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	Phil's Blogservations Saturday, September 28, 2002 Posted by philgomes 11:17 PM Blame The Customer Sorry I've gone dark for so long. You know how it is... The same old controlled chaos with which every PR pro is familiar and, in a strange way, even learns to thrive upon. This story has some elements of one of my very big pet peeves: when a company blames its customers for product shortcomings. A Gartner research note claims that the security features in the Microsoft Pocket PC operating system—used in Toshiba and HP/Compaq handhelds—are insufficient and even a cause for alarm in enterprise settings. Microsoft's response? "Gartner mistakenly blames the Pocket PC for potential security breaches that are in reality related to insecure usage of desktop PCs." Now, this is actually kind of funny. Microsoft holds northward of a 90% market share in the desktop operating system market. In effect, they have responsibility to offer strong security throughout their product line, irrespective of the user's level of sophistication. But it's still the customer's fault. Not theirs. Riiiiight... Before all of this, Microsoft decided to go through its common "initiative" exercise—it created a focus on "trustworthy computing." Curiously, the Pocket PC operating system doesn't fall under this program. Anyway...Isn't this like an architect resolving to focus on "Non-Crumbling Buildings?" Or maybe an anesthesiologist starting a "No Waking During Surgery" initiative? "Well...It's the patient's fault. How in the hell was I supposed to know his body tolerance for the anesthetic was higher than average?" Remember when it sponsored "Scalability Day" to prove that NT was enterprise ready? That was pretty funny. Only Microsoft can get a whole bunch of people in a room and hold them hostage for hours until they walked out, eyes glazed, chanting "NT...NT...NT..." What if a PR firm ran around saying that it was now going to focus like a laser on making sure that there were no lies or half-truths in press releases and pitches? When we live in a world where people and corporations need to announce an initiative to do their jobs right, we got problems. Big ones. HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.