“Apple has been busy for the past several months touting the more than 100 features expected in its next-generation operating system, Tiger. While many of them are relatively minor, several — including Spotlight, Dashboard and QuickTime 7 — have power users eagerly anticipating the operating system’s release,” Brad Cook writes for MacNewsWorld. “Will it ship later this month, as UBS Investment Research analysts Jeff Brickman and Ben Reitzes speculated in a report issue on Tuesday? Or, as many expect, will Apple CEO Steve Jobs announce that it’s shipping when he delivers the keynote address at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in early June?”
Cook writes, “Apple continues to stand by its earlier promise, which was that Mac OS X v10.4, otherwise known as ‘Tiger,’ will ship ‘in the first half of 2005.'”
“‘The earlier it ships in the first half, the better,’ Jupiter Media analyst Joe Wilcox told MacNewsWorld. ‘Microsoft will show its first Beta of Longhorn soon and the media buzz will shift to them. Right now, Tiger has good, clear buzz.’ The technology press is awash in stories comparing Microsoft’s next-generation operating system, which is currently expected to ship sometime next year, with Apple’s, which will beat Longhorn to market and offer features, such as the powerful search tool Spotlight, that its competition has been forced to drop,” Cook reports. “Despite the disparity, however, Apple still faces an uphill battle. ‘No matter what media buzz Tiger gets,’ Wilcox said, ‘it’s still a minority OS.’ Apple hopes that will change, citing its own research showing that users are switching from Windows to Macintosh at higher rates than they were before, but Wilcox doesn’t see Tiger affecting that situation. ‘Tiger appears to be very exciting,” he observed, “but people don’t buy computers for the OS — they buy computers to do things.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good, clear buzz is our favorite kind of buzz. We buy computers for the OS or we wouldn’t be able to run iLife (iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, or GarageBand), iCal, Safari, Mail, iChat, Keynote, Pages, etc. We also like to avoid doing things like fighting the unending battle to keep virus definitions up-to-date, making sure the OS is patched as best it can be, having to “activate” our OS, running adware and sypware removers, dealing with illogical and unintuitive interfaces, etc.
Wilcox is right when he says, “people don’t buy computers for the OS — they buy computers to do things.” It’s too bad most people don’t consider what they really want to do / how they want to be able to do it and understand that the operating system a very, very important factor in their purchasing decision. Windows-only users who would like to add a safe and secure Mac OS X machine that comes loaded with powerful and intuitive Mac-only applications and a suite of award-winning software like iLife ’05 should consider Apple’s new Mac mini
(starting at US$499, make sure you get one with at least 512MB RAM) to see what we’re talking about.
“‘The earlier it ships in the first half, the better,’
He’s a freakin’ genius, ain’t he?
On other news fronts, “The more money you make, the better.” says analyst.
well duh
dumbass
It just works!
And you can just work!
Well, I buy computers because of the OS because the OS lets me do things….
I’m holding off a PowerBook purchase until it comes with Tiger. Why should I spend another $129 when it comes out (and deal with another install)?
If I were Apple I wouldn’t release Tiger until the date is set for the debut of the Longhorn Beta. Launch it at the same time and SQUASH Microsoft and it’s crappy BETA of an OS!
Nah, Apple should wait until Fall 2006…or Fall 2007
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Seriously though, Tiger is at ‘gold master’ status and should be out any time now. The next question is whether to release the next iteration (10.5) at the same interval as 10.2->10.3 or to wait for Longhorn to finally release (whenever that happens) and show everyone what both OS have to offer at the same time. Since Microsoft will undoubtedly throw $millions towards advertising, Apple could just latch onto the buzz and release the week before. Gotta put down that sick cow.
Magic word “effects” As in: What effects will the increasing spyware/virus issues have on customers’ purchase of their next home computer?
Matt, you beat me to it
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“but people don’t buy computers for the OS — they buy computers to do things.”
People generally tend to be idiots.
If people put a moments thought into what they actually wanted to do with a computer rather than how cheap it is, how nonsensically impressive the specs are or how much free crap software is lumped in the world would be a much better place.
“but people don’t buy computers for the OS — they buy computers to do things.”
Really? Then why do all those idiots shun Macs because it doesn’t run Windows? I could have swore the company I work for only buys computers that run Windows because the software they own only runs on Windows. I guess I was wrong…
The guy is absolutely right.
“They buy computers to do things.”
Upon launching Tiger Apple needs to have an ad campaign showing the OS doing things. Many of them, Many, many of them. , Show iChat AV working now, today, and bring it home with a price point. Show the integration of the iLife suite. Fill up your web site with tutorial movies (Yes movies) on every aspect of OS Tiger. Demo the thing into the stone age. Show it working. Microsoft can only show powerpoint slides.
Show people why they “want” OS X Tiger
zupchuck: “…Well, I buy computers because of the OS because the OS lets me do things….”
Like what? What do you do sit all day moving folders around, checking the clock, putting on a new background on your desktop, rotating the sounds when you click on stuff, switching the icons around on your folders????
Does your OS create your videos, balance your accounts, send your email, touch up that photo in Photoshop, make that 3D animation in Maya,etc,etc,etc???
I´ve got a Mac and a PC, I spend all my time in the programs. Both work fine for me.
mcloki- “Demo the thing into the stone age.”
What does that mean??? You going backwards?
“Microsoft can only show powerpoint slides.”
Oh yeah?…hmmmm…you mean microsoft couldn´t make a video if it wanted to? Wheww….
People, one must keep in mind most consumers (non business) use their computers for:
1. surfing the internet.
2. email
3. looking at their digital photos.
4. printing something.
5. maybe writing a real letter or a paper for homework.
Do they need, or even more ,will they appreciate anything that either Longhorn or Tiger gives?
Me – I just want a fast, stable OS that does not crash and gets me into my programs quickly.
Keep in mind –
One of the biggest reasons that the IA/MS (Intel Architecture / Microsoft – AKA Wintel – AKA IBM Clones) boxes sold so well in the early days is because that was the enviornment people used at work so that is what they wanted to have at home. This started before windows and Macintosh.
This is still true today. I think Apple needs to talk some big fortune 500 companies into ‘switching’ – maybe something like Nike….
(They already have several macs)
If nike (or other large companies) switched to Mac, it would be good for everyone. Good for apple, good for the company, good press….
Then, the employees would buy macs for home because that is what they were using at work. I think this would be more powerful than some of the marketing campaigns they are doing to increase that ‘market share’ they keep talking about.
Also – doing this could start a snowball effect – they could go to large company #2 and say “Company #1 has been using MacOS for nearly a year now with no major issues and their security and support costs are down by 20%…”
“While many of them are relatively minor… QuickTime 7”
It AMAZES me that the people who are ‘technology writers’, ‘analysts’ and such are such a clueless bunch. Quicktime is the engine that drives the DVD Player, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, FCP, Motion, Shake, iChat AV’s audio and video, etc.- otherwise ALL media on the Mac and a large amount on the Windows platform. That’s a really small and minor feature, isn’t it? Ask Hollywood if integrated H264 is a ‘minor’ thing.
By the time Longhorn ships in 2007 or so, TIGER will be giving way to the new cat OS—“Pussy”
DreamTheEndless is on the right track. MS does so well with fortune 500 companies because of the tens of thousands of MS consultants that help these companies build internal applications on MS software, tools, and infrastructure.
Apple is working on infrastructure like xServe and OS X Server. They are working on tools like xCode and Automator. They will need a consultant force that understand Fortune 500 business needs and processes in order to gain their trust.
This takes a long time. The market is saturated with IBM, Sun, and MS techs that know the business, but Apple is seen as a home computer maker without these tools. Apple has a long way to go with the Enterprise, like 10 years of strong and increasing middleware support before they can start taking over from the other big players.
I think Apple is on the right track, but it will take many years to see a replacement of Windows. Linux is making the first in-roads, but IT guys still don’t understand that OS X is UNIX, not some UNIX-ish OS, but really truely UNIX and the best UI for PCs to boot. Mac is a toy, it’ll take a long time to overcome that viewpoint. That’s the other half of the fight.
Hey, that’d be cool — Octopussy, or OS 10.8 Pussy — sweet.
…”they buy computers to do things.’
YES – THAT IS WHY PEOPLE BUY MACS!
Huh”-
He lists Quicktime 7 as one of the severl features that “have power users eagerly anticipating the operating system’s release,” along with Dashboard and Spotlight, not as one of the minor features. Read a little more carefully next time.
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I am gonna go back to desktop land and buy a high end Powermac. I am waiting for Tiger AND I think I should wait just a bit more for the Powermac bumps that have to be coming soon. Guess it might be as long as June ::Sigh::
ron, if that’s true then expect Pussy Galore in 2007. Not that you’d recognize a Pussy if you tripped over one…
not zupchuck,
If you haven’t figured out its the OS that your wonderful applications depend, then you wouldn’t have made such an asinine comment.
Go back to your folder icons and system beeps.
1) I have many macs. About 7 or 8.
2) I mainly use a 2 x 2 Ghz G5
3) One of my macs is a Macintosh/SE, 128 Kb RAM.
4) If I turn on the SE and the G5 on at the same time, on the SE I am in Word, writing something, 3 seconds before I get the logon screen on the G5.
5) there is a 20 year difference between these 2.
6) Going down to the local grocery shop with a Hummer just to buy bread is plain stupid.
7) Define productivity and usability.
8) Any questions ?
zupchuck, zupchuck, zupchuck….Photoshop works the same on my Mac and PeeCee.
Illustrator works the same on both OS´s.
Shall I continue or have you never worked with the same program on a different OS?