“Should Microsoft fear Apple’s Macintosh? Maybe not quaking-in-your-boots scared, mind you, but Redmond should certainly be concerned,” Scot Finnie writes for Computerworld.
“I’ll tell you why. Apple has gotten smarter about how it competes with Microsoft. Clearly the underdog, Apple has to make moves that can be seen as both supportive of the Windows marketplace and good for its Mac customers at the same time,” Finnie writes.
Finnie writes, “The switch to Intel was just such a chess move. Intel hardware makes it easier for Microsoft to create apps for the Mac. It solves a performance problem Apple had. It creates a better experience for Intel-Mac owners because it better supports Windows applications. The CPU architecture also puts Mac and Windows hardware on an easy-to-understand, level playing field. Perhaps most significantly, though, all these advantages appeal to potentially millions of Mac-curious Windows users because it makes the Mac more familiar.”
“For the first time in its 23-year history, the Mac is finally able to move fluidly into and out of the world of Microsoft Windows and its applications — both in the workplace and at home. Microsoft’s own Office suite plays a big role in that. Microsoft’s commitment to Office 2008 for the Mac lends additional support,” Finnie writes.
“OK, so full disclosure: I am a recent Mac convert. But before you chalk me up as an apple-eyed Mac fanboy, I’m not your average Windows-to-Mac switcher. No one knows better than me (well, maybe Microsoft’s accountants) how firm a grip on the computer industry Microsoft has. As a Windows reviewer since almost the beginning of Windows (my first tests were of Windows 2.11), I have no illusions about Microsoft’s market lock,” Finnie writes.
“If the Mac or any other desktop OS were to truly put a dent in Microsoft’s desktop market share, it would take 15 years for Windows to ‘die.’ And that’s assuming Microsoft stood still and did nothing. In other words, it ain’t gonna happen. I also don’t hate Microsoft. I’m not a fanatic. I’m just someone who recognizes a good thing when he sees it. I undertook a simple three-month trial of the Mac last autumn, with no intention of sticking around, and realized four months later that I wasn’t going back,” Finnie writes. “But here’s the kicker: I am very definitely not alone.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Excellent article, highly recommended, but, one quibble: things can change faster that Finnie seems to realize. Embrace and extinguish works exponentially.
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Yes they should
He’s right. I started a thread a while back on a different site and referred to a tipping point, when Apple sales would somehow just hit the right level and be qualitatively (and likely quantitatively) different.
I think the key is having certain trusted figures turn mac. I was that figure for several others. In business, it’ll be the higher-ups he mentions. People will follow, some blindly, some because if the boss has it, it’s tacit approval that they can do it too.
This year will be big. I’m so interested in Leopard to come out. I do think there are some important “secret features” that we’ll all complain about, but will help many others to pull the lever and get a mac.
Here’s to good times. Cheers.
While Apple and Macintosh users have proven that their success is not related to Microsoft… although it can be accelerated by their incompetence… Microsoft not supporting scripting in the Mac Office `08 will be a problem in the commercial environment. If I can’t take a document from a Windows version of office that contains macro’s and use it on my Mac, I will be limited in using my Macintosh for work purposes. I am sure that I am not alone.
Don’t fear the Reaper.
Performance problems? They have pills for that I think…Who says Apple had performance problems before switching to Intel? I admit that getting the G4 out of the laptops was really big news but as a video editor on a dual G5 I was very happy with my Mac performance. I sit next to a 3D Studio Max designer working on a Xeon Dell and I can tell you that I had no performance envy. It is true that my new Quad Xeon Mac Pro is a performance boost but I certainly never thought of the G5 as lacking performance…
What if Apple comes out with their own office suite that will cross-platform with MS Office. Is it possible – I don’t know but one can speculate. Imagine what impact that would have on converts.
Peterson had a performance problem once.
In 15 years from now, the majority (yes, >50%) of home computers will be Macs. Microsucks will still rule the roost in the business world, and I don’t think Steve Jobs will mind that.
I don’t even have to “switch” my remaining friends. They’re doing it on their own.
The G5 Rocks the House. What a great chip that was.
@ G-Spank:
I’ve switched from you to a better friend.
Indeed, the factor of change happens more rapidly than Scot understands.
When internal employees I know at certain high-tech companies Apple uses (and others as well), claim they see Apple owning 50% market share in 5-7 years, and they are not joking around, you’d better understand what is coming.
Two major factors will propel Apple into this type of giant.
1. iTunes: Some are finally understanding iTunes is a platform, and it will gain iTunes mobile soon enough. Microsoft has blown it with it’s “Home Media Server” where people get to manage another piece of HW with ever growing hard drive requirements, with Windows slapped on it… Who is into that beyond those kids in Redmond?… Apple has the model coming where you purchase or rent, and you can choose to download into iTunes or not. Apple keeps a nice record of what you own or are renting, and you can access it (via streaming) anywhere, any time. iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, computer. iTunes will allow Apple to become a monster in mobile and home entertainment, while M$ stumbles around with XBox 360 and Live whatever…
2. Mac OS X: The OS is the perfect rabbit hole. Once people start buying SW for a platform it is really tough to get them to move elsewhere. The Intel switch was phase one of the game. Phase two is Leopard and virtualization. Phase three will be about seamless application use of Windows or Mac – on a Mac – Parallels need not apply.
Apple’s goal here, along with the open source community is, ironically enough, to make the OS irrelevant. Buy software, any software, and it will just run, and isn’t that they way it should be? Of course, but Redmond won’t play this game – ever, and that is Apple’s endgame, and key advantage. While their OS will make the OS irrelevant, it will make OS X the must have OS to do so! Ironic isn’t it.
Redmond once thought this way, and figured it would be the end all to crushing all other platforms, but quickly pulled it from Longhorn, as every other platform would be sure to follow, and M$ would have made their OS irrelevant for running all that Win only SW…
The shoe is on the other foot, and Apple can only gain from doing this, while Redmond will only react to such a move as a last resort, and with the difficulty there is in doing such software, count on Redmond being 5 years late to the game, with a spat of softare issues ta boot.
I\’m coming for you, Cubert.
I think we’ll see some big changes at Apple in the next 5 years. With the release of Vista and Office, Apple has a wonderful opportunity to create an Office compatible package and start gunning for the corporate world. MS will lack the time to screw with their code and ruin the compatibility without being too obvious. These days are different. Sure most of us surf and e-mail more than we do anything else but more and more people hate MS to include the Euro-Union and anti-trusts in the US Gov. Apple needs to move because nobody’s excited about Vista and the software market will open world wide. I would hate to see another country produce another MS for Americans to throw their money to.
…that’s so true mdn. things can happen faster than you think.
….I remember once going to sleep on a Sunday night and then suddenly I was all grown up with my very own razor and shave cream.
At some point in the near future Microsoft will go to sleep on a Sunday night and wake up in a halfway house …a special home for the halfass …with bad hair and a v-neck sweater.
Through all the years instead showing OS X and all its brilliant (but still window-mouse based) features Apple did (among others) most important thing – brought to the market another type of interface – multitouch – it shuts the moutch.
Pisses me off that these newbie switchers say the pre-Intel performanace was a problem – they never tried it then and they don’t know that it was not a problem.
The only argument that stacks up was that the G5 never went into the Powerbooks…
Just look at the trailors on front Row – I only watched about 4, two of which had computers in the clips – both were MacBook Pro’s. The big handover to everyone that matters IS happening as we speak.
Companies rarely go down slowly unless they are obscured from the public eye and good only at ‘managing decline’. Public-eye companies such as MS now, Apple a decade ago and IBM two decades ago got into a ‘death spiral’ (ex-Intel CEO’s term). Company declines, confidence wanes, good people leave, they hire more bad people, spend on any project to try to regain market, down, down, down, faster and faster. Apple got down to only the 2% fanboys.
IBM and Apple pulled out of the spiral by redefining themselves. IBM in services rather than hardware, Apple as the computer for the internet-savy youth. MS is fixated on the enterprise, just like IBM was then, at the expense of the consumer. Apple is already in the back door and has a foot in the front door. Watch MS spend money on projects like there’s no tomorrow, because unless they can pull out of the spiral there will be no more tomorrow (except the few MS fanboys).
For one thing Microsoft doesn’t have that big of a grip on things. In fact I would say there grip is slipping quicker than ever. Zune a failure, Vista, a failure. Both have gotten chewed to pieces in the media and by the experts. Apple on the other hand is moving forward quickly with amazing new products that people love and use everyday. OSX,iLife,iTunes,iPods,iMacs and now the Apple TV and soon to be released iPhone.
Things can change faster – sure, remember Pan-American?
Microsoft doomed, yes I’ve been saying so for all of this millennium. My big problem, overestimating how quickly people will catch on.
Apple’s OpenDoc would have made applications OS agnostic back in the ’90s. Of course smaller, component based and potentially cross platform apps didn’t sit well with the Beast of Redmond. That was the promise of Java too.
When it came time for me to spend my hard earned money on a new computer and an OS I chose Apple and Mac. If the organization that I work for wants me to waste their time using an inefficient OS on a crap HP box then that’s their choice. At some point down the road (perhaps at the Vista upgrade decision)someone is going to say what the fcuk are we spending all this money and resources on this poop. Uncle Fester doesn’t get it – It is a white wired world!
IBM died really quickly. Microsoft can, too.
Remember CP/M? It was the industry “standard” in the early days of the computing industry, but was fatally wounded the minute the Apple ][ came out (although you could run it on the Apple ][ with the right card). The final nail came when IBM chose Bill Gates (and his port of CP/M) over CP/M-86. The rest is history.
I agree Windows isn’t going away any time soon, but with an average life-cycle of four years, the tide can be turned VERY quickly (especially when Apple is now fully backwards-compatible with Windows software).
…assuming Microsoft stood still and did nothing.
That’s exactly what Microsoft has been doing. Vista proves the point most persuasively.
The fact is, Apple’s proprietary lock-in system where the operating system is tied to one PC vendor will never fly in the enterprise and government agencies where the lowest hardware bidder that meets the specs gets the sale.
The other fact is that he who owns the server owns the desktop. Linux owns the web server market, Microsoft owns the enterprise server market. Unless Apple can make inroads in the enterprise server space, nothing will change and Macs will remain relegated to an obscure office in the dark corner of the basement where the graphics people work.