• 11Apr 13

  So Orth receives the boot

  So I just read that Adam Orth has been fired, although as always "he resigned". Yeah right, of course he didn't resign. He was forced to do so, IE. he was fired!

  Now in my oppinion Microsoft did the only right thing, they could have done in situation. But people seem to be a bit confused as to why he was fired. I keep reading that people believed he was fired because he said. "Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an "always on" console. Every device now is "always on". That's the world we live in."

  I honestly think that statement itself needs a bit of attention. Especially the part about every device is always on these days. Now I've thought long and hard about this for the past couple of days. And for some reason I can't for the life of me think of a single device I own which doesn't work without an active internet connection. Here are my thought on it ...

  • My Computer - Well obviously I can't visit gamespot or play online games without an internet connection. But I can still play solitaire, use the calculator or notepad. So obviously the always-on claim fails here, since the computer works without it.
  • My TV - Again my tv works fine without the internet connection, but my tv-guide built into it sure doesn't. Again specific features require the connection, not all of them.
  • My SmartPhone - My apps (IE. those that doesn't need an internet connection) works just fine. I can use my telefon (it uses the LTE network), but sure I can't use the skype application. Which uses the internet instead of the cellphone network.
  • My Fridge - Also works fine without an internet connection.

   

  Now I could keep going but I think I've made my point. Sure functionality may be reduced without the internet connection, but it's not like my fridge will stop cooling if there isn't an internet connection! Nor does my TV stop me from watching TV just because it can't access the tv guide.

  Now Adam Orth goes on to say "Electricity goes out too." - This attempt at getting the point across just makes me laugh. How can you compare electricity to an internet connectionen?

  Electricity powers the device/appliance and the major difference here is quite simply, if we shall use the next Xbox as an example. With out the internet connection, the Xbox will write on the screen that there isn't any internet and therefore you can't use it. Without the electricity there is no power to available for the Xbox to tell the user the Xbox cannot be used.

  Comparing the requirement of an active internet connection with a device's depenablity on electricity, is like saying that both the petrol and the connection to a GPS satelitte are equally important. When it comes to being able to use your car. Like I said, it makes me laugh!

  Sorry I got sidetracked. Of course he didn't get fired for claiming everything is always-on nowadays, nor did he get fired for saying "#dealwithit", however the amount of arrogance in that statement is so huge that again it's just laughable.

  People also seem to be of the impression that he was fired, because Microsoft needed a scapegoat for their Always-On failure! Now trust me on this, if Microsoft have decided (do remember it's still only a rumour) that the next xbox is going to be always-on, well then the next xbox will be always-on. This whole incident doesn't change a thing about that decision. So why would Microsoft even need a scapegoat for that?

  He received the boot for the "Why on earth would I live there?" comment (in response to Manveer Heir's comment on living in a rural area with poor internet connectivity), because in plain english that is just saying: "we don't care about people, who live in rural areas. And people choosing to live in such areas are stupid for doing so".

  Of course Microsoft couldn't live with alienating such a large procentage of the population. Whether or not the next xbox will require an internet connection will not change. But remember that microsoft makes a lot of other product and alienating potential customers for these would be commercial suicide.

  That is why Adam Orth was fired!

  • Posted Apr 11, 2013 9:07 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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