“Researchers have discovered that Apple’s new operating system, codenamed Leopard, will create 0 new jobs when it is launched early next year,” Tim Gaden writes for APC Magazine.
“This research (which was not commissioned by Apple) stands in sharp contrast to the findings of an industry report (commissioned by Microsoft) that Vista’s release will create 100,000 new jobs in tech support and help desk positions,” Gaden writes.
Gaden writes, “While Vista seems set to impact on the economy by creating more IT support jobs to fix the broken or frozen computers of other employees, research shows that Apple will take a different path.”
Gaden writes, “Apple is well known for its award-winning innovation. With Leopard’s release Apple will continue an innovative strategy of impacting on the economy by increasing individual productivity. It will let people get more of their own work done, faster and smarter, without the need for endless calls to tech support, compatibility hassles, driver problems or time wasted defending their PCs from viruses and trojans.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, scathing. We love it!
The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it’s going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years… Eventually, Microsoft will crumble because of complacency, and maybe some new things will grow… – Steve Jobs, February 1996
Mac OS X. Welcome to the renaissance.
Related articles:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ ultimate goal: ‘to take back the computer business from Microsoft’ – June 16, 2005
Lovely article, lapped it all up!
>Vista’s release will create 100,000 new jobs in tech support and help desk positions>
All those jobs just to keep Vista running, when Leopard just needs one Jobs.
More like the Reformation, MDN…
The tech/IT guys should send M$ a portion of their paychecks as a “thank you” for creating crappy stuff that requires hours of billable time to maintain.
The irony is that Vista will generate some Mac-related work, as well, since some users will finally be compelled to switch. There is a market for services like helping people get set up, transfer their data, etc.
And at the risk of stating the obvious, I’d like to clarify that I mean switching FROM Windows TO OS X.
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Ron
Nice work. I was thinking there had to be a Jobs joke in there somewhere but my brain is in reverse today.
See: MS and Vista are good for the economy. Context, social merit, and long term consequences are meaningless in the face of job creation. God made man to serve the economy.
I deal with different businesses that have to make decisions as to whether or not to go Mac or stay with Windows.
Why is it that all the IT guys are always wanting to stay with Windows? I become increasingly frustrated when talking with these guys because their arguments are null and void.
Example- One company that I dealt with last spring had over 500 computers to work with. One department ( Marketing ) had 13 Macs that they used. This companies IT guys wanted this department to give up their Macs just so the company could be 100% Windows. ( I imagine they wanted better control of this departments machines?!?!?! ) When the head of the marketing department did a survey they found that these IT guys had not spent 1 single hour in 2005 on these machines. What better argument could you want? Thank you for this article to put some of these IT guys in their places.
Go Ron!
That was the funniest joke I have ever seen on MDN. I have never typed the acroym “LOL” before.
UndercoverMacBrother says “The tech/IT guys should send M$ a portion of their paychecks as a “thank you” for creating crappy stuff that requires hours of billable time to maintain.”
They do, I see them at Fry’s and MicroCenter every weekend “upgrading” their stuff.
If Apple really want to get the support of the IT industry they should include a hammer with each license and instruct people to randomly bash their machines up. IT support will still have plenty of work that way.
The researchers’ conclusion is completely wrong! Leopard will create 100,000, higher paying software developer jobs. Once Windows only application companies realize their market is in a downward spiral, they will need to hire software engineers to prepare Mac solutions. More risk taking programmers will start their own software companies to take advantage of switcher oppotunities.
I realize this is just my wishful thinking.
Microsoft is the little boy in the Broken Windows Fallacy.
Or should I say Broken Windows®TM Fallacy?
Damn, with all these new jobs, you know the techs are going to be buying Macs for home! I mean when you work in the sewer all day who wants to come home to more shit?
…Vista’s release will create 100,000 new jobs in tech support and help desk positions…
Oh, the irony! They’ve all but admitted that Virus In System, Terminating Activities clients will incur a total of…
100,000 troubleshooters x 6 hrs/troubleshooter day x 250-working days/year x say, $50 per consultation-hour x 3 for production losses = $22.5-thousand-million per year.
That’s just like saying, “Crime has increased 6 percent, but the good news is that this will result in 400 new jobs [cough] for enforcement and correctional officers in our state.”
*sigh* Yes….I often do suffer from “Maytag Repair Man Syndrome.”
[…..shrugs shoulders and starts another Solitaire game…..]
Unfortunately the study is correct for several reasons. There are very, very few small, medium, or large businesses that run on Macintosh.
Those that due typically have a support person, either in house, consulting, or the owner’s nephew or something.
Most Mac people tend to see themselves as being technically savvy so they never actually consult technical people. As a consultant I do a lot of what I call “diaper changes.” Diaper changes are support calls on people who think they know what they’re doing, and who finally shit on themselves and then look for someone to clean it up.
Macs are not likely to be used in large, complex, network environments.
Macs are still seen as home computers for non-technical people.
And so on.
Is it changing?
Not that I can see.
In the old days I used to be able to find work as an IT Director in a Mac shop very easily. These days, well, I’ve been unemployed with all but useless skills since 2000.
I opted to consult rather than go over to the dark side, but every year it gets harder. I see Windows guys raking in the 6 figure incomes and I can barely get Mac people to pay their invoices.
That’s one heck of a prescient quote from Steve Jobs..
It’s very hard to overestimate the guy.
While it’s impossible not to underestimate Ballmer and Gates.
“This research (which was not commissioned by Apple) stands in sharp contrast to the findings of an industry report (commissioned by Microsoft) that Vista’s release will create 100,000 new jobs in tech support and help desk positions,” Gaden writes.
This is patently wrong. There will be jobs created by Leopard. The lack of necessity to hire IT people to fix problems, will free up those smart minds to work on new creations that will create even more new jobs and new industries. For instance, when Henry Ford streamlined the process of building cars, it meant that less people were needed. This made more workers available for building new things like airplanes and eventually computers, etc.
I don’t hate Bill Gates, but I really hate Microsoft – It just won’t go away fast enough.
Yes, Microsoft is creating jobs much the same way as Hurricane Katrina–by breaking stuff and diverting otherwise productive resources to fix it. Net wealth to economy: Negative.
Cheers to the bright writer referencing the Broken Windows (TM) Fallacy–brilliant and gave me a chuckle!
Bastiat would be proud.
Guess who will be paying those odd-$70 billion?
Windows users, of course (not just Vista users:).
Even though the economy (read: job market) may benefit, let’s look what will be the effect on
– Windows-based businesses: Higher IT support costs, less productivity => higher priced products.
– MacOSX-based businesses: Increased productivity => lower priced products.
So, even if the assumptions of the article are correct (which I don’t think is the case), the MacOSX world will benefit.
Windows-centric IT graduates (and drop-outs) will flock to helpdesk jobs, while MacOSX/Unix/Open source minded IT graduates will be available for the more interesting creative development jobs.
While there’s NO question OS X is, and will be continue to be, superior to any version of Doze for years, this article reads like a “put on” to me. It just seems very tongue in cheek.
Vista will be good for the economy because it will create new jobs.
Leopard will be good for the economy because it will increase productivity.
I’ll go with the latter.
Windows Vista will be great. I forsee less work for IT departments, as the new security features will elminate all the security problems I now face.
theloniousMac,
Your points are well made. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked in one company that was all Macs, but other than that, every company I’ve worked in so far, I’ve taken from 1 Mac (often my own) to dozens of Macs. I’ve been in the creatvie and operational ends of the broadcasting and film post production workforce for 2.5 decades.
Here’s what I’m getting to: One of the biggest problems I’ve had using Macs in the workplace has been that the IT people are incapabile and/or unwilling to provide ANY support for the Macintosh. This always leaves me having to provide desktop support (yes some is always required in the real world, even on Macs), and still keep up with the job I was actually hired to do. In a couple of situations, including my current employer, I’ve setup network services such as XSAN. For a non-IT person (heck even for a PRO IT person) this takes an incredible effort in research and then to implement and trouble shoot. This last setup went well, but the 70 and 80 hour weeks left me all but used up – I still had to stay caught up with my actual work. When a new person comes in, or a position is vacated and refilled there is an immediate need for desktop level support, and some network updating that takes place with each personal change.
Now for the otherside of the coin. Since all but one of the places I’ve worked has been Windows based, what I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of high school kids and college students in many many IT depts., even running IT departments. Having gotten to know many of these fellow employees what I’ve discovered is that the company saves bundles of money not hiring degreed pros. My belief is that this imaginary meccah of high pay for Windows IT pros only exists in the very largests corps., and even there IT salaries are low-balled by hiring underqualified personel for all but the most critical jobs.
Here’s another bit of perspective, and I know this is heresy, but I’m going to say it anyway, if 95% of the planet were on OS X there would be lots of IT positions available, and more or less, the same set of circumstances would exist in reverse. One reason it costs companies that use the Mac less is simply because they expect the users to support themselves. This creates a completely surreal perspective on what it really takes in dollars and cents to operate Macs. Let me quicly add that, I absolutely believe that it definitely costs less for a company to own and operate Macs, but until Macs become more prominent in the enterprise market place we won’t really know what it does cost to operate Macs, professionaly.
From where I sit, the enterprise workplace is already in dire need of professional Macintosh IT personel. Sadly, part of the cost for the priveledge of using something other than Windows in the workplace is that you support your own desktop, and often times the desktops of others if you happen to be the most knowledgeable person on staff for that other-than-Windows platform. This creates the false impression that Pro Mac IT people are not need – after 25 years in the work force I can tell you that I see this as patent misinformation.
The Mac needs to continue to be pushed into the enterprise market place so that the real need for real Mac IT Pros can be more clearly demonstrated.
Until the alleged deficiencies of VISTA are proven, a majority of you here should drink a tall glass of shut-the-hell-up.
Dream on Brad.
Here’s a clue. Microsoft said XP was going to be more secure in 2001. Today it needs a software firewall that still has open ports for Microsoft’s software validation.
If Microsoft says a product is more secure, they are lying.
Instead of attempting to maintain PCs, more IT guys should be learning to program cool software for MacOS X. Every Windows machine that’s waiting for an IT guy to get his hands on it is a waste of efficiency, money and productivity in American business.
If OSX is such a cheap alternative that supposedly requires little or no IT support, then why aren’t businesses embracing it wholeheartedly? It would seem like a no brainer, right?
Can’t believe no-one noticed the BSOD on the screen next to the Windows placard!
Hey KoolAid…
When will Vista be available to all? Just curious as to when I can quit drinking this glass of shut the hell up.
As for the article…delicious, tasty, very satisfying.
Re: ‘Don’t pass the koolaid’:
ICT is not going to make themselves irrelevant, they play the part of the advisor and the provider at the same time, this is fatal.
With their ‘skills’ they are protecting the status quo. They do not serve the interests of the company but themsleves, in many cases outsource companies.
For all your smart-ass, pithy, snarky remarks, none of you can answer the fundamental question: if OSX is so much superior than why isn’t it being adopted by businesses world-wide?
Hey Kool Aid….
My bet is you are a Windows IT guy…. and your company is potentially looking at macs…. or you are gloating about your job security when Vista finally arrives…. or your have your head in the sand and have not read one of the thoursands of pieces of info about the problems with Vista already….. any way you cut it… you don’t belong posting on this site….
I can think of at least one billion dollar global company that uses Macs in its business activities! Apple Computer.
punkinhead: one more who can’t answer the fundamental question. Go play with you ipod.
Kool-Aid,
Snarky, smirky, or whatever aside…I cannot answer your question, but I often ask myself the same.
Perhaps it’s just plain complacency. Who knows. All I can do is compare life with Mac to life with Wndows a few years back and weigh the experiences. Zero problems with my Macs…zip….nada. With Windows it was a disaster every week.
Good talk, Kool-Aid. Good talk.
We could also generate more trauma surgeons if the Air Force would drop a JDAM per night on some random American city. It would also create more jobs in the undertaker community.
Beats me why so many people believe in a god unable to present himself, unwilling to answer pleas, and willing to condemn people to eternal suffering. But they do anyway, in the same way many buy a lottery ticket, dazzled by the millions of prize money while blind to its actual value, probability-wise. As for Windows, when you have older windows pcs and IT staff, change is very difficult.
Heh, Heh – yeah, the BSOD is the first thing I noticed. Very apt in the context of the article.
Re: Vista security – no one can “declare” any software secure. Security is demonstrated over time by the number of “in the wild” exploits that effect the platform. Vulnerabilities are not exploits. Lab “proof of concept” exploits that require keyboard access to the machine are more indications of software flaws than structural problems with platform security. In this regard OS X (and for that matter, Linux)is clearly superior to WinXP. For Vista, the clock will really start ticking when it is generally available to the public at the end of January.
To KoolAid:
The answer is easy, inertia. In physics this is described by F=MA, force is proportional to the mass times the rate of change (of speed, in this case). For a given mass, the faster you need change, the more force required.
In IT, the mass is the user base and supporting infrastructure. The change is technological change (OS, applications, networking) and the force is the business requirement that needs the change to occur (competitiveness, security, growth, etc.). The mass produces the resistance to change because it represents hardware and knowledge, both of which must be either replaced or expanded.
That is the long explaination why enterprises established on the Windows platform are likely to remain that way for some time. It is certainly possilbe that they could migrate to another platform, but the change would require years unless some extreme force was applied that would require the change.
I was at a cocktail party once-IT guy gloating about Mac obscurity. I pointed out that a local university, when switching to Mac, trimmed IT staff from 12 to 2.
Shut him right up.
Macaday, you took the words out of my mouth.
I think that Jobs quote is the REAL story.
Koolaid,
The simple answer is that Microsoft Certified IT guys make most of the computer purchasing and deployment decisions.
They are not about to buy something that would require them to retrain themselves, their computer users and their IT staff and eventually reduce the size of their power base, their kingdom. They cannot erode their indispensability.
The best part of the referenced article is the accompanying photo of the Blue Screen of Death on a Vista demo computer.
“The simple answer is that Microsoft Certified IT guys make most of the computer purchasing and deployment decisions.”
Wow, I didn’t realize they wielded such power to the point of world domination.
“The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it’s going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years… Eventually, Microsoft will crumble because of complacency, and maybe some new things will grow… – Steve Jobs, February 1996”
“That’s one heck of a prescient quote from Steve Jobs.. It’s very hard to overestimate the guy.”
How? Microsoft still dominates, Apple has less market share than when he made that quote, Vista has already sold more copies than all Macs in existence.
When exactly is this Microsoft “Crumbling” going to happen? Next week? The week after?
Prescient, “When exactly is this Microsoft “Crumbling” going to happen? Next week? The week after?” Exactly what I’d like to know, albeit froma different point of view I’ll bet.
Vista creates jobs
Jobs creates OS X
@Don’t pass the koolaid,
Why doesn’t big biz switch en masse?
Maybe:
1. Most PC people are REALLY ignorant of Macs, and most IT people (who businesses consult with before a platform change) are both ignorant and self serving?
2.PC users have been duped into thinking they have to stick with the evil that they know, rather then take a chance on something better?
3. PC users are just stupid?
“@Don’t pass the koolaid,
Why doesn’t big biz switch en masse?
Maybe:
1. Most PC people are REALLY ignorant of Macs, and most IT people (who businesses consult with before a platform change) are both ignorant and self serving?
2.PC users have been duped into thinking they have to stick with the evil that they know, rather then take a chance on something better?
3. PC users are just stupid?”
Wow, this is some powerful stupid arguments but I will take the time to refute. Do you really believe that if there was some obvious cost savings in using Macs over PCS that most CEOS, who are presumably fairly smart, would not have adopted this plan years ago? Also, spare me the ‘we-5-percent-are-smarter-than-the-rest-of-you-95- percent-because-we-use-Mac argument. It’s old and worn out.
I’ll grant you that Macs are better for multimedia stuff but most people who use computers aren’t artistic and want to mostly play games and surf the web with them.
DPP: Sure, go and blame Sir Isaac Newton who isn’t here to defend himself. How about this instead: Apple and it’s users have potrayed themselves so snobbishly/pretentiously/arrogantly to the point of turning off most people from ever wanting to switch.
@Don’t pass the koolaid,
You can’t surf the web with a Mac?
Makes me think that reason #3 is pretty true!
Poor little Don’t pass the koolaid sounds all mad and crabby.
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PC users – they’re just mad ‘cuz they wuz’ had!
Mr. Peabody,
That was one the most objective and realistic descriptions of Macs in the workplace I’ve read. We need more such discourse instead of MS Lemmings and Mac Cultists trying to bash each other’s heads in.
Thank you!
Donovan MACnabb,
I don’t know which is worse – everyone here thinking the Mac, with the same hardware components as PCs, are invincible or your enjoyment over the loss of a fellow humans job. Somehow I seriously doubt that particular IT department dropped from 12 to 2 because of Macs alone. I suspect it was another example of the ignorance of management and the faulty idea that IT is not a necessity. I also suspect you don’t know IT is not just about supporting Windows. Gasp – what insanity is this I speak?! Do yourself a favor and everyone in here and research what someone else does prior to showing your lack of understanding in a highly opinionated post.
Also, for the record, I am a proud Mac owner since 1994 (the dark ages) and have supported both Macs and PCs, Windows and Mac OS. I prefer Macs and wish they were more common in the workforce. The difference from most at MDN is that I don’t suffer from the misguided belief that they are bulletproof.
Big Al,
Most corporations purchase their equipment through Accounting – not IT.
Now what will be truly amazing is if this actually stays posted and MDN does not remove it like most neutral postings.
IT Guy – thanks for bringing a needed dose of sanity. Macs are better, but NOT bulletproof, and anyone pushing that chestnut is just setting future switchers up for disappointment.
My real question is: does anyone think it is possible for Apple to sue MS over the BLATANT rip-off of OSX that is Vista? I watched Poque’s tongue-in-cheek examination to the “differences” between the two, and I went from bemused to angry. This is ridiculous – in any other industry, there would already be a lawsuit. (For example, when the Fod Taurus ripped off Audi, the later lawyered up, and while I believe they settled OOC, the point was that you can’t just steal ideas without paying the price.) MS should pay Apple a hefty chunk of every Vista sale (just like they pay Universal a fee for every Zune sold, which at this writing has covered most of the monthly cost of coffee cups in the Universal employee lounge [just the lounge on the 5th floor, though, not the one on the 3rd or 7th]).
this is excellent info to copy and paste on pc and apple blogs, media sources, etc. have you done so? do you mind if i do it when the opportunity presents? my next computer also will be an apple – hence I agree.
——————————————————————————–
From: Peguero, Carlos [mailto:Carlos.Peguero@pfizer.com]
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 10:45 AM
To: Cris Macario; Jason Regalado; Regalado, Jhonasttan
Subject: RE: Mac vs. PC
As with any information- your best bet is to cross reference from a few sources and get an average idea of what the reality is.
So far, what I have surmised
vista is graphically, visually an improvement over XP
vista is mimicking OS X
vista is a power/memory demanding OS
vista like all MS products has significant security flaws that have yet to be addressed. And even though MS has promised almost immediate patches, it begs the question- why not ensure that there are no compromises?
One of the Best MS products ever
barely competing with OS X- Tiger
Apples OS X- Leopard set to debut this year will leap ahead of Tiger, and even further ahead of Vista
comparing costs of comparable machines- fully enabled vista machines will be within $100-200 of Apple machines running leopard.
Personally speaking I have gotten experience on both Apple and PC’s- troubleshooting both, working day to day with both and aside from fully syncing with my blackberry the PC really offers no comparison with apples. The only thing a PC has is a broader market.
Apples work out of the box, with no fluff, no bs or unnecessary “Free Trial” Apps that always seem to jack your system up.
PC people will all agree- the minute you get a PC the very first thing you do is WIPE OUT loaded OS and do a FRESH install of OS followed by apps you choose to load.
Regarding trouble shooting apples- the trouble shooting is from human error not hardware issue. The only hardware issue I encountered is when apple was 6 years old and could not handle OS X upgrade (please note old apple still worked and was passed on to family member for basic net connectivity) , so new apple needed to be purchased. Please pause and ponder, who here has a PC based system over 5 years old that still works??
Personally speaking I am done with the PC crashes, and virus threats I just want my damn equipment to work. No one would buy a car that was in the shop 6 months out of the year, so why buy a computer system built to crash?
No doubt I will keep a windows based machine handy (until I get Parallel software that allows WINDOWS XP OS to be loaded and run on apples at the same time as OS X without rebooting machine)
But as of now I’m saving my pennies for an apple. Life is too short to be stuck to spend a weekend (or two) fixing windows issues.