The Ethics of Marketing Software

Being something of a techie, I read with interest a recent NYTimes article about the problems that Microsoft is having their new operating system, Vista. It seems that it has performed poorly on many customers machines because it is a very large program that requires more capabilities that their machines have. A class action lawsuit has been filed over misleading marketing claims. As a part of the discovery process, many internal MS emails have been revealed to show that internal MS people, some very senior, had the same problems that end users had. Machines labeled as “Windows Vista Capable” were only minimally capable and lacked interfaces to much peripheral equipment like printers. A raging debate took place within MS, with some people trying to avert a marketing disaster due to the confusing and contradictory information that MS was publishing about Vista. Said one sales manager, “it would be a lot less costly to do the right thing for the customer now than to spend dollar on the back end trying to fix the problem.”

This brings to mind the ethics of marketing software. In the software world we even have a word for over-hyped software: Vaporware. The problem is endemic to this market. Capabilities are promoted, but the devil is in the details which frequently reveal many problems implementing the software we purchase. Who is to blame for this problem? “Dishonest” salespeople promoting software that doesn’t work, or “uneducated” users who don’t take the time to understand what they are buying? Customers have a right to expect a product to perform as expected, but it is nearly impossible to create a software product without some kind of bug. For large software systems, exhaustive testing of every feature and variation of use is nearly impossible and nevertheless is cost prohibitive.

Companies have to market their product. But with a Kantian approach, they would probably never sell anything especially if their competitors were not as honest. I’ve been burned badly in my personal and professional buying experience. My approach now is one of skepticism, especially if the salesperson can speak no evil of their product. All products are deficient or defective in some way, the honest salesperson comes clean with this assessment. Unfortunately for Microsoft, they didn’t take this approach. Now they not only have to fix the problem, but also defend a lawsuit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09digi.html?ref=business