apple news/media reports
11/24/2006, 5:25pm, EST
Friday, November 24th
Windows Vista may aid Mac OS X
Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista, which is scheduled to ship to the masses in late January, may actually help rather than hinder Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' -- which is scheduled for release in the spring of 2007 -- according to one report. "We believe that the fact that Vista is designed to be much like Apple's OS X will, in the consumers mind, make the transition from using XP to Vista very comparable to making the transition from XP to Tiger," MarketWatch wrote in a recent report. "We believe this could provide ample opportunity for Apple to gain greater market share with consumers. With Apple's next-generation operating system, Leopard, due in April 2007, we believe Apple will continue to stay more than a step in front of Microsoft."
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Pretty far-fetched, I think. Consumers usually don't make clever, informed decisions.
However, for those upgrading, Vista's installation takes a long time. The upgrade installation is problematical.
For all users, quite a lot of programs written for XP do not work on Vista (about a half-dozen of mine). Quite a lot of hardware won't work with Vista, either. For example, there is no Vista driver for my color laser printer. I can only use it from my Macs.
Vista isn't really that bad compared to Tiger, but Vista is on its way in while Tiger is on its way out. What will drive consumer and Pro sales to Apple is not how bad Vista is, but how much better Leopard is.
The real ace up Apple's sleeve is not OS X, it is customer service.
If you have a PC, you have an OEM copy of Windows. Manufacturers don't support upgrades. Microsoft is scant help unless you are a large business. If something doesn't work, you can get caught in the middle. The PC vendor says it is a Windows problem, but Microsoft says it is a hardware problem--if you can get support from Microsoft at all. With Dell, the most you can hope for is a live chat with a technician on Mars. With Apple, you can talk to a technician face-to-face for free.
When a PC user visits an Apple Store, sees how personal and accessible customer service is, and finds out that after the purchase, they aren't isolated and alone, then their affection turns toward Mac.