“Coming turmoil among tech manufacturer and retailer stocks will not signal broader economic trouble. PC manufacturers and resellers will be going through a period of strategic adjustment as their inventories of mainstream professional-grade Windows/Intel desktop setups–box, LCD panel, OS, keyboard, mouse–along with aftermarket accessories for these systems, rise to excessive levels,” Tom Yager writes for InfoWorld.
Yager writes, “I thought our kids would be laughing at us about how our computers used to have all of these cables and dust-sucking fans, how they got so huge that we had to stand them on their sides and stuff them under our desks, how people had to write their own software to make playing a movie or a song easier than balancing their checkbooks, and how these boxes buckled and reverberated when you tapped on their tin can cases.”
“Hah! We’re spared from having to pass the embarrassing story of willingly wasting away in the technological trailer park along to the whippersnappers. You can say you were there back in ought-six when 64-bit Macs knocked the bottom out of the Wintel PC client market,” Yager writes.
“Mac Pro and 64-bit iMacs, and soon, 64-bit MacBook Pro and Xserve, will create mayhem in the PC market because Microsoft and Intel PC makers never staffed or strategized for user-focused innovation. Microsoft will follow along as best it can now that it realizes that Apple reflects and drives computer users’ desires. It understands that Apple is a far bigger threat than Linux, which it is prepared to battle,” Yager writes.
Yager writes, “Mark my words: All savvy users want bulletproof, manufacturer-supported commercial hardware in their server rooms, at work, at home and in their carry-on bags. By year’s end, Apple will have mind share leadership in all markets but servers. Its market share climb in ’07 will dumbfound almost everyone but you and me.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yager gets it. This is the beginning of a wonderful period for longtime Mac users. For years all of us were the butt of tech columnists’ jokes, ridiculed by the “IT Guy” at work, ignored by retailers and software developers. But, we knew the truth all along. Now sweet satisfaction will be ours with the rest of the world coming to join us and discovering the greatness of the Mac platform. The PC Dark Ages are coming to a close! Bill Gates and Microsoft will be seen for what they really are/were: purveyors of mediocrity who retarded progress. Now the personal computer can finally begin to fulfill its promise.
Oh, you thought the war was long ago over? You thought wrong.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
A Windows Vista reality check for Microsoft – September 08, 2006
Apple introduces Boot Camp: public beta software enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP – April 05, 2006
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
New generation of users, new generation of soft- and hardware. Apple is ready for it!
osx leopard 100% unix comlient, i would assume this to help the server market lots wouldnt it?
Oh get over it. I like Macs, but they’re only computers, not a religion.
Looks like Yager’s Microsoft-bribed bosses won’t be happy with this. 2 out of 3 pages of advertising in Infoworld is from Microsoft.
Boy oh boy, let’s hope this is the way it goes down, as it should – for the sake of AAPL.
Forward, my children. Let me just part these waters….
Gog.
You’re wrong.
We’ve had many false tipping points in the past. I don’t think we’re seeing one now. I do think that 2007 will be a better year than ’06, but I think the release of the iPod will be looked on as the accepted start of Apple’s resurgence. Just as the iMac gets credit for Apple’s recovery from near death. We’ll see if the winners get to write this bit of tech history.
One thing I worry about with the new iPods is if Apple only does a “modest HD upgrade” instead of a radical new touchpad design.
Signs indicate that we may not see the “true video” iPod untll next year. I think analysts may tank the stock if this happens..
You missed the best bit out MDN…
“A helpful tip: In most communities, it is a violation of law to put your PC out to the curb. It contains lead, Windows XP, mercury and other toxic substances…”
Priceless!
Mac is more than a religion. It is a cult. The Cult of Mac.
Resistance is futile, Redmond. We’re coming after you.
Here’s hoping!
A 64 bit OS X 10.5 in a 64 bit Mac Pro, iMac, Xserve or MacBook Pro at 2/3’s the price of the PC plus Windows 64 competition.
And guess what, the Macs have 64 bit compatible software with more coming from Adobe.
Microsoft and the PC makers are way behind the curve on this trend.
All we need now is a killer 64 bit consumer app.
Remains to be seen. If Apple doesn’t renew its commitment to quality (there once was one), this opportunity will be lost and Vista, no matter how awful it is, will sweep the world.
Inferior machinery and poorly performing software = ordinary in the personal computer world. Results: Apple’s share remains tiny and we long time loyalists get shafted.
I’ve been a Mac User for coming up on 3 years and before that I was a windows slave. I’ll admit I wasn’t early to the party but I’m glad I’m not late or worse yet that I didn’t realise there was a party.
Gog.
You are very wrong.
And lets not discount Linux in all of this.
“It understands that Apple is a far bigger threat than Linux, which it is prepared to battle.”
I personally feel that Linux and Mac are like siblings. Siblings that get along really well. I am happy to have Ubuntu on my Mac. But Linux users don’t want “to do battle” with Apple, we want to live in harmony.
As we have.
But we would love to see Microsoft fade away.
As it slowly is.
All I want is for enough people to switch so that we don’t get sidelined anymore. If everyone else wants to run Windows, Linux, or even some bizarre Amiga resurrection I really don’t care.
Enough so we can’t be ignored. That’s all.
I see the Mac more as a force of nature, ever moving, ever present, and difficult to see the future events of.
Not going to happen. The average user knows nothing about Mac.
I had friends over for dinner the other night and showed them my new 20″ iMac. Their first question was “can you go online and send email with your Mac?”
A friend of mine went to a novel conference last week. He noted that they were using MacBook and MacBook pro’s to demo their stuff. The intel move has changed the rules fundamentally. What was the reason for buying a PC over a Mac in the past? Simple, there were vastly more Windows applications to choose from. Sure the Mac may have had best in class applications that made the windows users drool, but every one knew that autocad only ran on Windows as did 3 quarters of the games they saw in best buy. Sure most never used either of these, but the store shelves sold the computer. Outside of the apple store if you saw a program you liked it probably did not run on the Mac and if it did you probably had to mail order it at a premium price. A few Mac only programs may have peeked your interest but in the end the sheer volume overcame this.
Then came 2006 – Now what computer do you buy if you want to be able to run anything? The answer is simple – a Mac. Sure you may end up having to buy and install windows to run a program, but you can run it. In addition you can run all the Mac programs you used to drool over. If you do all your email and surfing on the Mac side you be come relatively impervious to viruses (you still have some limited exposure while running windows). Suddenly you discover something, other than for games you never use Windows. So you start writing the manufacturers and telling them that future versions need to be available for the Mac. Eventually you remove windows from your system to get more space for mac stuff.
Five years from now Apple will be at 30% market share and growing while PC manufacturers consolidate as more and more they discover they can’t compete. Microsoft will still be huge, but will be concentrating on applications more and more, with the Mac being the primary platform.
All because Apple decided to make a computer that gives you the choice. We know that most people that try the Mac never go back.
FSCK YEAH!!!!!
If Apple doesn’t renew its commitment to quality (there once was one),
—————–
Huh? What are you talking about? Apple’s quality rating is higher than it’s ever been. Less than 5% failure rate on new hardware gives Apple the highest marks in the industry.
Of course, there have been some rev A problems with the new machines (there always is,) but part of a “commitment to quality” is fixing those problems and correcting them for future versions… and that’s exactly what Apple is doing.
That Yager is a real tech Meister!
MW: Anorak
“”Their first question was “can you go online and send email with your Mac?””
Sounds like you have some pretty dumb friends.