C.U.L.T

A good question: Where ARE the Microsoft fanboys?
By John McBride Published: May 14, 2007 - 10:49AM CT

It’s a legitimate question designed to stimulate discussion and, perhaps, bring out the Microsoft fanboys we all know exist. “Why doesn’t Microsoft have a cult religion?” asks the headline on the InformationWeek post. The author notes there’s no shortage of staunch defenders of other brands, but for Microsoft, not so much. The reason? No passion:
I was chatting with some Sun Micro PR people who commented that Microsoft's problem these days is that it doesn't have a passionate user/developer base…. The theory is that while Microsoft certainly owns the majority of user systems, no one seems to really be evangelical about its software: Windows Vista, Office, Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL Server, and certainly not IE. The same thing goes for Microsoft's hardware. Where are the legions of Zune users? Xbox may be the closest thing Microsoft has to a fanatical fan base, but I'm pretty sure the lines were just as long for the PS3 and the Wii.
Asking why Microsoft doesn’t have a cult religion is like asking why that big church in Rome doesn’t have a cult religion. When you’re the whale, you can’t be a cult—cults form in your eddies. Microsoft is the lingua franca, the state religion, the coin of the realm, the lowest common denominator, the worldwide standard.
It’s hard to get excited about the behemoth that aspires to be all things to all people, and its ubiquity dilutes its ability to rally the troops. So while a vocal cadre of dedicated fanboys would surely please Redmond, I bet they’ll happily settle for total worldwide domination.
Ken adds: And you can see how this works when thinking about the Xbox, which may be the only thing approaching "cult-generation" levels of hype at Microsoft.The Xbox certainly has its share of fanboys, but there's a reason: Microsoft isn't the big kahuna, the Level 10 Boss, the worldwide dominator in gaming. Homo Fanboyensis needs serious competition and high stakes to thrive.
This isn't to say that Microsoft doesn't have a few fanboys tucked away here and there, but they're small in comparison to those attached to other companies. The only way Microsoft is going to grow its fanbase is by turning away from its "all things to all people" approach and focus on a message that's consistent and actually of interest to the people they want to fire up.
But like John said, they'll happily settle for domination in terms of market share.