“Apple Inc.’s CFO yesterday said Windows Vista is no threat to Mac OS X 10.5 ‘Leopard’ and argued that the steep hardware requirements of Microsoft’s new operating system will give Leopard an opportunity to step in and grab more market share,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.
Keizer reports, “Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco, Peter Oppenheimer added that if history is any indicator, Apple would see a bump in revenue the quarter that Leopard — Apple’s name for Mac OS X 10.5 — is released. When asked to give a more specific ship date for Leopard, however, Oppenheimer declined, repeating only what Apple has said for months: ‘This spring.'”
Keizer reports, “As for how Leopard will stack up against Vista, Oppenheimer wasn’t shy: ‘We believe we have the superior OS on the market today, and [this] release will only extend that. With the features and functionally and stability and security of Mac OS X, I don’t really see Vista as a threat.'”
“Perhaps keying off one of the television ads currently in rotation, Oppenheimer took a shot at Vista’s hardware demands. ‘Since the hardware requirements for Vista require much of the installed base to buy a new PC, it gives [the] Mac an opportunity to be considered,’ he said,” Keizer reports.
Full article here.
Of course, Vista is no threat to Leopard. Or Tiger. Or Panther. Or Jaguar…
Related articles:
Computerworld: Apple’s Mac OS X an ideal platform for SMBs – March 01, 2007
Computerworld: Apple Macs are the most flexible, compatible computers on the planet – February 20, 2007
Computerworld: Windows expert dumps Windows, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X – February 08, 2007
Computerworld: Enterprise decision-makers should consider migrating to Mac OS X and Apple hardware – December 21, 2006
Computerworld: Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard’s ‘Time Machine’ is truly remarkable – October 05, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Computerworld columnist on Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger: ‘I was completely blown away, truly amazing!’ – May 20, 2005
I am the only Mac user in my IT department. I am exceptionally familiar with Vista. I can honestly say that I am absolutely unimpressed with Vista. I have yet to see anything (aside from iSCSI support, which is coming in Leopard) that Vista can do that I have not been doing for two years with Tiger.
Vista is great! For me to poop on!
Vista. A real threat to OS X, the beta version.
Hubris is blinding. Oppenheimer should take care.
Reading through the “Vista Sucks” comments, it seems the Windows crowd is getting the message without any prompting.
http://aspnetresources.com/blog/vista_sucks.aspx
How long does it take for a similarly-priced technology that nobody in their right mind could NOT see is leaps and bounds above the competition to actually trounce the competition?
The answer to that question is now referred to by the experts on this subject (so far limited to myself) as the planet’s Techno-Dysfunction Index (TDI).
The fact that we can’t even be sure that our TDI is a finite positive number is a sign of how truly screwed up human enterprise has become.
The message is clear on Vista… It sucks!
Visual Improvements Similar To Apple
That sums it up pretty well.
How can Vista be a threat? It’s a 5 year old operating system and Leopard is an enhancement to the worlds newest,safest, and best operating system OSX.
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No comparison.
New Word Bandit,
SteveJack explained the whole thing on this very site over three years ago:
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness
JanKo – that’s the best definition of VISTA I’ve seen.
Thanks!
Peace.
I visited Dymocks, a large Sydney book retailer which has a large IT technical department with loads of software and every IT reference text known to man…
Noticing a prominent stand with boxed versions of Vista close to the register I asked the sales clerk how Vista sales were going.
“One or two sales only” he said. “The stock you see is basically what we had from launch date. We have sold one or two manuals about Vista as well but for the most part I think people are over upgrades.”
I commented that I had heard bad reviews about Vista. “Well if you have heard them, so has everyone else.” was his response.
When Leopard is launched the comparisons to Vista will be unavoidable. And in the consumer space Apple already has a significant market share, somewhere between 15% and 20% if you consider the market is split 70/30 between business/consumer sales and most (maybe 80% ?) of Apple sales are in the consumer space.
It is possible that Apple may move to a majority share of new consumer business much faster than anyone thinks. People follow trends – and there is a lot of positive news about Apple.
I can see an Apple Mac as the computer everyone desires to have, even if they can’t really afford it.
>> I commented that I had heard bad reviews about Vista. “Well if you have heard them, so has everyone else.” was his response.
Sales drones mincing their words like politicians, instead of just lying flat out as they were taught to do. What’s the world coming to?
Vista isn’t even a threat to XP. And that’s sad.
I was on the Apple Store site before and look at the new <a herf=”http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nclm=BeyondVista”>”Which Mac are you?”</a> section. Or am I late to the party?
Let’s try this again:
I was on the Apple Store site before and take a look at the new”Which Mac are You?” page.
I for one have never seen it before.
Meh to HTML
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Well, the problem isn’t Vista or Micro$oft – they self-destruct at will. The real problem is the *huge* number of IT people, corporate and academic, who can’t see anything other than Windows. The “careless caveat” applies to them:
“Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by mere incompetence.”
That’s the real threat to OS X…
I was kind of hoping with the five year development time and all the rips of Apple innovations, Vista would actually be something competitive to at least Panther. Why? Well The Steve is a real competitor and so is his crew. Iron sharpens iron. Well, you know what I mean.
In the end, like Tommy Boy said, Vista is not even a threat to XP – ouch!
I GUARANTEE that I will be able to install Leopard on my 450 MHz. G4 Cube that I bought in Sept. 2000! I will also predict that it will run just fine (without core animation effects, of course) on it.
How many PC owners can say that about Vista?
Ahhh, how quickly we forget the
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The question is, is Leopard a threat to Vista?
At 3-5% of the marketplace Leopard is only a threat to itself.
(Heck….isn´t Linux gaining more marketshare (in the biz world anyway) than Apple?)
Apple just can´t figure out how to market its OS to the world.
cubert: “How many PC owners can say that about Vista?”
Nobody cares cubert. Why would anyone want to be running a computer with 450Mhz?
I can carry a load of computers in a my dad´s 1952 beat up pickup, but its still an old piece of crap pickup.
Don’t underestimate the stupidity of people and their numbers. Has worked for Micro$haft for decades.
Vertically In. says “…Why would anyone want to be running a computer with 450Mhz?”
The answer:
because a 450 MHz G4 Mac can be had very inexpensivley and do most people’s computing almost as fast as your multi-GHz Intel Mac. In otherwords, if getting the job done efficiently is what matters then the 450MHz Mac will do great.
However, if you have a big ego and have to have the shiniest, sportiest car on the block then better stick with the brand new multi-GHz Mac.
@Mac Sales Guy
“Apple just can´t figure out how to market its OS to the world.”
Firstly, Apple’s market share in the US is now 6% and they have displaced Toshiba to be number 4 just behing Gateway. At current rates of growth Apple will display Gateway to be number 3 within a little over 12 months.
Secondly, although you may mean well, your statement about Apple’s marketing capabilities is unsubstantiated. Firstly, Apple are a superb marketing organisation – just look at iPod. And with growth rates of 30.8% overall and 108% for notebooks year on year, Apple are certainly marketing their socks off.
To date Apple have chosen not to compete in the volume end of the PC market. Sensibly, in my opinion. Firstly there is no money in cheap boxes (both HP and Dell are rumoured to lose money on their cheapest boxes) and, secondly, corporate America is not yet ready to move away from Microsoft – for reasons of cost and application compatibility.
How much growth can Apple sustain? Perhaps a little more than 30% year on year – perhaps a lot more than 30% year on year. And how much market share does Apple have in consumerland? Around 15-20% by my reckoning.
Perhaps Apple is focused on consumerland. Perhaps they want to own that market within 2 years and then use that as a base to tackle corporate America.
Could be. And if this is what they are aiming to do, then there is every likelihood they will succeed.
There is no competition to Apple in consumerland, save Microsoft and (insert PC vendor here). And with Vista being crapped on by every reviewer and on every blog, you may as well say there is no competition for Apple in consumerland at all.
I think you will find Mac sales increase by more than 30.8% in 2007.
And I think their marketing department will be very pleased with what they achieve. And rightly so.
Vista
Is
Susceptible
To
Attack
Very Imitative Software! Try Again…
Valiantly Insisting Sales To Accelerate
Vainly Impugning Steve’s Terrific Announcements
Virtually Insuring Success To Apple