“Microsoft is losing consumer operating system market share to Apple for many reasons, but most of those reasons can be oversimplified thus: Mac OS is simple, and Windows is complicated,” Mike Elgan blogs for Digit.
“That’s why it may be such a costly error for Microsoft to make the Vista upgrade such a confusing mess,” Elgan writes.
Elgan writes, “Until today, even experts couldn’t tell you off the top of their heads the differences between each of the many Vista versions — or even how many versions there are — or what the basic requirements are for the Upgrade versions. Ordinary consumers are baffled to the point of paralysis.”
“Windows Vista launched with 10 — count ’em, 10 — versions. Instead of giving us a simple new upgrade path to the future, they instead gave us a homework assignment,” Elgan writes.
Elgan writes, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Don’t buy Vista yet. But if you really must, consider only two of the 10 versions: Nontechnical consumers should buy the full version of Windows Vista Home Premium, and power users should buy the full version of Windows Vista Ultimate.”
MacDailyNews Take: $399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac).
Elgan writes, “It’s obvious that Microsoft decided to extract maximum cash from consumers by micro-segmenting the market and trying to provide a different version for each. But they may end up with the opposite result. All this confusion over versions and upgrade policies will motivate unknown millions of consumers to simply stick with Windows XP or move to a Mac.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Macaday” for the heads up.]
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US market share: 5% and rising
Global market share: 2.5% and rising
They are both the enlightened, discerning ends of the market.
Love all you new Windows switchers…welcome to the fun club. No depressing stuff here, you just left all that behind!
As for quick Finder window opening, I use a wonderful free app called Quicksilver.. keystroke, and type the one or two letters of the app and enter to open. Very fast and very powerful, huge number and range of activities taken care of by keystrokes.. have fun.
Just a user but more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksilver_(software)
By the way, did they tell you when you bought your Mac, that you need to convert 10 Winodws users in 6 months
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The only people I see who wouldn’t want or need to switch to a Mac from XP would be the gamers who prefer to build their own custom gaming machines. Everyone else could switch to OS X. I think most gamers will be migrating to Vista since OS X does not cater well for gamers.
“Ha Ha! You have to choose from 10 different versions of an operating system!” – Nelson
“I’m so stupid, I’m so stupid, duh duh duh” – Homer Simpson, erm, Zune Tang, erm, Bill Gates…
MDN MW “cars” – as in “Bill, go play in the street with the cars…”
@ Windows switcher:
http://macosx.com/
Is one of the most complete help sites for things Mac, it even has a Switchers forum. Gook luck.
Toys,
Zune Tang isn’t a windows fanboy, he’s a satirist. Come on, didn’t the name give it away?
-jcr
I was interested to see how many other pages were the topic of “vista woes”.
Reckoned there might be a couple of thousand..
Results 1 – 50 of about 1,230,000 for vista woes. (0.16 seconds)
1.2 million!
Microsoft have got big problems. No wonder Ballmer rushed back to the ranch and Bill Gates was so nervous.
Didn’t “consumers” get pissed when Apple segmented their iPod sales? Now take that time 200, that’s what MS did….
Unix is the operating system technology of the future. Leopard will be certified Unix when it is released (it currently isn’t). That means OS X will be the most popular and sucessuful Unix operating system ever.
Microsoft’s days are numbered. They will continue to bleed market share until their share holders demand change. Microsoft will be broken up and Apple will take it’s place as the market leader in technology and software.
John C. Randolph
Your right on….
I’ve just read numerous posts from differents blogs with
the “toys” reference.
They can beat their chests about marketshare, (Apple actually measures itself against
Dell 14 % and HP 17 % in hardware sales no OS use) but I don’t understand the toy analogy.
OS X is closer to a enterprise OS (Apache, MySQL, JBOSS, Squirrelmail, Clam AV) then Windows.
The picture with the article is great. Does anybody else think Ballmer looks truly retarded?
Apologies to the mentally challenged.
I use my Macs for evryday tasks-web viewing,recording hdtv shows,video conversion,etc.
I occassionaly fire up my HP to play WoW with all the graphics bells&whistles; on. I also like to stay up to date on OS’s(which is why linux will be on it soon).
I got the oem version of Home Premium for $119. Some slight hiccups-no driver for my sound card(there is but vista didn’t install) and no clear reason why my hdtv tuner did not work(fixed).
Sorry to say it, but this is still beta software. Microsoft should have taken another year to get it almost right.
Windows Switcher: I haven’t got a clue if anyone has answered your question, but to open a Finder window from inside an app:
Cmd+Tab to Finder; Cmd+N for a new finder window.
From personal experience, the Mac has 50% market share among my friends and family. My point is that the often quoted market share figures include all comptuters, from ATMs to cash registers. I’d venture to guess that Mac’s home market share is closer to 20% than 6%, in the US anyway.
So newbies, be rest assured you are not alone..
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just click on the desktop and hit open command/apple n. no need to command tab or expose. just did it. easy peasy!
What about the Supercalifragalisticexpiolodociuos your a Utimate Super Duper Freekin Moron for falling for this BS Edition?
Another Switcher,
Welcome!
Hey guys made a forum: Happy for you to ask technical Question. Do know a bit about macs myself.
Any other Experienced sesioned Mac user can me moderators if they wish.
http://www.macsnacs.com
will allow admin access if need be.
I can answer allot of question. Can’t say where I work. LOL
Anyway have fun guys.
hey Anthony sounds great
“can’t say where I work”
just promise me you do not work in Redmond????????
hey Anthony, let us know when your site is up and running
@ Windows Switcher: You could try this one:
http://www.ragesw.com/products/explorer.html
Shareware $16
If you are looking for shareware the best Mac places are Versiontracker or Macupdate.
cheers
I would like to point out the the retail price for Windows Vista Ultimate (not upgrade) in Europe (at least here in Portugal) is 670 Euros or $866!
see: http://www.fnac.pt/pt/Catalog/Lists.aspx?m=1&cIndex=7&catalog=software&category=sistemasOperativos&scategory=sistemasOperativos&categoryN=software&scategoryN;=&minIndex=2&pageSize=8&orderBy=pd_stockDisponivelFnac&products;=&template=Template Software
It most certainly is better and cheaper to buy a Mac Mini than Vista.
Well, I’d like to thank the windows person for introducing Windows+E. It’ll save me some time.
I’ve had Windows on my desktop at work for 10 years or so. I never knew about Windows+E. This is a problem with windows, in that it has neat features that are non-discoverable. Unless someone shows it to you, it’s impossible to find.
On the Mac, it’s more likely that only very obscure things are non discoverable. Some are obscure/difficult to remember (like capturing the screen or active window, which is easier on a PC), but they are discoverable because they’re at least in the help.
The built-in help says: “To open Windows Explorer, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.”
I usually have windows explorer in a toolbar, along with my frequently used apps (a la dock).