USA Today tech writer: Apple’s Boot Camp will get Mac users to switch to Windows

“The big technology news this past week was Apple’s beta release of Boot Camp — software that allows Windows XP to be installed on three Macintosh computers. (The ones built with Intel chips, instead of PowerPCs.) The idea is that people who prefer the Mac but need to use software that’s only available for Windows (and there’s plenty) could have the best of both worlds,” Andrew Kantor writes for USA Today. “Today, according to Information Week, the Mac’s desktop share is less than 5%. But Boot Camp, say some people, will overcome that hurdle and help propel the Mac into the mainstream. Businesses will buy Macs for their employees, confident they’ll be able to run all the needed applications.”

“Gamers, who have pretty much shunned the Mac because the gaming picks are slim (to say the least), will be able to run those games on their Mac hardware. In fact, from what I’ve read, those games will run pretty darn well, too. Could this be the thing that gets Windows users to try the Mac and, eventually, convert? Wall Street apparently thought so, and Apple’s stock took a jump after the announcement,” Kantor writes. “You know what? Boot Camp isn’t going to propel the Mac into the mainstream. If anything, it will get Mac users to switch to Windows. Sure, it’ll be terrific for Mac fans not wanting to give up their machine of choice but find more and more they need to use Windows. But Boot Camp doesn’t offer any kind of compelling argument for PC users to buy Mac hardware.”

MacDailyNews Take: Kantor, a sad little man who really can’t write propaganda very well, has tried to accomplish some goals at the outset of his piece:
• Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel, therefore Windows users were always using the right processor and Apple was stupid. Even though Kantor’s failed premise treats processor brands as if they were static: the fact is that Intel and PowerPC do different things better and worse than the other and that they switch places all the time. It also fails to take into account that the fastest workstation in the world (at the lowest price, too) is the Quad Power Mac G5, a PowerPC-based Macintosh. Processors are trade-offs; there is no “best” processor. Are you looking for efficiency or speed or size or what?
• There’s plenty of Windows software; much more than the Mac. Yes, Andy, the Windows platform offers fifteen bad word processors that nobody uses and the Mac offers only six that nobody uses, therefore Windows is “better” in Andy’s warped little world. Mac OS X software totals have long ago exceeded 20,000 titles. If you devoted a week to use and familiarize yourself with each (hardly enough time to learn most applications), you’d be finished in just under 385 years (not counting the new Mac titles introduced over those centuries of use and learning).
• Mac’s desktop share is less than 5%. Windows is 95%. Kantor can’t even do basic research well and surely doesn’t understand the difference between market share and installed base (Macs are in front of anywhere from 8-16% of actual people using personal computers). But, regardless of the numbers, Kantor’s real reason for this point is to remind folks that they made the popular choice and they should be happy to have McDonald’s hamburgers and listen to Britney Spears while Mac users enjoy the filet with some Mozart. Most popular never equals best (unless you’re talking cola or MP3 players or online music services). More on that here: By its very nature Wintel cannot be the best. (Yes, back in 2002, Intel did not make the “best” processor. And they still don’t, by the way.)
• The statement, “Boot Camp isn’t going to propel the Mac into the mainstream” without any proof means only that Kantor hopes his own personal crystal ball prediction will come true and spare him from a shattered world view.
• Kantor thinks that Mac users will switch to Windows. Yes, once we get a real and proper taste of having to apply patches to fix patches that we patched last patch, but that didn’t get patched right by Microsoft, get to purchase anti-virus and anti-spyware software that we can run and update and upon which we can waste our Intel processor cycles forever, we get to say we have the option to buy the other nine word processors that nobody uses, and we can pretend that we’re not fat, short, and balding because we use the most popular operating system instead of the most advanced, elegant, and fun OS, we’ll be switching from Mac to Windows in droves.
• “Boot Camp doesn’t offer any kind of compelling argument for PC users to buy Mac hardware” (if you’re mentally challenged, that is – all offense to Mr. Kantor.)

Kantor goes on and on with a boring rehash of his opening paragraph’s myths and misconceptions and then concludes, “The notion put forward by some Mac folks — that Boot Camp will improve the Mac’s position in the business and gaming marketplace — is backward. Instead, it’s more likely to convince Mac users to switch to Windows once they’ve used it long enough to be deprogrammed. And, judging by some of the comments to an Apple message board, they may not have a choice. It seems that installing Boot Camp can kill OS X, thus instantly converting Mac users to Windows. It may not be so bad — they might even enjoy the convenience of sharing a common platform with the other 97% of the world, brought to them courtesy of Boot Camp.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: This whole thing comes from a guy who was praising Microsoft Photo Story software a few months ago as a “hidden gem” for all of the wonderful features it offered, including a slide show feature which “uses the ‘Ken Burns Effect’ where it gently zooms and pans over each image.” Kantor raved, “This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time” – then he quickly found out that Apple’s iPhoto had been delivering all of it and more to Mac users for over three years. A mister “Andy H.” responded to Kantor’s article with “If you had a Mac, you’d have been doing this stuff and much more for years with Apple’s iPhoto, now in its 5th version. Yup, version 5. It’s sad that you’re amazed at what Mac users have had for years and years. Apple leads. Windows follows. As usual. http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/” Kantor responded, “Good point, and something I didn’t know about. Glad to hear Apple’s had this for a while, but I like the fact that now the other 94% of people can do it too.” To which, Andy H. wrote, “If more people woke up your ‘94%’ number would decline even more rapidly than it is right now. You’re excited for nothing. Mac users have had it for years. Just like everything else. I’m sure that someday you’ll be ecstatic to get Mac OS X public beta, oops, sorry, Windows Vista.” (Andy H., whoever you are, you’d fit in around here quite nicely.]

By the way, Kantor’s “Boot Camp can kill OS X” is a canard: please see related article below.

If you take that lone Microsoft Max example and extrapolate and you’ll realize that Kantor can’t see why anyone would use Mac OS X or Mac-only applications like the iLife suite: he has no idea what Macs offer over Windows. We’ve used both platforms extensively and have hundreds of examples of people who used Windows being introduced to the Mac and becoming Mac users afterwards. Average people don’t try both and choose Windows unless they are so familiar with and steeped in Windows that, let’s face it, they’re ruined forever. The vast majority of dual-platform users think Apple Mac is the better choice versus Windows. It usually only takes a week or two with the Mac for people to understand. Kantor should try it.

We’ve established what Kantor is and where he’s coming from by now. We see this sort of stuff in his articles about Apple routinely. He’s obviously got some sort of issue with Apple or he’s trolling for hits or both. See related articles below.

Lastly, while we’re not a research firm by any stretch, we do have our own checks and are able to take some measure of the pulse of what’s going on in the Mac world. Our checks indicate that Mac sales (MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini) have picked up significantly since the Boot Camp debut and corresponding press coverage. The information we are seeing allows us to confidently state that Kantor has it backwards. The ability to run their Windows “insecurty blanket” on Macs is causing people to buy Macs. The idea of buying one machine and getting both OS worlds is very appealing, it seems. Once they try Mac OS X, what usually happens will happen with them, too. More and more Mac OS X use with less and less Windows use. Suffice to say, Kantor’s going to be shocked.

[UPDATE: 5:55pm EDT: Updated portion of “MacDailyNews Take” to report that Microsoft Photo Story, not Microsoft Max, was the iPhoto clone that Kantor thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread until he found out about Apple’s Mac-only iPhoto.]

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Related articles:
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006

Pre-Boot Camp report: Apple could double market share on Microsoft defections – April 13, 2006
Handful of Mac users report Boot Camp leaves them stuck with Windows, unable to boot into Mac OS X – April 13, 2006

USA Today: Apple’s iPod nano ‘a beautiful piece of hardware’ – but ‘the competition has caught up’ – September 16, 2005
USA Today columnist blasts Mac users and MacDailyNews in blog – December 06, 2004
USA Today writer unhappy with MacDailyNews and some Mac users’ emails – October 18, 2004
USA Today writer attempts to downplay Apple’s role in Virginia Tech supercomputer – September 03, 2004