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What can Apple do to respond to Windows 7 threat?

Thursday, October 8, 2009 · 10:43 am · 61 Comments

“Microsoft’s latest Windows is reportedly its best yet, which spells trouble for Apple,” Dan Frommer writes for The Business Insider. “How can Steve Jobs keep the Mac momentum alive?”

“Yesterday, Wall Street Journal gadget god Walt Mossberg gave Windows 7 a wet kiss, which is one of the best things that has happened to Microsoft all year,” Frommer writes.

“And it is not good for Apple, whose Mac business has gained a substantial amount of momentum over the last several years in part because Windows Vista was a huge disaster,” Frommer writes. “Apple could easily lose some of that momentum now that Windows 7 is not terrible.”

So what will Apple do to keep its Mac momentum going?
• Keep trashing Windows in ads, pointing out Windows 7′s flaws. In this case, one of the biggest flaws is what a mess the upgrade process will be for Windows XP users… So make sure when they “buy a new one,” it’s a Mac.
• Keep making better Macs
• Price cuts
• Emphasize that Snow Leopard, the new Mac OS X, only costs $30, and [again] is not a hassle to install
• Remind people that Windows 7 will run on a Mac
• Forge new markets where Microsoft doesn’t participate [Apple tablet]
• Continue and accelerate making great apps for the iPhone and iPod touch that work hand-in-hand with Mac and OS X
• Eventually, a new Mac OS

Read more in the full article, including fuller descriptions of the bullet points above, here.

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Comment Feed

61 Comments

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Gosh

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 12:56 pm · Reply

I hope Windows 7 is a success. I doubt personally that I will choose to us it myself because I don’t see the need to change – though maybe if I was a PowerPC user I might check it out before choosing my next computer, just like XP users might mull over a new Mac.

The thing is that Windows 7 will be a difficult to avoid. Work will eventually convert from XP and I can’t do anything about that. But at least I will have a better user experience.

Also, it will be a new opportunity for Apple because W7 will bring millions of people up to modern, current, GUI ideas and concepts that are closer to 2010 than 1995. That’s a good thing yeah?

I hope Apple ditch the stupid Vista ads though and start showing OS X in detail and make so much more of iLife too.

Finally, I hope Apple shorts out the naming convention between Mac OS X and iPhone OS, just as MS has with Windows 7 and Windows Mobile 7.
iWill

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:01 pm · Reply

Innovate, innovate, innovate!

(and then innovate some more..)
Brau

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:03 pm · Reply

MS must be paying tech sites *not* to compare with XP despite the fact that most users will want to upgrade from that OS. Instead it’s only being compared to Vista, which everyone knows was a performance dog. Of the few sites that have noted the speed hit, they gloss over it saying the features outweigh any speed loss. Gamers might disagree, so I’ll be curious to see if the truth that W7 is slower than XP becomes widely revealed at any point in the next month or if it will remain buried.
hardmanb

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:08 pm · Reply

Apple will do fine in the future.
1. Apple owns the mindshare of the youth market, which openly admits that they and their peers all want Apple products.
2. Professionals will always want “the best tools”, if they are given any choice.
3. Experienced old-timers like me are just tired of all the problems and hassles of PC use…and paying a little more for the best “experience” is a no-brainer.

Leave cheap commodity-boxes to those who have yet to learn what is important in the long term.
Jose

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:09 pm · Reply

Mac OS X can stay ahead by continuing to include features that improve its scalability and security.

For starters, how about putting back all the things that were promised but taken out of Snow Leopard like: ZFS, iSCSI. Or improving ASLR.

I’m tired of hearing how improved Windows security has become relative to Mac OS X.

The game today is about how fast your software moves forward. So it’s not surprising that Windows 7 gets the attention over the subtle upgrade that Snow Leopard became.

I don’t know why Apple choose to leave out those cutting edge technologies from Snow Leopard when they knew Windows 7 was about to be released.

The Snow Leopard that Apple wound up releasing essentially deflates Bertrand Serlet’s arguments of OS superiority and leaves reasonable reviewers like Walt Mossberg without counter-points to cite against Windows 7.

Needless to say, I think Apple dropped the ball with Snow Leopard.

Maybe, Apple is stretched too thin and the iPhone (and eventually the iTablet) are taking away focus from Mac OS X development. That would be a bummer.
Mac Plus

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:18 pm · Reply

“…now that Windows 7 is not terrible.” High praise indeed.
flappo

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:37 pm · Reply

jose has a point there..
Mike

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:57 pm · Reply

I’m as big an Apple fan as anyone, but let’s face it, upgrading Apple hardware can sometimes be painful too. The transition to OSX 10.0 required all new hardware (for all practical purposes). The transition to Intel processors is likewise spelling doom to PowerPC G3, G4, and G5 lovers.

Apple is doing the right thing to embrace 64-bit computing and pull along the rest of the market with arguably the best OS on the planet. However, there are millions of Mac users who cannot just pay $29 and upgrade to Snow Leopard. They’re looking at the same planned obsolescence problem that MS offers. The difference is that we can understand the reason for Apple to make the changes, but MS seems to be putting up artificial upgrade barriers for no technical reason whatsoever.
Rob

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 2:07 pm · Reply

Do we really want Apple to rule the world with Mac OS X? There are benefits to not being the big behemouth that Windows is with the biggest being no viruses.
Jeph

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 3:06 pm · Reply

C’mon, this is exactly what Apple needs!
With MS raising their own bar, I’ll be raising one AT the bar (down the road). Apple now has more reason to continue on its innovative and creative course and design even better OSs than the current (and perfect for me) 10.X. Everyone wins in this competition: MS users have a better OS than ever before and  users can still point to our own OS as the driving force behind anything MS does with theirs.
Look at it this way, if its still not clear: Ford was the first auto manufacturer to make a pickup truck for consumers. GM and Dodge followed suit. Due to #s 2 and 3 constantly making improvements, Ford was forced to constantly upgrade and improve as well. The result? Ford has sold more trucks than GM and Dodge for the past 30 some years, with an ever-widening lead. Apple is essentially doing the same thing, and gaining market share along the way.
As they used to (and some still) say: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, and MS imitates much of  with Windows 7. Until MS can prevent viruses, trojans, malware and other invasive threats to its OS, there will be an ever-increasing customer base for Apple. I see no threat here, only opportunities for both companies to make gains and improvements, and consumers will be ultimate benefactors from technological advances, a competitive marketplace and God Him/Her/Itself happily pecking away on His/Her/Its MacBook Pro.
@Matty

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 3:27 pm · Reply

“If Windows 7 isn’t a threat, then why all the comments?”

Err… Because Windows 7 isn’t a threat, which makes the premise of Dan Frommer’s article that Windows 7 is a threat ridiculous at best. Not to mention he’s basing it all on the review from Walt “Vista is the best Windows yet” Mossberg, which makes it ridiculous + unintentionally funny.

If he’d claimed it cures cancer and then got appropriately mocked for it, would you shoot back with “If Windows 7 can’t cure cancer, then why all the comments?”
leodavinci

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 3:45 pm · Reply

All this is much ado about nothing.

Mossberg simply said W7 this is the best version of Windows that MS has released. Just like he said with Vista, that is probably true.

Which really isn’t saying much, is it?

It isn’t going to get a bunch of switchers to switch back, and it isn’t going to keep serious potential switchers from still having to really think about their choices.

And those that still choose Macs will be just the kind of people Apple (and we) will want in the Mac community.
golfdoc

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 3:49 pm · Reply

i can’t imagine that 7 is going to make any difference. apple users are not going back and pc users will continue to migrate to apple. just look at the kids using apple from college on down. there is a whole new generation that demands apple. besides, ballmer is still running microsoft, ’nuff said!
therepguy

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 4:51 pm · Reply

What threat?
Hee, hee.

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 4:53 pm · Reply

Apple could certainly make Snow Job, er, Snow Leoapard more robust, fast, and chock full of useful functions. It seems that MS has made significant improvements in Windows and if Apple has any plans of reaching multuplie digit marketshare Apple will have to make Snow Job, er, Snow Leopard, much more better than Windows.
RC

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 5:27 pm · Reply

It’s Windows 95 all over again!
HolyMackerel

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 5:31 pm · Reply

Apple should add XP support to their Migration Assistant via USB.

Run an XP app that allows them to copy across all their documents and settings and offers links to Mac-version-of-same-app software or free/alternative Mac software or Parallels/VMWare for the rest.

This would be huge for those who those who are looking at wiping their WCs or buying a new WC for Windows 7.
Scott in Japan

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 7:52 pm · Reply

I’d like to see an Apple TV ad where PC shows Mac his new pet pig. After Mac belittles PC’s pet PC returns with a “new” pet. The ad finishes as Mac tells PC that a pig with lipstick is still a pig.
Scott in Japan

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 8:04 pm · Reply

@Mike <<upgrading Apple hardware can sometimes be painful too. The transition to OSX 10.0 required all new hardware (for all practical purposes). >>

Don’t know what you’re talking about here. I’m running 10.4.11 on 4 Macs: a B&W;G3, a G4 AGP, a 17″ G4 iMac (the snowball) and a 5 year old iBook G4. Other than a lack of RAM in the iMac and iBook slowing things down at times, all is well!
Scott in Japan

Friday, October 9, 2009 - 12:07 am · Reply

@Mike… I just re-read your post. I guess in part your statement isn’t off-base.