To be fair to Microsoft,* there was customer pull for “desktop everywhere”. I remember asking 20 years ago at a city council meeting why they planned to spend so much on Exchange/Outlook rather than, say, Netscape.
The answer was that the Netscape icons looked different from Microsoft’s so lack of training costs would make MS cheaper. Sounds like bullshit but back then there was enormous learned helplessness when it came to anything computerish. Walk to any desk in most companies and there would be a stack of books to explain it all.
One of the best things about the iPhone was that it jettisoned all that crap and acknowledged that people aren’t idiots. The stores still offered free “training” for the fearful.
* strange, I know, as they were rarely fair to others.
The answer was that the Netscape icons looked different from Microsoft’s so lack of training costs would make MS cheaper. Sounds like bullshit but back then there was enormous learned helplessness when it came to anything computerish. Walk to any desk in most companies and there would be a stack of books to explain it all.
One of the best things about the iPhone was that it jettisoned all that crap and acknowledged that people aren’t idiots. The stores still offered free “training” for the fearful.
* strange, I know, as they were rarely fair to others.