J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) managed to alienate many of its existing customers without attracting very many new ones, and gaining back their loyalty will be difficult if not impossible. The odds are against J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP).
Microsoft admits Windows 8 mistakes
While Windows 8 is selling reasonably well, with about 100 million licenses sold so far, users have not been thrilled with many of the changes introduced in the new operating system. The desktop, long the bread and butter of Windows, was relegated to “just an app” in Windows 8, and this seemed to confuse users. In a recent interview Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Chief Marketing Officer Tami Reller admitted that the company had made some mistakes with Windows 8. She said:
The learning curve is real and needs to be addressed.
This is a common complaint with Windows 8, that it’s far more difficult to use out of the box than previous versions of Windows. A handful of shortcut keys makes using the OS much simpler, but the average user isn’t used to needing to learn things in order to use Windows. Another complaint, regarding the desktop, was also addressed:
We started talking about the desktop as an app. But in reality, for PC buyers, the desktop is important.
Reller went on to say that the company was changing how sales associates were trained so that they emphasize that the desktop is still a central part of the OS. Originally the new tile-based interface was pushed as being more important than the desktop “app,” but this just managed to confuse people.
Later this year Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will be releasing an update to Windows 8, dubbed Windows Blue. Releasing big updates yearly is a change for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) , with the company having traditionally released new operating systems every few years without major updates in between. But Windows Blue promises to fix many of the perceived problems with Windows 8, including bringing back the start button and allowing users to boot directly into the desktop instead of the the tile-based interface.
I think Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) admitting its missteps and vowing to correct them sooner rather than later is a big step for the company. The first time I used Windows 8 on a laptop it took me a few minutes to understand exactly how it worked. Until I discovered some useful shortcut keys the OS seemed extremely cumbersome and annoying to use. There is absolutely a learning curve, and Microsoft did a terrible job explaining how to effectively use the OS. But it seems that the company knows this and is working to correct it. And in the end, I think Windows 8 will be a success.
The bottom line
A company apologizing for a mistake means nothing if the mistake is not aggressively corrected. Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) re-developed its pizza from the ground up and saw great success after admitting that its food was terrible. J.C. Penney, on the other hand, seems to have no clear plan after apologizing for the Ron Johnson era. The company appears to be going back to what sort-of worked before the turnaround effort, but it’s unclear whether customers will return. And Microsoft, after months of touting the new tile-based interface, seems to have realized that people still like the desktop and is on the path to fixing it. We’ll have to wait until the release of Windows Blue to see if Microsoft fully got the message, but all signs seem to suggest that it did.
The article Windows Companies Admitting Mistakes: Does It Work? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Timothy Green.
Timothy Green owns shares of Microsoft. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft.
