“In the struggle between Apple and Microsoft for the minds and hearts of computer users, clearly Microsoft has come out ahead. Despite its second-place finish in the operating-system race, however, Apple continues to fight and win key popularity battles on the secondary hardware and music fronts,” Walaika K. Haskins writes for Sci-Tech Today. “To its credit, Apple continues to defy certain ‘expert’ predictions that it will fail, particularly with the company setting the industry standard for music downloads and portable music players. In addition, with analysts estimating that as many as 500,000 Windows users have switched to Mac under what observers call the ‘iPod halo effect,’ the reports of Apple’s demise clearly have been overstated.”
“What lessons can we all learn from the company’s success? According to technology experts, the differences between Apple and other manufacturers can be summed up in one phrase: Keep it simple and innovate,” Haskins writes. “One major difference between Apple and Microsoft might be the type of person that each company perceives its users to be. ‘It’s almost like Microsoft is designing for geeks and Apple is designing for real people,’ said Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. Wilcox said that, in terms of functionality, Microsoft’s approach produces interfaces that are too complicated. You have to plug in something that launches a wizard, he explained. Then you have to go through several steps to get a device to complete a first-time configuration. ‘Whereas Apple’s common-man approach is ‘you plug it in and it works,” said Wilcox.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Macintosh. It just works. The vast majority of personal computer users would be far better off, happier, and more productive with their personal computing experience if they dumped their Windows PCs today and got themselves Apple Macs instead. As we’ve written before: “Apple teaches computers about people. Microsoft teaches people about computers. Apple’s way is better for people.”
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Whew – you guys are soooooooo confused.
There are two types of computer geeks.
1. Pre Windows
2. Post Windows
Pre-Windows geeks use Windows + some variant of UNIX (or previous MacOS).
Post-Windows geeks ONLY use Windows.
Post-Windows geeks never had computers before Windows. Therefore anything other than Windows is completely foreign to them.
Pre-Windows geeks used Apple, Atari, Commodore, etc., etc., making them completely comfortable with any OS. Preferring of course the one that makes them more productive. They are not religiously tied to MacOS. They simply no longer have any choice other than Linux.
MS is designing for people who have no choice but Windows. They don’t care.
Generally you will find the Macintosh user more computer literate with computing in general. You will find Windows users only literate with Windows. They are not true computer geeks. They are frat boys with cool games. Late to the party but totally dominating it with mis-information and prejudice.
Computer geeks now use UNIX. Average people use Windows. Professionals use Macs.
http://www.xvsxp.com
it’s all the rage – join the fight!
I am no knuckle head, but it took me over 1/2 hour to instal a Dell printer on a Dell machine yesterday. Would have been 30 seconds on my Mac.
Brendan “I am no knuckle head, but it took me over 1/2 hour to instal a Dell printer on a Dell machine yesterday.”
No, you are an idiot. I just hooked a Dell printer up to a Dell computer – it took about 2 seconds.
Did you ever find where to plug in the power cord?
ron: “Why does mine work unassisted and you have troubles? Some maroons even have a hard time driving.”
ron, I could say that about all the Mac heads here whining about PCs.
Real geeks don’t even tocuh a Windows box…
Johnny always uses a Windows PC to post on this site.
That says to me he is just a troll. Don’t listen to the young lad.
Real geeks use UNIX. Smart people use OSX (they are really using UNIX too). Idiots and slaves Windows.
I think the headline line should have read
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Windows is designed by a geek, Apple was designed by a common man- even if he is slightly eccentric
Most Windows users are people conditioned to accept the flaws and inadequacies of Windows as what defines normal daily computing experience, and the concept of OS X is beyond their comprehension. For most PC users, the limitations or frustration of Windows has to exceed some individualized threshold to cause them to re-consider their accepted vision of reality. The typical PC user is not stupid as much as they are ignorant of alternative choices or stoically resigned to maintain the course.
Brendan, be serious man. Yes, it takes no time to plug in a printer to a mac. However, you do have to configure the print heads and that does take longer than thirty seconds. My point is that macs are way easier to use and are much more stable than windows machines, but for crying out loud if you’re going to make a point then please be accurate.
I can think about numerous windows failings but when we talk about printer manufacturers we have a long way to go before we can believe in the term plug and play. Having made this point with windows it’s more accurate to use the term plug and pray.
Johnny,
How about a modified claim: “It almost always works!”
And, what does MS try to keep newbies from know beforehand?
“It works less than it does. And if it quits be prepared to spend too much time finding out why.”
Read this:
Apple, influnze the rich
Microsoft, inspire by Apple
“Are you f’ing serious? Come on, I resent that. I’m a geek”
Being a “geek” is chic now AND a bunch of BULLSHIT. It’s like a fashion statement, or fad. “Hey look at ME, I’m a GEEK – I’m sooooo cool and tech-savy”. I’m trying to put this in a non-elitist way, but there IS no other way: 26 years ago when I was hacking 8-bit assembly, I was considered a loner or a nerd. Meanwhile, everyone else was worried about how tight their fucking Jordache jeans were or the color of their Izod. Nerds were NOT cool then – we were looked at as persona non grata. Now everybody and their mother is walking around saying they’re a geek. I despise self proclaimed geeks for precisely that reason – again, it’s like some kind of fashion statement. Fuck geeks.
Yes, I am serious and I could care less if you resent it. ANYONE who SELF proclaims that they are a geek is a trendy fuck.
I’m a trendy fucking geek.
A tiny bit of intelligence would enable you to use a PC and Windows properly.
And a bit more intelligence would allow you to steer clear of Windows entirely.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
biekrsrule: “However, you do have to configure the print heads…”
Where do you people come up with this stuff?
Amazing how ignorant you all are of Windows.
>Professionals use Macs
By professionals, do you mean prostitutes?
I like the bit in the article where it mentions the difference in ease required to make your MacBook run reliably, Disassemble the MacBook, replace the heatsink paste, yep. Any grandmother feels happy doing that, much easier than just pulling the computer out of the box and it working…
Using Windows is like going to the bathroom. It is something you do because you HAVE to, not because you want to.
Using a Mac is like having Sex. It is something you do because you want to, not because you have to.
Even though the Mac is like sex, it is not perfect. I have used every version of iMovie and iDVD since version 1.0 (way back on OS9), and every version has major bugs. Most of the crashing and lost data bugs have been fixed, but quite often I still get garbled sound in iDVD and have to start the DVD project over. Never waste your time on an Apple version x.0 release. Wait for the x.0.1 update.
I know some are thinking “iLife is free/cheep. What do you expect?”. I expect better from Apple regardless of the price. If I didn’t have high expectations, I would settle for Windoze crap. Some free software is bug-free, while extremely expensive “professional” software is horrible quality.
Why do I have to use Windows? There are Engineering software packages I have to run to do my job that have nothing remotely close to equivalents on the Mac. One of these packages costs over $10K/seat and it has more bugs than I can count.
Discrepancy
'It's almost like Microsoft is designing for geeks and Apple is designing for real people,' said Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research.So you would expect the user public for MS to be only composed of geeks and for Apple, of only real people.
But almost the converse is true.
Ordinary people stick to MS out of fear for change. And the bulk of Mac users is probably more aware of what happens inside their computer.
Strange.
(It is true that there are still many geeks who enjoy to work around the arcane MS idiosyncrasies such as registry trickery etc. The more capable of them have moved on to open source development, which also benefits the OSX platform).
(Even though Macs are designed to keep simple things simple, this mere fact seems to attract sophisticated users, because time is saved by not having to deal with advanced and interdependent configuration parameters — still, all that is available in MacOSX’s Unix underpinnings when absolutely needed).
>not Johnny
You have a point.
For most people in this forum, using a Mac is like having sex with themselves. Over and Over. Endlessly.