iView Media Pro and Microsoft Expression Media: Mac license key screw-up

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Microsoft
June 1st, 2007 • 3:44 pm

It’s bad enough that you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on a product (iView Media Pro) over the years, only to see the company acquired by Microsoft and the product become a Microsoft product.

Then to help you swallow the pill, they tell you that, if you are a registered user of iView Media Pro 3.0, you’ll get a free license for version 1.0 of Microsoft Expression Media. Fine, you think. Let’s give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, even though they scarcely deserve it.

Then the day finally comes when you get your free license in the mail. You go to the web page, download the software, install it, and enter your brand new license key. And you get this:

Invalid license key

Thanks, Microsoft! That’s what I would call an ominous start to our new relationship.

Apparently, the iView/Microsoft staff had a slight problem:

Unfortunately it appears we’ve suffered a issue with our Mac license deployment and a number of Mac users were incorrectly issued Windows codes. Although it is too early to put the finger on what exactly went wrong please rest assured that the team are working hard to address the issue and to get valid Mac licenses as a matter of urgency.

At this point we’re looking to restock the Mac licenses in the database and resend the announcement email as soon as we can.

I think they have a phrase for this in English… It’s “adding insult to injury,” isn’t it?

Bloody jerks.

Not that I am in any hurry to migrate to Microsoft Expression Media anyway, mind you. Based on what I am reading, it doesn’t really provide any significant improvements over iView Media Pro 3, and of course it brings a whole slew of new issues… In other words, it’s already quickly becoming yet another Microsoft product.

I guess I should have seen this coming when iView Multimedia switched from being a Mac-first company to being a “Mac and Windows” company. The first iView Media Pro upgrade that came after that switch already caused quite a stir among Mac users because it was actually a regression for Mac users, and iView Multimedia scrambled to try and correct the situation after the fact. That was a sure sign.

Naively, I still gave them my money for the next version. It obviously was a big mistake. I guess I am going to have to choose between iPhoto and Aperture or Lightroom now…


3 Responses to “iView Media Pro and Microsoft Expression Media: Mac license key screw-up”

  1. danridley says:

    I hadn’t realized iView Media Pro had been bought. I’m not a customer, but this makes me sad, because their user base has been really positive about the product, and the field is a little thin. I’d like to see some good underdog products keeping Adobe and Apple on their toes…

  2. brett says:

    Actually up to now, the iView Media Pro licenses were cross-platform..you could assign your purchased license keys to either Mac or PC installations… Is it clear if this has changed?

  3. Pierre Igot says:

    brett: Clearly they have changed this. Another MS-sponsored “improvement”!

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