“Aiming to re-create the excitement that accompanied the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft is gearing up for a massive campaign to launch Windows Vista,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News. “Chairman Bill Gates has tasked the Windows marketing team with repeating its achievements with the decade-ago launch, such as convincing scores of people to line up at retail stores to purchase the operating system… there is a team at the company’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters focused entirely on generating buzz for the OS, planning such things as having a Vista PC make Oprah Winfrey’s influential ‘favorite things’ list.”
“On the consumer side, Microsoft is focusing on digital memories, TV and movies, games, music and communications. On the small-business front, Microsoft is pitching Vista as the key to better backup and security, improved sales and marketing pitches, and improved collaboration and mobility, as well as touting it as a hub for financial management. Its big business push centers on management of PCs, security and compliance, controlling information access, and handling an increasingly dispersed work force,” Fried reports. “…Much of the energy in the computer world has shifted away from the PC and toward devices like digital cameras or the iPod. With Vista, Microsoft is hoping the PC will regain prominence as the machine that unites all of those digital devices. But unlike rival Apple Computer, which makes its own hardware and software, Microsoft must convince partners to aid it in reaching its goals.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft: Windows Vista. Everything we promised for Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, 98, 95. Trust us, folks, this time we mean it. It’s translucent! It’s innovative! It’s super! Wow! And because you have no idea what Mac OS X is or looks like or that it came out in March 2001, you’ll lap it all up as more original ideas from Microsoft. Suckers. (laughs all the way to the bank)
Once again, why iPods (and iTunes downloads) don’t come preloaded with THIS is beyond us. Such an omission is criminal. It’d be easily deleted, unobtrusive, and Windows-only users would be able to quickly see what they’re missing.
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Related articles:
Apple in secret deal with Microsoft to hide Macintosh from world? – January 19, 2006
Why in Jobs’ name doesn’t Apple advertise the Macintosh? – October 27, 2005
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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
I can’t wait for Windows Longhorn err…vista or wahtever they are calling it today. I’m so sure that it will be the best thing since sliced bread. As we all know, MS has always delivered on all their promises when it comes to their OS. Anyone remember the time Win 98 (i think) worked so well that Bill had the Blue Screen of Death up during his presentation. Obivously quality stuff. Bet Vista is so cool now it has the Green Screen of Death.
(Please denote total sarcasm in this post. I’m a Mac user through and through.)
MDN Word ==”call” as in Call if anything actually works in Vista besides the Blue Screen of Death.
MAYBE THAT FATASS COW TURD WILL DO HIS ASSMONKEY DANCE AGAIN.
pino and silke,
I can only guess that you are NOT Windows system administrators. Those people are almost constantly busy just keeping the systems running. EVERY time I show a Windows guy a group of Macs on OS X and a Mac Server running and how easy it is to keep everything up to date and running flawlesssly their jaws just drop. EVERY time. It’s like they’ve been living in a parallel universe where things always break. It’s amazing how much ignorance (and I mean WILLFUL ignorance) there is out there about the difference between these systems.
OS X COULD move into enterprise computing but there is not yet an equivalent for the Exchange Server and certain database programs, currently entrenched in major corporations that don’t yet run on OS X. Maybe they never will. Then again…Apple has a way of shocking everyone with new gear, new software, and new ways of thinking. They’ve made more than their share of mistakes too (and I go back to 1985 with the Mac, the Amiga, and Windows3.0 and before that to large mainframe systems like the IBM System 30 and PDP 11 systems…) can you say GeoPort? But overall, their approach has made more sense since it involved integrated hardware and software.
Advertise, Apple!!! God Damnit!!!
Apple doesn’t seem to be able to hire the kind of advertising geniuses that once made Volkwagen popular here: a small, ugly car designed by Hitler.
What is Apple going to do?
1- Move up the launch of 10.5 in a pre-emptive strike.
2- Move the launch back in order to not be drowned out by the PC blitz.
3- Take Microsoft head on, matching them dollar for dollar.
One thing is for sure, with ad sales for TV, Radio and Magazines being made in advance, the decision is already made or being made now. It should also be noted that CES 2007 & MWSF 2007 should take place right at about the same time.
For the first time ever, both Microsoft and Apple will be launching new OSes that run on very similar hardware. The stakes have never been higher. Hit, stand or double down?
When M$ introduced Win95, they made a series of Videos (like infomercials) starring the cast of an up-and-coming NBC TV sitcom called “FRIENDS”. A story of 6 young urban friends who lived and co-habitated in the big city.
I hear this time, they will use the cast of another NBC sitcom called “My Name is Earl”. The story of a down & out hasbeen who sets out on a quest to attempt to right the wrongs he’s done in life and to atone for his sins. Earl is described as a man with limited intelligence with hapless & dim witted co-horts who offer their support while he fumbles through his adventures, with dumbfounding effectiveness.
Yep, sounds like the perfect spokesman for Vista.
MW = been (as in Has-been)
The Rolling Stones are still available for the sound track.
PR,
Pino was being sarcastic – I can tell by the other posts he has made here. Slike I don’t know about – I think he was being serious.
I still think Apple will release Leopard in Dec. 2006 or Jan. 2007 and NOT spring 2007 as everyone is inferring because of the pushed back Developers conference.
pr knows what (s)he is talking about. I was just upgraded to XP Pro at work yesterday. (It’s the first time my company has had the latest MS O/S since DOS 4.0) Yet even waiting years to upgrade, our mail server has crashed four times in the last month. We have a state-wide operation and e-mail is vital. The blame is being placed on software. Our system administrators are being run ragged, and have been for years.
I doubt we could run on OS X, but I’d like to think one day it could happen.
pr,
Your parallel universe analogy is right on the money. It exist with the IT sect and it is even more relevant to the everyday user of computers. I meet people every day who have troubles with their PC’s (mostly Overseas) and they have never heard of Apple. They are just blown away when they see my 17′ PowerBook running and doing the biz’
Beam me up Scotty this planet has crashed!
Leo
i remember when ‘doze95 was called “chicago”, and was supposed to launch in the late eighties, or something. there wasn’t that much buzz; folks were mostly amused at how much it looked like System 7. we used it in the Navy, and, as you might guess, it was constantly crashing. we had to submit all boxes running this crap to our “security” person, so as to “insure” that there was nothing awry going on. most folks quit the “windoze” layer, and used dosshell. you can dress up a monkey….
hitler didn’t design the VW; he merely approved the design.
six versions!?!?!? SIX!!?!?!!!!
Are the Rolling Stones still alive?
Just curious.
MegaMe
Barely, my friend….. Barely. It is marvelous what a bottle of oxygen and some recreational drugs can do.
Leo
I actually took off from work on 8/24/95, the release date for Win95, so I could meet the UPS guy with my copy. Back when I didn’t know any better.
I got it.
Bill will introduce the new “Start” button.
More amazing innovation from MS.
So obvious isn’t it… MS waits to release its nex big[?] Windoze update so it can copy the facade of true next generation OS’s.
Anyway, there is an upside – No IT professional, including the completely indoctrinated, will recommend upgrading to FISTA [Insert acronym as desired] for at least the first year. So really Apple will have an additional year to keep the snowball rolling.
Can Mac OS get a real 10% of the pc marketplace in that time? I sure hope so.
P.S.
I’ll sure be glad when Windoze goes away ’cause I’ve completely forgotten how to spell windoze correctly.
After the massive nuclear exchange ending World War III, only cockroaches and Keith Richards will survive.
Glad they are hyping LongVistahorn now…gives Steve time to really poop on Vista all over the place at WWDC in August.
Leopard needs major features like Spotlight and yes, useful eye candy and innovations never thought of before. Steve knows that Leopard must kick butt over Panther and Tiger, which to me were major upgrades. His team has an extra six months this time and Leopard MUST be released just before Christmas 2006! I hope Apple has saved all their advertising money for Leopard’s release this time.
1. Have major features that Vista only dreams about.
2. Ship Leopard before Vista
3. Advertise the HOUND out of it and finally dangle the candy and features of Leopard
4. Get all your Mac lineup running on Intel
5. Make sure that Vista runs on Mac BEFORE Leopard runs on PC’s
Let’s take a deep breath and get a grip on reality here:
1) Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 was a much bigger deal than Windows XP -> Windows Vista. Windows 95 was a whole new world, a radical leap in functionality and design from the previous version. Windows Vista, on the other hand, improves on XP by adding some neat features and improving others, but it’s essentially the same design as before. There’s a lot less to get excited about.
2) There were a lot more computer newbies 11 years ago. Consumers are lot more familiar with Windows now than they were then, and familiarity breeds contempt. It’s going to take a lot more to convince them that a new Windows is something to get excited about.
3) In 1995, most computer users were naive enough to think upgrading the OS on a PC is easy. (And prior to 95, it was!!) People lined up around the block to buy Windows 95 upgrades for their 386 Windows 3.1 machines. Then a lot of those users learned the hard way that upgrades often don’t go as planned. These days, consumers almost never upgrade the operating system on their PCs. They just buy new PCs.
4) The buzz on Win95 had a positive tilt. “Win95 will let you do exciting NEW things with your PC!” The buzz on WinVista is more negative “Vista will do the things you already do, but it will be better!” In other words, Vista’s “improvements” can be seen as fixing the flaws in XP. It’s harder to get excited about fixes than about new functionality.
5) Corporate buyers are not going to run pell-mell to get Vista. Hell, my employer only upgraded to XP a little over a year ago! If your work is still on XP, what incentive do you have to move to Vista? Remember “I gotta run work stuff” is one of the most persistent anti-Mac arguments.
So I just don’t see Vista exploding on the consumer scene like Windows 95 did. Oh, sure, Microsoft will hype it up, but the consumer will just yawn and change the channel.
As a famous Jedi once said,
“Never underestimate the power of the Dark Side…”
AND NOW I’M POSTING AS “pino” (SEE ABOVE)!