“Jim Allchin, Microsoft’s group vice president for platforms, looked at my Apple PowerBook and smugly pointed out that the number of copies of Windows sold this year will be more than all the Macintosh computers used worldwide. By the end of 2005, he proudly noted, over 730 million people will be using Windows. ‘Business is good,’ he said, as he began to quickly page through his elaborate PowerPoint presentation,” David Kirkpatrick reports for Fortune.
MacDailyNews Note: Those Microsoft VP’s sure are “smug,” aren’t they? Too bad his elaborate PowerPoint presentation is blown away daily in quality and aesthetics by 6th-graders using Apple’s Keynote.
Kirkpatrick continues, “Allchin, a wiry-built 54-year-old who has been in charge of Windows for almost a decade, is admirably blunt about his own frustrations using the current operating system. It annoys him, for example, that the adjustments necessary to move a laptop from a work to a home network aren’t obvious. Longhorn, he said, will make that process easy, along with many other common tasks [MDN Note: Just like a Mac works already]. If you want a Longhorn machine to automatically configure itself so you can work in a coffee shop, it will [MDN Note: Just like a Mac works already]. If you put in a DVD, the volume will automatically adjust and the video will just start playing full screen [MDN Note: Just like a Mac works already]. “You shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time struggling with things,” Allchin said, adding that the number one design goal for Longhorn has been: ‘It just works.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Allchin should be more truthful and state the real goal – “Just try to make Longhorn function like a Mac works already.”
Kirkpatrick continues, “Much has been made in the computer press recently of the surprising similarities between Longhorn and Apple’s upcoming new Macintosh operating system, Tiger… But Longhorn won’t be released for another year and a half. In the meantime, Microsoft has to contend with Apple’s Tiger as well as with Linux’s open-source operating system. Linux is making significant inroads into Microsoft’s markets, especially on servers. And many people, including me, consider Apple to have a superior operating system. But Allchin doesn’t seem to be worried.”
Kirkpatrick writes, “A major ad campaign slated to start in coming weeks will trumpet the notion that you can do many great things using Windows.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apparantly, one of the great thing you can’t do using Windows is create Windows ads, for that, you need to use a Mac. More info: Microsoft launches Windows XP campaign with ad made on Apple Mac.
Kirkpatrick continues, “Allchin called it a ‘celebration.’ But the company will launch an even bigger campaign next year in support of Longhorn. ‘We’ll put massive emphasis on this in terms of marketing and dollars,’ Allchin told me. Windows is only getting started, as far as Allchin is concerned.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Allchin must be an idiot. He certainly sounds like one. He’s been “in charge of Windows for almost a decade.” ‘Nuff said. Oh, one more thing, where’d he get the phrase, “it just works?” Straight from his number one supplier of ideas, of course, Apple Computer: http://www.apple.com/switch/whyswitch/. Stay out of those Apple “Switch” pages, Jim. We know you want to — and who could blame you, being so frustrated by your current operating system — but it’d probably be a tad detrimental to your job security.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Microsoft’s Longhorn: ‘They are shamelessly copying us’ – April 21, 2005
Apple shows off Mac OS Tiger in Microsoft’s backyard while Microsoft previews Windows XP ad push – April 19, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X reality vs. Microsoft’s Longhorn fantasy – April 19, 2005
Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn will bear more than just a passing resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – April 15, 2005
Analyst: ‘Microsoft’s Longhorn is going to have hard time upstaging Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger’ – April 13, 2005
Analyst: Apple in ‘position to exploit Microsoft missteps, claim leadership’ with Mac OS X Tiger – April 13, 2005
Apple’s Schiller: Mac OS X Tiger ‘has created even more distance between us and Microsoft’ – April 13, 2005
Will Mac OS X Tiger add fuel to Apple’s recent momentum in the computer business? – April 13, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
Analyst: Tiger proves ‘Apple is light years ahead of Microsoft in developing PC operating systems’ – April 12, 2005
Apple to ship Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ on Friday, April 29; pre-orders start today – April 12, 2005
Apple Announces Mac OS X Server ‘Tiger’ to ship Friday, April 29 with 64-bit application support – April 12, 2005
Analysts: Apple’s new Tiger operating system could really impact Mac sales – April 12, 2005
Piper Jaffray raises Apple estimates on Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ release news – April 12, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ vs. Microsoft’s Windows ‘Longhorn’ – March 31, 2005
New Microsoft Longhorn chief was former Pepto-Bismol brand manager – March 18, 2005
Microsoft’s Longhorn fantasy vs. Apple’s Mac OS X reality – September 14, 2004
Is Microsoft’s stripped-down ‘Longhorn’ worth waiting for? – September 10, 2004
Silicon Valley: Apple CEO Steve Jobs previews ‘Longhorn’ – June 29, 2004
PC Magazine: Microsoft ‘Longhorn’ preview shows ‘an Apple look’ – May 06, 2004
Microsoft concerned that Longhorn’s look and feel will be copied if revealed too soon – August 25, 2003
Windows ‘Longhorn’ to add translucent windows that ripple and shrink by 2005 – May 19, 2003
They have no shame.
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MW: “death”. I don’t think anything more needs to be said.
The photocopier in Redmond are running full speed. Too bad they save on the quality of the toner and will be offering just a pale copy of what OS X already is.
Every so often, someone complains that MDN’s takes have gotten too extreme, and that they should stuck to being just a news site, stop the gloating, etc. Well, when confronted with stuff like this, there is nothing MDN’s editors can say that’s unjustified. Microsoft deserves all of it.
I heard their copiers only spat out cyan coloured sheets of paper – the photocopier equivalent of the ‘blue screen of death’ ?
MDN kicks it up another notch. I’ve been waiting for this. The war is on!
Pale copy? How ’bout adding “out of focus”?
Longhorn hopes to be what OS X has BEEN for the last 5 years. And just how does the tech press get away with attempting to compare what so far is only talk and pretty pictures against an actual, now available for purchase product? The desperation is palpable.
Unless they start building there own PC’s they will not be able to make Windows ever work as good as the Mac. Apple has what no other PC company has and that is software and hardware integration. They are designed for each other specifically.
Windows never just works. That’s like when they said they have plug and play. That was more like plug and pray! Most of the time you would have to find a driver which would take hours because the original wouldn’t be good enough and so on…..
Talk about a “reality distortion field”.
Longhorn = Windows XP3
Microsoft’s corporate mantra should be:
Microsoft: Innovation-free since 1975
Longhorn = Windows XP SP3 as in service pack 3.
MW = hell LOL
Allchin sounds like the Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf of Microsoft, “It’s a celebration of the source of my frustration! But it, uh, kicks ass. Hey, look at these mock ups of Longhorn – shiney! Ooooooh!”
Recipe for windoze:
1 copy mac OSX
add viruses to distaste
sprinkle in spyware
remove usability
delete human factor
include 2 applications and call it a package
re-name copied applications and utilities
put all ingredients in a box, design the outside on Adobe Photoshop CS for the Mac. DO NOT RELEASE FOR TWO MORE YEARS.
This is a great moment in Computer history. We can actually put number to how far behind Windows is to the Mac OS. If we take the introduction date of the first Mac OS X that “just worked” and count the days till the introduction of the next Microsoft operating system that touts itself as “Just Working” we can come up with a precise measure of exactly how far behind they are. I’m sure that someone can come up with a java clock that is counting the days difference.
“Longhorn now 365 days behind Mac OSX” and counting.
If what he said is true, then why is he so worried about Apple computer. These guys know more than we do that they are getting their butts kicked daily and are grasping for straws. They are waddling in their own MooCow poop.
Wow, that “It just works” rip-off is just about as blatant as the SuperShuffle fiasco. You’d think M$ would at least have some creative folks working in their ad department…. but I guess not!
They should do an Apple Pro story on the team that created the Windows ads. That would be hillarious!
If their goal for longhorn is “It Just Works,” then it will NEVER ship.
MW: true (and you know it is)
John, good point, but where are the creative folks in Apple’s Ad department? I haven’t seen a good Mac ad since 1984, and it only ran once. Wake up Jobs, you are asleep at the wheel.
“It just works” should be:
It will work … we hope. Worked in our lab the last time we tried it … so it should work. Shouldn’t it? Bill! Hey Bill, can we say that? John, my IM doesn’t work … what? OK, restarting … uhh, can someone pull the plug?
nice one gforce
a slight variant on your recipe is to add:
1 generous handful of arrogance, preferably the kind which can only come from leading the mediocrity marathon for over a decade
/”it just works … oh wait … no it doesn’t”
So, MS are already talking up an OS that’s – what – another 18 months away at best ? God they must be desperate…
AS for their new slogan ? How about this :
“Duplication, not Innovation”
I love seeing these guys squirm like this. But honestly, he’s squirming because the guy interviewing him is a Mac user, some who knows the grass really is greener on the other side. He can still be smug though, because he’s right, MS will sell millions upon millions of copies of their inferior software because the truth is, most people don’t really know that they’re even using an operating system, let alone which one it is. I really hope that Apple takes the opportunity that they have right now, where there seems to be some sort, albeit small, awakening in the press about how bad Windows is, and how great Tiger is. They finally have all the pieces in place: a phenomenal OS (which they’ve always had), an affordable model (Mac mini), mindshare (thanks to iPod), and perhaps most importantly, their competition is in real trouble for the first time in almost 20 years. The last piece of the puzzle? Advertising. They need some really great ads that are all about Tiger and what you can do with a Mac, namely iLife. Most regular people have never seen a Mac running OS X. Once they catch a glimpse of the GUI and the gorgeous graphics in Dashboard, plus the ease of use in the iLife apps that allow anyone to do nearly pro work they’ll be smitten. My 75 year old aunt always had a PC but she just got a Mac mini and she loves it. My uncle is going to get one next. It could happen.
Can’t they come up with anything original?! Guess not. They’re true imitators, not innovators.
ndelc…good comments.
What I’d add to your ‘what Apple needs’ is that they need to get some senior Microsoft executive drunk <grin> and a written agreement that “Switchers” can pick up a cross-OS upgrade of MS-Office for the Mac for some rediculously cheap price…say, $99.
This would absolutely blow away all of the fence-sitters who probably had a Mac 10-15 years ago, but felt that they “had to” go to a Windows PC in order to be compatible with their business environment.
(Of course, this also means that MS probably has to finally write the “missing” Office application of MS-Access for Mac…doesn’t matter how lousy of an app is is: its a customer reluctance perception issue).