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July 17, 2006

internet

Microsoft to leave Macs out of Live Messenger? Shocking

Posted Jul. 17, ’06, 6:53 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Internet

Windows Live Messenger Sometimes I swear Microsoft is trying to sabotage their own products. Microsoft still isn’t sure it’ll offer a Mac Windows Live Messenger. Messenger clients are communication tools. They rely upon a large user bases and compete for market share. In order to corner the market, you have to make sure that not only is your customer able to use it, but all their friends. I don’t use pretty much anything but AIM because all my friends are on it.

Sure, Yahoo Messenger 3.0 (currently in beta) will help Mac users get in on the IM action, but if Microsoft wants to really wants to succeed, why cut out a market segment that’s on the rise and has been relevant thus far? It’s all pushing me to Jabber, the only IM network without an agenda. Then again, with Google hooked into the Jabber network and their arrangement with AOL promising an AIM to Google Talk connection, will the Yahoo/MSN network be relevant?


6 Comments

j.halliwell said:

well, apparentyl people everywhere but america uses msn messenger. i have friends from brazil, england and canada and they only have msn messenger. if they do have AIM, they're never online there... msn messenger:mac looks good, but is so poor... you can't access all the emoticons windows users have, you can't access articles from the encarta bot and there is no option for webcams whatsoever (i used to have a logitech before i bought mi iSight). i just wish someone would come up with an idea to include a msn messenger account in iChat (i hate using adrium).

July 17, 2006 7:17 AM
Chris said:

Windows Live Messenger is absolutely important on the Mac - Especially in Europe.

MSN is the biggest chat network here, no one really used AIM or Yahoo so its a pain in the arse that Microsoft are so fragmented about their decisions to support messenger on the Mac.

I have hundreds of contacts on Live Messenger, and their current Mac client runs slowly under Rosetta.

Here in the UK, email matters little between people, it’s simply "what's your MSN?" - So sort it out Microsoft, please!

July 17, 2006 8:06 AM
Rick said:

The fact that iChat AV3 is a little on the buggy side and that the average guy can't get a Jabber account without having a cell phone with Google, has nothing to do with most people Instant Messaging using MSN. It's just easier for Windows users to use it.

I've downloaded Y!M 3.0 on the Mac, and it's a big improvement over the older 2.5.3 version, but I still find that I use Adium X most of my time when I'm not using my Macally USB web cam.

I have an MSN account, but frankly this is even more buggy than iChat AV3. Maybe it's just the Mac version, huh? Plus my work filters out MSN IMs. It seems like most of my friends prefer Y!M to any of them, but I guess that's just personal preferences. Mac users are forced to go with what most of their Windows friends are using. What a shame.

July 17, 2006 9:09 AM
Derik Author Profile Page said:

I've always wondered why MSN Messenger caught on so much in countries other than the US.

You can use an MSN account in iChat (yes it requires a Jabber account).

Jabber accounts are not hard to get, not are Gmail accounts. My webhost lets me run a Jabber server for free (I will gladly give an account to any readers interested in one from my domain). I also have quite a few Gmail invites. Additionally, there are quite a few freely public Jabber servers. I just don't buy it being hard to get into. At all.

July 17, 2006 10:51 PM
Jeremy said:

I just use Fire. No, I can't access all of the cam stuff and the fun extras but, it's functional and keeps me from having 5 messengers. I want on app that can communicate with the major messengers. I don't see why there isn't one out there that does this in a more complete way. There's a market for it, even if you had to pay. Give me all of the features I want for 5 major messengers and I'd fork over the cash. Keep it updated and you'd have a happy customer base.

July 22, 2006 8:17 PM
Nell said:

Can i ask a question my friend has a web cam but i cant see her and i have a mac computer how could i see her with msn ?

August 12, 2006 5:56 AM

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