Microsoft goes low tech to impress IT journos in Malaysia

Stop the press! Forget Windows 7 or the Windows Mobile. Forget the Kinect. Forget the advent of micro-blogging sites like Twitter or even Instant Messaging.

Microsoft decided the best way to send out its press releases to the IT publications in Malaysia is via, wait for it… the good old fax machine. (I linked a description of what a fax machine is for the younger readers here who have not seen or used one before.)

This delivery process irked Kashminder Singh, group managing editor at One World Solutions which publishes MobileWorld Asia.

“Can someone explain why a tech savvy company like Microsoft is still using faxes to send press releases??,” asked Kashminder on his Facebook Wall.

In reply to comments made by his friends, Kashminder added “I understand but Microsoft (the creators of the word tech, in a way) is communicating with tech publications in this case. When a tech company communicates with a tech company, it shouldn't have to be through fax, right?”

A Malaysian journalist, who chose to remain anonymous, quipped “Maybe Microsoft will send the next press release via snail mail, under a service level agreement with the Malaysia Post Office.”

There is no hard and fast rule about using the fax machine to distribute the press release. However, given the age of Internet and emails, a distributed press release via fax does portray a negative image to the brand.

Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to cut and paste from fax paper to a Word document. This is unless Microsoft is looking to launch Microsoft fax paper 7 which lets folks cut and paste the text to a Word document via WiFi or Bluetooth.

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