction with Windows 8.
The Windows Live brand was launched in 2005, and grew to be a conglomeration of baffling independent software and services. Microsoft willly willy-nilly slapped the label on products for no apparent reason, ranging from Web-based services, such as e-mail, downloadable applications, such as Windows Live Essentials, which contains a variety of applications, including Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker.
Although the name implied that the products were based on Web and Windows based, that wasn't the case. Downloadable applications were Web-based; many products, such as Windows Live Hotmail, could be accessed from any operating system.
In a post yesterday, Chris Jones, Vice President of the Windows Live Group, wrote a blog post in which he said the Windows Live brand was finally being killed. He admitted that the Windows Live brand never lived up to the hopes of Microsoft for it:
"(Windows Live) has not met our expectations of a truly connected experience. Windows Live applications and services have been built on versions of Windows that are simply not designed to be plugged into a cloud service for anything other than updates and as a result, they felt "bolted on" experience.
He later admitted that the mark has led to a large amount of "customer confusion" about what the brand synonymous with writing:
"Names that we have used to describe our products in addition to that complexity: we used" Windows Live "to refer to software for your PC (Windows Live Essentials), a suite of web-based services (Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger), the account relationship with Microsoft (Windows Live ID) and myriad other offerings.
I complain about that for years the people of Microsoft; It's nice to see that they recognize as well.
Windows 8, you'll enter an ID of Microsoft (if you have a Windows Live ID, for example one for Hotmail, which is what I use), and will automatically connects to the cloud and enable file synchronization between multiple devices, to obtain information from the cloud from multiple devices and links to services like Facebook and third party applications.
What happens to Windows Live, if you are not a Windows user 8? Even apps that use part of Windows Live. But mostly, you won't be able to take advantage of the cloud, although it will be able to use cloud-based storage with SkyDrive, SkyDrive syncing applications for PCs and other devices with mobile phones, SkyDrive to Windows and Mac.
It may have been too long in coming to seven years--but still, it's nice to see one of the worst customizing errors that Microsoft has ever done biting the dust.
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