“Microsoft Corp., which has found a foothold in the consumer’s living room with its Xbox video game consoles, will be making a broader push in 2006 to help realize the elusive dream of a digital lifestyle for the masses, Chairman Bill Gates told a packed house in Las Vegas on Wednesday night,” Matthew Yi reports for The San Francisco Chronicle. “A key ingredient will be the release of the software giant’s next-generation operating system for personal computers, called Vista, which the company promises will start selling later this year, said Gates in his kick-off keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show.”
“2006 will be a crucial year for Microsoft, which has had enormous success in selling office productivity software but has made little progress in consumer electronics,” Yi reports. “‘There’s a lot riding on Vista,’ said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at the market research firm Jupiter Research. ‘Vista must be successful if they want to be an important player in the digital home.’ Microsoft… is facing stiff competition on a number of fronts, analysts say. The list of its opponents ranges from consumer electronics giants such as Sony, which already rules the consumer living-room market, to its longtime nemesis Apple.”
“The new Vista operating system will provide a sleeker, 3-D user interface, such as translucent windows that let users see what other programs are running in the PC. The software will also have an improved digital photo archiving system that allows consumers to store, search and edit photos,” Yi reports. ‘A lot of what we’ve seen in Vista has similarities with [Mac OS X] Tiger,’ said Gartenberg, referring to the operating system on Apple Macintosh computers. Vista may still impress many consumers, because many of them may have never seen Apple’s operating system. Apple’s PC market share represents only about 3 to 4 percent of the industry, said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at the market research firm Creative Strategies.”
Full article here.
Apple needs to tell people via television (where you can still reach those who have no idea of Mac OS X) that Apple’s already done it long ago and has it available today. We hope they start soon. It would be criminal to continue to keep the story of the Mac from the average consumer. We firmly believe that short 5-10 minute video explaining what Mac OS X can do the the average personal computer users should be shipped on every video-capable iPod sold. Why this isn’t currently the case is baffling. Apple is squandering a huge opportunity to inform Windows iPod owners about Mac OS X. Apple doesn’t even need to Think Different to do such a thing, they just need to think.
Advertisements:
• The New iPod with Video. The ultimate music & video experience on the go. From $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.00.
• The New iMac G5. Built-in camera and remote control. From $1299. Free shipping.
• Apple USB Modem. Easily connect to the Internet using your dial-up service. $49.00.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Why in Jobs’ name doesn’t Apple advertise the Macintosh? – October 27, 2005
More would switch from Windows to Mac if Apple advertised more effectively – September 04, 2005
Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters – April 29, 2005
Mac fans line up for new operating system as passberby asks ‘what is a tiger?’ – April 29, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action – April 13, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple show its patented Mac OS X ‘Genie Effect’ in TV ads? – October 07, 2004
Top Ten things Apple needs to show the world about Macintosh – July 30, 2003
PC users will have to be happy with whatever Microsoft feeds them regardless of how long it take Microsoft to deliver it.
If a new mac mini is Apple’s digital media center for the living room, I would expect a marketing campaign around that, which could include TV ads. It would show music and video – possibly ending with the line: mac mini + iTunes.
If there is a newly designed iBook that includes a built-in iSight and Front Row, I can see ads for that. But I don’t expect any ads to trumpet Mac OS X or iLife or iWork specifically.
By the way, I haven’t seen any iPod ads that emphasize the video part of the iPod. Have there been any?
Jake, That’s a good list. I’d like to add to it:
Your List:
1) Intel chips will eliminate the GHz myth (which is still widespread)
2) MacTels will permit the use of nearly unlimited industry-standard parts to handle demand
3) MacTels will (hopefully) provide switchers a “security blanket” in that they’ll be able to run Windows
4) The iPod phenomenon has created an opportunity of millions if Winblows users who will be open to another pitch from Apple
5) Vista is late to market, while Tiger TODAY does much of what Vista promises it may eventually do
My two Additions:
6) Apple now has it’s own retail distribution network. People forget the days when Steve Jobs was furious with the other retail channels because the sales people tended to steer every customer away from Macs and toward PCs, even when they came in to see Macs. That was his motivation for creating the Apple Retail Stores in the first place.
7) Apple has been putting together their own suite of office-type products. A new spreadsheet called “Numbers” is expected next week, the FileMaker datatbase app is nothing less than astounding, and Pages is extremely well refined for a version 1 app, hopefully to be improved upon next week also.
***
By the way, Pages is a very good word processor. But Mac users seem to think of Pages the way PC users think of the Mac. If you own a Mac and haven’t tried pages, then you can examine your own reluctance in order to gain an understanding of why people aren’t flocking to the Mac.
Try Pages, and not just with the built-in templates, but as a word processor starting from a blank page. There’s a learning curve and a different paradigm to get accustomed to, but in the end it’s worth it. Sound familiar?
***
One hypo-thing…
After apple rolls out their Macs w/ Intel they provide a free 5 minute video Mac commercial download on iTunes.
No advertising dollars spent on TV or print adds.
smart eh?
MDN has it right again. However I’d like to see Apple have two or three TV ads for Mac OS X and one or two each for each of the portables and desktops.
Apple is under much better management now, and if proper planning is executed the Company could handle spikes in demand.
Dell does it, HP does it and Apple could do it too if it just would.
Perhaps after the intro of Intel into the Apple lineup we’ll see some TV ads…and larger market share.
MS has some great ads. Their product may not be the best but you can’t tell that from the ads. Apple, on the other hand, has great products but NO ads. What is the guy on the street going to do?
Ads work, so he’s going to buy MS. Pity.
What I want is the uncontrolled and complete destruction of Mycrowsoft!
When their bug riddled pc’s don’t work anymore make the buggers wait in line to buy Macs – and give priority to people who are upgrading so we can sell our used machines at a great profit!
Apple doesn’t need to reach the masses, just the people who aren’t currently using Macs who would be good Mac users. Face the facts, Joe Nascar doesn’t give a crap about the added benefits of an Apple product. They don’t get it. They would rather have a McDonalds hamburger because it’s cheap instead of a steak. They would rather be able to buy software at any store, linculding off the counter of a rest stop gas station because the windows market is big enough to allow crap like that to survive. It gives them comfort to have a choice of 325 different word processors and any crappy game that two kids in their basement can patch together.
To people like these ‘just good enough’ is all they need and that’s what they get with Windows.
There are a lot of people though who do use Windows that would be great Mac users, those are the ones Apple needs to go after.
I agree Apple needs to advertise more (some?), but to put a commercial for the Mac on each iPod sold, as MDN suggests, would just turn off the average consumer to Apple and its “intrusive” ways.
you can’t say they don’t advertise.. Apple is seeing about, 2 million people a week or something in it’s stores?
2 mil a week are looking at actual macs, and maybe even playing with them.. that’s a lot better than an ad
There bound to be some pc idiots who would still claim M$ comes out with this super innovative features before Apple!
I don’t see what the big deal is with getting all these people to convert to macs is all about. As long as we know whats better then who cares I mean I would like more people to realize that there is a better OS and a way better computer, but as long as I am a Mac owner I don’t care if the kid next store is gonna use one for the internet. I think that the people who are gonna be a mac user are gonna be one anyway reguardless of a commercial or not. If your a musician, artist, or designer your gonna use a mac anyway for obvious reasons. Any design school, or recording school is already teaching with the mac those are the people that matter not the people just surfing the net and checking there email. Macs are used for designing and for being innovative thats what counts and thats what they are best at doing. The average email user isn’t going to pay for a good computer reguardless they are only using it for simple tasks.
I agree with Davidlow, Pages is far better than I thought it was at first. Upon first glance, it looks far too simple and lacking in needed features. However, once you take a look at the users manual and try it out on a project, a grin begins to form on your face. Still, it’s a 1.0 and (just like Keynote 1.0) there is a lot of room for improvement. Here’s hoping for 2.0 next week
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
I think apple is waiting for something. Either they’re gonna take over this year or 2008.
Why 2008?
In 2008, over 80% of americans are expected to have HDTVs in the household, and every tv network will be practically forced to broadcast in HD. The entire mac line-up will by then have amazing performace with Intel chips. We’ll probably even have tv tuners in every desktop mac too.
The commericals start rolling on our tv showing of the mac mini coming with a remote, containing a 250 gb flash drive, 2 gb memory, and dual-core processor running at 4 ghz.
Maybe I’m just babbling. I honestly want the mac to start slowly taking over this year, then get the non-believer in 2008……
Hammer–
“Face the facts, Joe Nascar doesn’t give a crap about the added benefits of an Apple product. They don’t get it. “
Guess my extended family are exceptional NASCAR fans–we all have Macs and portables! : ) But I agree with your point. For most it’s word processing and games. The put down on Macs has always been that it’s not a “real” computer. In my opinion, MS is more the featureless toy (to non-business users). There is the problem though because the non-business sector wants CHEAP.
I agree with the MDN pust to advertise OSX. The person who gave the CD tour of it to enclose with EVERY iPod is sheer genius–go appy for a job at Apple marketing please.
On Tuesday if Steve previews an OSX and or iMac TV commercial with iLife you will probably see a crowd on it’s feet cheering like the final point in a tied Super Bowl was just scored for our team and I will be the first one shooting out of my chair and jumping up and down.
My opinion is a commercial on how OSX and iLife totally rocks for the average consumer is what is needed at this point with Vista in the near future. It’s comparison importance to the non-Mac public has arrived. Keep your fingers crossed this week.
Sorry for the numerous spellling errors above. I’m typing in the dark, and iBooks don’t light up the keys like Powerbooks.
Apple isn’t a computer company anymore, it’s a consumer company. The iPod helped Apple make the switch. Microsoft continues to sell itself as computer company because it’s their OS and Office that makes them money. That said, why would Apple waste time on advertising X, when it’s the iPod that making them own and generating money. People don’t care about computers anymore (that is 90’s stuff), it’s all about consumer products..iPod.
YOU and ME, have the same idea, the movie in every ipod video capable, even i think a single mp3 in every ipod, im sure many out there, think the same… why the marketing of apple dont come with the idea, i would hope at least one of marketing guy sons share the idea.