Large, established companies don’t take their logos lightly. Logos are the single most important element of a company’s brand, and having spent millions (or billions) of dollars in marketing to firmly establish the brand in the market’s psyche, it’s with great care and consideration that a company makes even minor changes to it.
Usually, it’s as part of a larger, strategic rebranding effort tied in with major structural changes to products, services, or markets. Certainly, Microsoft is in the middle of just such a change, moving from the desktop- and notebook-focused world of the pre-iPad and –iPhone world to one where working on mobile devices is the most important consideration. Windows 8 is the most obvious culmination of this strategic shift, and it’s success or failure might make or break Microsoft.
Personally, I’m ambivalent about Windows 8 so far. I haven’t tried it on a tablet, where it looks like it might be a very good start to turning Windows into something that works with touch, but on a desktop the new user interface and full-screen apps seem to slow me down. While I’m sure I’ll buy a Windows 8 or Windows 8 RT tablet soon after they’re released, I don’t anticipate upgrading all of my Windows 7 machines anytime soon.
With that said, Microsoft has definitely made some major changes to their logo above, and they talk about them in this blog post. I do want Microsoft to succeed—I’ve long been a Microsoft fan and, in spite of my recent purchase of a MacBook Air, I still prefer the Windows way of doing things.
Here’s to Microsoft’s success in changing themselves to meet the needs of a changing market.
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