Microsoft is hitting the refresh button with a new corporate logo — the first in 25 years — before the lumbering software giant rolls out a wave of new products.
While consumers wait for Windows 8 for mobile phones, PCs and the Surface tablet, Microsoft went ahead and debuted the revamped design yesterday.
The company adopted a modified version of its Windows four-color tile logo next to the name “Microsoft” in a simple font that does away with the outdated bold logo.
Microsoft could be trying to conjure some of Apple’s marketing magic because the new logo font — Segoe — is based on the same typeface that inspires Apple’s materials.
Apple just took the title from Microsoft as the most valuable company of all time — a position the software giant hasn’t held since Bill Gates ran the company in 1999.
Microsoft said that the four-panel logo signifies its multiple products and services: Windows, Office, XBox and Bing.
Design and branding expert James Puckett said that unifying all products under one logo was a risky move.
“That will be a disaster if Windows 8 flops like Windows Vista and Windows ME did,” Puckett said. “How are they going to use this logo with the next Xbox if Windows 8 is regarded as a joke?”
Still, as far as design, he called the new logo a huge improvement over its predecessor.
“In 1987, it already looked old, which never seemed appropriate for a technology company,” he said.
Microsoft is restyling itself ahead of its biggest product launch perhaps ever, with its first in-house tablet, Surface, due in October. Also, its next Nokia-designed phones running Windows 8 are expected next month.
“Microsoft is on the verge of refreshing of lot of important products,” said analyst Colin Gillis with BGC Partners. “And it is a multi-pillar business that the company is always trying to stress.”
The design world, however, was unimpressed with the ultimate effort.
“There’s a fine line between simplicity and uninspired,” said Brian Hoff, creative director and designer of his own firm. “It doesn’t say, ‘Think different.’”
