“OS X Yosemite achieved the kind of adoption in four days that took Microsoft’s Windows 8 two years to accomplish,” Jonny Evans reports for Computerworld. “n that two years, Apple has released three operating system versions, each one widely deployed by the growing-faster-then-the-PC industry congregation of Mac users. This at least is the claim coming from Backblaze.”
“The fact that the majority of these have not yet upgraded indicates either that many of the PCs in the wild are not being used or that Microsoft’s years of being able to charge for software upgrades are numbered,” Evans reports. “This means Microsoft will in future be unable to charge for OS upgrades, which will put its entire PC operating system business in peril. The thing is, so much of what the company does is based on the wide deployment of its operating system it will have no choice but to continue to develop it, while making diminishing returns on that investment. This is yet another symptom of Microsoft’s broken business model and the need for that company to migrate to new systems.”
“Apple is clearly winning hearts and minds in the consumer markets, which is itself prompting improvement in its position in the enterprise, as its users lobby for the right to use Macs at work as well as at home. Enterprise CIO’s, already happy with their experience using iPhones, seem only too willing to agree, as their own systems introduce OS X support,” Evans reports. “The only people moaning in this migration being a minority of diehards who still inhabit some tech support departments.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Macintosh leapfrogs iPad to become Apple’s second biggest-selling product line – October 27, 2014
The Mac is back: Why Apple just set an all-time Mac sales record – October 22, 2014
Wall Street Journal reviews Apple iMac Retina 5K: ‘Oh boy, will you want one’ – October 21, 2014
Apple’s Mac a surprise hit in Q414 results; market share now highest since 1995 – October 21, 2014
NPD: Apple Mac grabs 26.8% U.S. consumer market share – September 24, 2014
Apple Macintosh continues to dominate in personal computer customer satisfaction – September 23, 2014
Milestone: Apple computers outsold Windows PCs in Q4 2013 – February 12, 2014
Apple Macintosh continues to dominate in personal computer customer satisfaction – September 17, 2013
Boom.
Charging for upgrades to products that competitors are giving away for free is not a long term success story. Microsoft makes very little in the way of hardware, none of which is on my shopping list. The odd keyboard or game station is not what makes any company remotely a competitor. Their only hope is to sell their operating system to PC vendors, but I am seeing other options out there now such as Unix based systems. That is very bad news for MS. Fragmentation of the non-Apple PC market which they once owned, especially to unix systems which are very compatible with Apple is a grave threat. As soon as the non-apple world realizes the speed and stability of unix, the demise of MS will get a lot of momentum. Right now the business world is moving at a glacial pace towards a unix world, but the ice is definitely melting.
Remember when just about everyone told us that Apple could not possibly win with its Business model, that Microsoft had done it right with its upgrade paths for every Tom Dick and Harry that would utilise its operating system in their products that business just so loved to exploit for purposes of competition? When people are that blind even whats happening now can’t budge their judgment. How many stories did we hear about Android was redoing it right and will trample Apple the way that Windows did. What stones are these people hiding under now I wonder.
They have other industries they are hated competitors in for sucking as well, not just what consumers see. They also have a lot of business-to-business software and services, such as Dynamics and other things. But they suck at all those too and are the lower tier for all those markets as well. Microsoft in general is overpriced and underdelivered.
The glacial pace you describe is coming from the IT admins who don’t want to learn something new, or they’re too afraid of becoming obsolete because of their lack of knowledge outside of Windows. Fortunately, I know some Windows IT guys who are anxious to learn the Mac, so there is hope. Apple has made a lot of progress in making Macs more enterprise friendly, but they have a lot more work to do. For one thing, the free apps that they distribute with new Macs need to be allowed to not be tied to an Apple ID. Having the apps tied to an Apple ID means that end users can’t upgrade the apps if they use their own Apple ID for other app downloads. Apple has done a piss poor job with their server technology. The moment that they started packaging all of the server functionality into a single app is when OS X Server started going down the toilet. Open Directory is about as stable as a troubled child on crack. It breaks frequently. It didn’t used to do that before Lion.
If they keep making macs with non user accessible ram and crap like that they are going to lose customers. If i am paying a premium already for apple i want to be able to install ram as needed not pay apple even more for the ram then i can buy it for after market.
That and some of the changes in yosemite are horrible the cartoon like icons and the odd iTunes 12 interface. Come on apple i don’t want a giant iPhone on my iMac and macbook air. I want a computer. Having the icons all like iOS 7 is not what i want on my mac.
Also the last few updates i have to always go int security and turn off the stupid lock that only lets me buy and download apps from the mac app store. Look Apple i have always been able to install whatever i wanted.
Wasn’t it just a few years ago they made fun of windows for giinv you the pop up notices all the time asking do you want to do this do you want to do that? yet everytime i install anything anymore its this app was downloaded from the internet on such date. Are you sure you want to run it. IF I DIDNT WANT TO RUN IT I WOULDNT HAVE DOWNLOADED IT CLICKED ON IT.
Drive me crazy Apple is doing the vary things they laughed at MS for just a few years ago
You are in the minority re fixed hardware. Most buyers are ordinary people who would not know how to upgrade their device and unlike Windows PCs the Apple devices have a much much longer life compared to anything from any PC vendor.
Re software: Frankly I do appreciate the security concerns implemented and wisely Apple provides easy methods to overrule such restrictions as you are able to do. I find quality software on AppStore at ridiculously low prices that I am sure you recall was unheard of in the PC world.
Finally, Apple continues to provide products that an increasing number of people want it and want it badly enough to line or wait for some period.
Apple hardware is still ok although apple has done little to inspire. The bean counters are clearly in charge. The thing that worries me is the rapidly declining quality of apple software. Each new release of mail and calendar are worse that the release before. The OS is slower and less reliable with each new release, unlike the situation up until snow leopard. The thing apple apps are most notable is for features they take away rather than useful features they add.
Hang on you don’t have to have that download lock on however I usually do just for extra security after all it takes only seconds to turn it off for a while. Its good because it makes you think twice about who you are downloading from if they are not an officially recognised developer.
I do agree about the icons and flatness on Yosemite that did shock me a little and while I have loaded it onto my older iMac I am not sure whether to on my newer one at the moment I will see like on my iPad i will get used to it. The Ram issue too I didn’t like which made the choice for the 27″ an easy one.
While I understand what you say, most people that love to tinker with their computers go microsoft or linux and buy huge easy to open cases cause they are always in there mucking around.
But 95% of us do not want to do that. OK, extra memory or a HD swap is cool but otherwise, its not nice to fool with mother Apple. LOL
As pointed out, the download security is on the *middle* setting by default. It warns you, but you can still open it. I think that’s a safe move, as it gives an ordinary user some moment to think about it. If you’re a power user (or pretending to be one), then you’ve already gone into System Prefs almost first thing to make all the changes you wanted, including the download security being turned off, thus negating your need for a rant. So…. yeah. I don’t believe you.
the poor person is complaining because he has to go make the change EVERY TIME he downloads and installs an update…
Awwww, what a supreme bother, maybe he should skip security updates
I have used macs since the APPLE IIe and Iic. Never had the stupid annoying pop up. Im saying its no big deal but they just made fun of micorsoft a few years ago for this and now they have it. Seems stupid in that respect.
Also im not talking about tinkering I’m talking about 1 thing most everyone does UPGRADE RAM. Its far cheaper to do it after even if you pay someone to do it. Apple charges a huge markup on the ram. I can buy it for less then half the price. I wanted the 27in too yes i would love it but its quite a bit more expensive and that is a bit more then i wanted to pay.
It’s a 5k resolution screen with built in high-end Mac bundled together with keyboard and mouse for 2500 bucks. Can’t you just go without Starbucks for a couple of weeks?
2500 is allot i just paid 800 for 16Gb ram and core i7 21.5 iMac. It was used but thats a big upgrade from my core 2 duo 21in.
I don’t want to pay 2500 for a computer no. I don’t need the retina display and its way to high. No reason for a desktop not to be under 2000.
I would love the new 27in but at 2500 to expensive.
Price a 5K monitor…. monitor only. Guess what. It’s $2500. ALL By Itself. This is a great bargain to get the best 5K monitor on the market and get an iMac tossed in for free!
Wishful thinking from Jonny Evans, who also predicts that Android will be dead within 3 years. Reality: Microsoft had a HUGE increase in profit last quarter from their cloud operation. Microsoft is also secretly embracing Android as their backup plan … they are encouraging their engineers to write Android enterprise apps.
Microsoft is reinventing itself under Natella as a cloud and services company. Meanwhile, the downward spiral continues for Apple’s strategic partner IBM. Profits and revenues down AGAIN. Sold off yet another hardware division, and actually had to bribe a company $1.5 billion to take their chip division (because they were losing even more).
Apple fanboys and MDN fail to cling on to articles that cling on to wishful thinking and vain hope. Windows 10 is coming and is set to reestablish itself as a reason why you don’t need Apple…thank goodness.
re “Windows 10 is coming”… So, as a big Winblows fan, you are here… uhhhh…. why, exactly?
Wrong again, assman.
Microsoft “reinvented” itself last year as a software and devices company and that failed after they managed to accumulate $900 million in unsellable merchandise in just a few months.
The latest “reinventing” effort based on Microsoft iCloud is just a way to keep IT doofuses from freaking out and going postal.
You haven’t been reading the most recent news butthead.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/10/27/microsoft-earnings-hardware-sales-and-cloud-services-boosts-revenues/
It will take a while but things are looking better but by no means perfect. You really don’t know what you are talking about you idiot russ.
I just upgraded to Yosemite yesterday on a 4-1/2 year old MacBook Pro and I cannot believe the improvement. Hardware is not the only way to improve speed.
most people I know are forced into running windows, few like it. In contrast, the Mac is easy to use and does most of the BS needed in the background. This update required me to click two buttons and reboot once. The update for Parallels/Windows required over 3 hours and several windows reboots. Neither Parallels or OS X required a reboot.
As for me, I think I’ll be windows free (except for parallels/windows) by 1/1/15. This means, I’ll give back two laptops and a desktop back to my employer and my employer will be able to save over $400 in monthly software license fees.
In my view, half of ALL office workers should be using Macs right now. And if their I.T. departments would think, in a year 80% could. This means less expensive software, easer communications with mobile devices, and things like updates and backups would be easier. Even mail clients are easier. In addition you will have better looking, easier to read documents.
My iMac, although expensive, is quieter, faster, cooler and much easier on the eyes than ANY PC I’ve ever used. I did spend about $2800 for it and the software that I needed to “make the switch” (including parallels and windows 7/xp) but the ROI was paid off long ago. The real benefit to me as a user is that I am NOT flat out fatigued after an all day work session at the computer when using the mac.
All this isn’t hard to figure out. My strong advice to you, if you are a business owner or a manager, and your I.T. people are still “anti-Mac” is start to looking for new I.T. people- your I.T. people are costing you twice their salary in lost productivity and expensive PC maintenance. Stop listening to their BS. Plop a Mac on your desk. Tell your I.T. people to make it work. They can do it. I did it, and I’m a idiot. I did it, including dealing with the “help desk” in India from my major client. 🙂 PS: my major client is just NOW transitioning to Window 7. seven not eight. What does that tell you? Windows 7 came out in Oct 2009, five years ago and is no longer available to consumers.
Karma is a bitch or alternatively hoisted by it’s own petard. Remember Microsoft gave away MS Explorer for free to destroy Netscape.
Now Google is giving away Android free to destroy Apples iPhone ecosystem.
Google has “given” android since the dark ages; and iOS has suffered how?
I’m surprised MDN didn’t post this one again….
OSX Yosemite screams on my rMBP 2013. I will never go back to Windows thanks to Steve Ballmer and couldn’t be happier!
Well, the rope is that $15m 5 year contract with a service provider that only supports Windows platforms.
THAT is the block. Although some CTO’s are willing to change to cross platform technologies or even OSX only tools, contracts are an obstacle that can take years to overcome.