back to article Hipsters have spoken: Microsoft is 'hip to be square'

Microsoft is getting hip again, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but Google's still the coolest kid in school. The polling organization asked the US's finest 18 and 29-year-olds what the coolest tech brands are, and for the first time in a long while around half answered Microsoft. The generation that grew up with an Xbox – …

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  1. Stu 18

    consumers vs enterprise

    This really is quite obvious from Windows 8.

    But I wonder where the money is long term. There might be more consumers to go for, but they are a fickle bunch and they don't spend as much. I am guessing office for business is a lot more profitable than office for home and student.

    BYOD by the way, is for people that don't have anything better to do with their money. If I have to work for someone, they can pay for a decent, reliable machine(s) to work on.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. chekri

      Re: consumers vs enterprise

      " I am guessing office for business is a lot more profitable than office for home and student."

      Yes it is of course.

      But think of it this way, if students were not using Office in school and employees were not using Office at home...instead using Google Docs or LibreOffice. What would business' then start using?

    3. jason 7
      Meh

      Re: consumers vs enterprise

      Yes BYOD is strictly for the Pink shirt and cuff-link brigade.

      You know who they are.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Stu

      The money sits with a combination of both.

      It was for very good reasons why company employee's were allowed to copy the version of WordPerfect (4 / 5) from their work and use it at home. Even for private usage. Better yet; this behaviour was even openly and actively promoted.

      In more than one case business use sterns from home use. Don't underestimate the situations where $boss learns a new product, also learns that the same product (but a more expensive version) can be used in the office and as such now pushes $product forward as that which everyone should use.

      Although many would go for "pick a product which works best" most will "pick a product they know".

  2. Charles Manning

    Sixty-five percent of all PCs go to the consumer

    Those will be the Home Editions of software with really shitty margins. MS has always depended on the corporate customer for a healthy bottom line.

    What the grown ups in Wall St care about is revenue, profit, etc.

    Chasing coo lis fine, but MS should not abandon their corporate customers - and traditional profit base - to join the race to the bottom which they will fail at. Unfortunately for MS, they have chased coolness too hard and are cutting themselves off from their traditional strong markets,

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sixty-five percent of all PCs go to the consumer

      "Chasing coo lis fine"

      NO! Chasing cool in uncool.

      Being individual, not a sheep, is cool.

      Yanks are weired anyway. Cool WTF? Oi! The fonz died YEARS AGO!

      So tragic.

    2. fandom

      Re: Sixty-five percent of all PCs go to the consumer

      He is talking to Wall Street people, the ones that are seeing the Apple is entering the enterprise by means of conquering the consumers.

      So he is telling them. Hey! we are into consumers too, buy our stock!

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  4. Herby

    So...

    Now High-Tech has a "COOL WALL". Will wonders will never cease. The next question is how the "COOL WALL" rates in regard to company health (margins)? There are things that are "cool" but don't sell.

    I suppose that all those ads on TV for the Surface tablet with crazy people dancing around (and doing no actual work) are what makes Microsoft "cool". If that is the case, I'll pass!

    Of course, I know that Linux is "cool" for me, but that is another story!

  5. Androgynous Crackwhore
    FAIL

    Lies, damned lies, statistics and... now...

    A fiddle, wrapped in statistics, inside damned lies.

    "Microsoft is getting hip again, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll"

    No it isn't. "Again"? Eh? Don't be stupid.

    "The polling organization asked the US's finest 18 and 29-year-olds what the coolest tech brands are"

    No they didn't...

    The shysters pollsters asked some 'Merkin yoof (and oldies, but the yoof gave the stoopidest best answers so we'll ignore the rest) "Which of these companies is cooler than it used to be?" and reeled off a list.

    Is this turd hipper now I've stuck a cocktail umbrella into it? 67% yes

    Is the idea of Justin Bieber coming to your birthday party hipper this year than it was before? 14% yes

    Newsflash! Young hipsters say a turd with a cocktail umbrella in it is hipper than Justin Bieber coming to their birthday party. Turds with a cocktail umbrellas in them are cool! Film at 11 (SFW)

    Please stop tormenting us with this heinous agency drivel El Reg

  6. Androgynous Crackwhore
    Boffin

    Actually...

    What is interesting in the little actual data they gave us is:

    The youngest and the poorest Americans have been most strongly influenced by Microsoft's recent advertising blitz

    Not sure if that's either news or a good thing for any of those concerned. I suppose those disposable laptop things are targeted at college-age kids so perhaps it's a partial, if inevitable (the young are the most impressionable! Shock!) win. Did make me smile though.

  7. Mikel

    Half say more cool and half less

    Net that is "no change"

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank god

    Praise be, now I can finally buy an iphone without people mistaking me for a Barista.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thank god

      "Praise be, now I can finally buy an iphone without people mistaking me for a Barista" There'll be no mistaking your an iclone!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Obviously...

        And yet 75% of the smartphone market is Android. Surely not even you are stupid enough not to see the clone correlation there, or are they all individuals for buying similar devices? Clown.

  9. Dana W
    Trollface

    Because nothing is more hip and alternative then using whateveryone else uses!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wait...I am confused I thought nobody used Surface, WP8 etc...

      I do wish you naysayers would make up your minds.

    2. dogged
      Meh

      @Dana W

      That's an interesting quote for one of the Reg's most vehement iPhone defenders.

  10. hplasm
    Devil

    "One hundred percent of all Xboxes go to the consumers..."

    ...54.2% come back again.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm...

    So you quote a 24 year old arts student.. is that representative of the group? Is he a post grad or was he held back in high school for a few years?

  12. plrndl
    Alert

    Early Warning

    Quick, hide your credit cards. The Ballmer's coming to get you!

  13. RainForestGuppy

    What makes you cool?

    I'm sorry but if people think that carrying the lastest, Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, etc makes you cool then they've got some very serious personallity issues.

    ***And as everybody knows there is only one piece of tech that makes you looks cool and pulls the birds, "want come back to my place and hack my Raspberry Pi" ..... works every time ;-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @RainForest

      Or they're simply young and try to copy their surroundings.

      And some people simply never stop doing that. I wouldn't call that a personality issue, its simply a way of life. Many people copy behaviour from their surroundings.

      This even goes as far as a simple conversation. Many don't even realize it but people will even copy behaviour there. During a simple conversation try (casually) scratching / stroking your chin (or beard if you have one). Most likely you'll see this behaviour copied by others, without them even realizing it. Doesn't have to be an exact copy of course; but if you touch your face chances are high others will too.

      People copy others, its in their genes. Why do you think commercials and ads are such a big deal and make so much money ?

      "To sell stuff".

      Sure; but how do you explain that you can sell stuff by merely showing it to someone? Because some have this urge that "they want to have it too"; they want to copy / mimic.

    2. DJV Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Raspberry Pi?

      Damn you, you young whippersnappers! So that's why trying to entice sweet young things back with my "do you want to come and play at my abacus and difference engine" is no longer the draw it was in times past! Hrmph!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "About 60 per cent of da yout – in the South London vernacular – think that Apple is cooler than it was a few years ago"

    Inexperienced spotty youth claims Apple is cool.

    Say No More!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Internet 'tard troll says they are not. Spoty Yoof must be right.

  15. Grikath
    FAIL

    and the opinions of a bunch of neo-emo's is relevant, why?

    1. Flawless101
      Meh

      about as relevant as neo-punk/rocker/teddy boys/goths/mods/nerds/jocks/preps/grunge/skaters...?

  16. Fihart

    Not Cool

    I'm old and wrinkly and use Windows but my young neighbours and their many (annoying boybeard type) guests almost solely use iPhones, Mac laptops and iPads.

    Even if it wasn't for the widespread rejection of MS products, you'd read the writing on the wall for the brand in its fumbling of Win 8, Surface, WinPhone and now the unfair-contract-hobbled Office.

  17. disgruntled yank

    Possible explanation

    Could it be that the pollsters are still calling land lines? Not a lot of under-25s seem to have those these days.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mistake?

    Why did I read the article as: "Google is the porn king of the tech classroom"

  19. mIRCat
    Linux

    Does this make it more... or less "cool" to hate Microsoft?

    Tux. Cause penguins, like bow ties, are always cool.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Microsoft coming out with new tech?

    "I know Apple is the cool, hip brand right now .. but if Microsoft keeps coming out with new tech I'm sure it'll be back soon".

    What 'new tech' would that be, exactly?

  21. GiveHalfA

    Amazing but true

    I find myself in moderate disbelief as I agree to this headline. I have a 15 year old daughter with a Lumia 710 running WP7, and get this, her phone is the envy of most of her classmates. The iphone evangelists are in their own group, but I am told every teenager with an Android hates Android - think the interface sucks - what choice do you have buying a cheap phone - and covets her Windows Phone interface.

    On top of that, I hear of scenes where classmates who have not finished their homework have been begging her to borrow it, almost on a daily basis, so they can do desperate last minute assignments using Office. I shit you not.

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