“Despite claims a while back that some 200 million have downloaded Windows 10, it’s not as successful as Microsoft has hoped. Even though it’s a free download, at least till summer, the migration rate has slowed,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “One possible reason is that Windows 10 arrived somewhat feature incomplete with loads of bugs.”
“Microsoft has aimed its ads towards consumers, as if Windows 10 had some sort of lifestyle advantage over previous versions. But that’s not the company’s target audience. The real money comes from businesses who usually subscribe to packages of updates and support,” Steinberg writes. “Microsoft has posted a new set of TV ads featuring Jess and Kristie, better known as the ‘bug chicks.’ Yes, I’m serious.”
“So Microsoft wants to show how Windows 10 allows you to do more than a Mac with OS X. More what?” Steinberg writes. “Well, there’s Cortana, the digital assistant that’s similar in concept to Siri, which has yet to debut on Macs. But it might come with OS 10.12, due this fall. The other two “advantages” are Inking, which allows you to draw on a PC with a touchscreen, and the finger and facial recognition authentication feature known as Hello. All right, is this enough to persuade Mac users to go Windows? Does any of it make you more productive? Are they serious?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You don’t have a touchscreen on your Mac because it would be stupid.
Who wants a MacBook with their glorious Retina display streaked in fingerprints? If you ever touch our Mac displays, prepare to get your hand slapped. Hard.
MacBooks have Apple’s unrivaled large, glass trackpads for a reason. Desktop Mac users can easily add a Magic Trackpad, too. Draw on that with your fingers, not on your Retina display.
As usual, Microsoft and the Windows PC assemblers don’t get it.
As we wrote back in March 2013:
Apple introduced two-finger scrolling and panning trackpads, an early implementation of Multi-Touch™, on January 31, 2005. Apple introduced their first notebook with much expanded Multi-Touch™ capabilities on January 15, 2008.
Now, does it make more sense to be smearing your fingers around on your notebook’s screen or on a spacious trackpad (built-in or on your desk) that’s designed specifically and solely to be touched? Apple thinks things through much more than do other companies. The iPhone’s and iPad’s screens have to be touched; that’s all they have available. A MacBook’s screen doesn’t not have to be touched in order to offer Multi-Touch. There is a better way: Apple’s way. And, no Gorilla Arm, either.
The only computers using Multi-Touch properly, using device-appropriate Multi-Touch input areas, are Macintosh personal computers from Apple that run OS X (and Linux and can even slum it with Windows, if need be) and iOS “even more personal computers” (EMPCs), namely: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iPad mini.
Note that none of this bars a “MacPad” from production. Any iOS-based iPad would become a high quality display (possibly still “touchable,” but likely not due to the reasoning stated above) when docked into a “MacBook” (running OS X, and providing keyboard, trackpad, processor, etcetera). Such a convertible device would negate having to carry both an iPad (car) and a MacBook (truck) around. They’d be one thing, but able to be separated into two, each providing the best capabilities of their respective form factors.
SEE ALSO:
How to unlock your Mac using your iPhone’s or iPad’s Touch ID – May 18, 2015
Why don’t Apple notebooks have touchscreens? – March 4, 2013
Steve Jobs was absolutely right. The computers are for the heavy lifting. I am utterly amazed of what i am capable of doing on my iPad. Never thought i would be shooting, editing and composing videos with my iphone and iPad. But itnis happening. Of course, not hollywood stuff, but videos for the clubs to which i belong. Even green screen effects and animated inserts.
I had the chance to see the iPad pro the other day and began salivating.
I still use the Mac for some productions, but have been amazed at the capability of my iPad Air.
The apps keep getting better and better.
What was Jobs right about? That portable touchscreen devices are more popular for casual media consumption?
The reality is that the performance gap between ultraportables/tablets and desktop workstations is not shrinking except in the Apple product lineup. Every year Apple improves its iOS hardware to keep up with the stiff competition, but Apple does the very minimum to improve its Mac hardware and software. It is downright embarrassing that Apple has fallen so far behind competing desktop workstations in performance.
OS X hasn’t improved for pros either, so Windows workstations are the de facto trucks that keep industry — and now creative shops as well — working.
I’ve watched my clients try to use these things and get confused by the interface and not know whether to use the keyboard or finger on the screen. bad UI
Bad, UI. Bad! Go sit in the corner.
Windows does more !!
* it displays ads on your desktop
* it sends millions of mails without you having to write them
* it encrypts your data without warning or key
…
And coming soon to Windows 10, VIP access for the FBI!
It’s just kind of sad. First of all, my laptop sits here, 99% of the time. Not really sure when I would ‘unlock’ the Mac. I guess it’s a cool business feature.
As for touching the screen, we’ve been through this, literally 10 years ago: touching the screen is a goofy interaction (yes, even on an iPad Pro). That’s why laptops have multitouch trackpads. If you want to illustrate something, your finger on the screen is probably the least useful method. Open Adobe Illustrator and grab the pen tool. Cheers.
Yea, windows is failing bad hey!
WORLD MARKET SHARE
Windows 7 – 52%
Windows 8 – 9.83%
Windows 10 – 12.82%
Windows XP – 11.24%
Windows Total market share 85%
———————————————–
MAC OSX from 10.4 up to 10.11 Total combined share 7.76%
If you believed anything on this site you would be led to believe that windows was shit and no one uses it. Mac has dropped 4% since same period last year. YEA! great OS. Iphone market share down to 11.3% Samsung 63.8%
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0
The fallacy there is that market share is an indicator of quality or “goodness”. It is not. At best, it’s an indicator of popularity (re: Kardashian), but in the case of mobile, it merely reflects the totality of all android-based devices, which includes really cheap feature phones and many other segments and devices which Apple doesn’t compete with.
Regardless, who cares about market share? Do you buy your phone based on market share? If everyone buys something because everyone else does, then who is evaluating the product on its merits? Do you cut your hair to be the same as that other guy’s because he’s cool?
Software developers direct their efforts based on market share.
That is why every iOS app has an equivalent Android version from the same developer.
That is why the Mac continues to suffer with a dearth of top notch software. Apple’s gutted its own Mac software, losing studios by the score (including a large chunk of our office) with its latest attempts at pro apps.
Developers of pro-level graphics software like Adobe port old versions of software designed for Windows, usually with missing features, then have the gall to charge a monthly fee for software that is updated less frequently than the Windows equivalent. Why? Because the market for Mac software is too small for them to care.
Gamers never bothered to put any GPU-intensive game on a Mac because Apple is so bad about supporting current graphics, let alone allowing the user to upgrade when new GPUs are released. Opportunity completely lost, Apple.
Then we get to scientific and engineering stuff. Practically none of the software can be run natively on a Mac. Ashlar-Vellum being a notable exception, albeit far out of the mainstream.
Sorry guys, if you work for a living, a Mac is simply not the clear value leader anymore. Apple needs to up their game and attract more software developers, which Cook isn’t doing because all he cares about is iOS, where it is easy to rake in huge profits by skimming 30% off of every 3rd party app sale. No sweat equity required.
Apple is getting fat dumb and happy and it is losing its way on the Mac platform. Short term profits that come primarily from selling Macs to switchers who defected during the Windows Vista and Windows 8 debacles are slowing down because, frankly, Windows 10 is required for some of the best pro software on the planet. Cook can ignore pros as long as he wants, but sales to amateurs are only going to take the company so far, and then the Mac will falter because 3rd party developers will not see any economic reason to create great software for it.
If you don’t believe me, then look at what happened to Next computers. Better technology inside and a better fundamental OS meant nothing. With high prices and inadequate developer base, Next failed in the market. With high Apple prices and an increasingly inadequate developer base, the Mac could also become just like the niche overpriced stereo that everyone agrees is superior but over time becomes unprofitable.
What does Apple need to do to regain the Mac mojo?
1) new hardware that is user friendly and user-upgradeable
2) OS XI with significantly improved file system and user interfaces
3) get more premier developers to make great software native for the Mac first and/or exclusively. Make the Mac App store much more friendly to the developer and user, take a smaller cut of sales, and provide incentives for developers to use it.
4) advertise
Or you can just keep cheerleading Cook’s staus quo, which involves selling a Mac Pro which is largely non-upgradeable and 3 years obsolete. And a Thunderbolt Display that is 5 years obsolete. And a sealed Mac Mini that costs too much and is less capable than the 2012 model. And a slew of overlapping ultraportable netbooks that are useless for anything but social networking, email, and webs surfing. If this is the Apple you want, then Cook is your man.
Very well said Mike.
A few Apple guys *may* be reading this page, but sadly it’s not likely your views will change anything.
Let’s be honest, like OS X, iOS development has crept along while M$ has been making strides. Apple is not fighting Monkey Boy any more, Mr. Nutella is bringing his A game and while I would personally rather stick pins in my eyes, serious business guys are wowed by W10.
Look at what Apple is touting for El Capitan:
Swipe gestures in Mail.
Extra capability of the Notes app.
Improved Mission Control.
That is about it.
*What A Joke.*
You’ll not get much love here, but you’re spot on.
Apple has lost its mojo, and soon M$ will turn the their ‘surface’ losses around, and with its own mobile halo effect we’ll see the screws tighten on Cook.
So why are you here?
If Window 10 IS better, go buy it and stop wasting our time and your own.
If Windows 10 IS NOT better, then stop whining.
John, Cook’s focus on consumer luxury — that is, fashion over function, may prove to be costly as many of us are running great Mac hardware that has no equivalent or competitive replacement today. Pro users need great value and cannot justify thin Air models or cylindrical Mac Pros, especially if the best software isn’t Mac native. Mike is absolutely correct on that point.
I already do run Windows 10 on a 27″ iMac via Parallels, because I have to for my work. But I really want to have a mini tower with internal expansion. I don’t like having a nest of cables dangling off the back of the iMac, and I need more drives for managing our different projects.
I would very much like it if Apple made Windows obsolete, but they haven’t done so. Far from it. While Microsoft floundered around forcing users into a one-size-fits-all version of Windows for touchscreen and desktop PCs, Apple did nothing to take advantage of the churn. They added iOS crap into OS X. But now the churn has died down and Windows 10 is tolerable, Windows 7 probably the best for us non-touchscreen people. Meanwhile OSX and practically every Mac in the lineup is old and overpriced. Small businesses can’t justify the cost of a Mac, and iOS isn’t adequate to do what they need, not even close.
As a shareholder it seems Cook’s short term gains focusing on iOS have stalled. Wall Street thinks so anyway. As an iOS user, maybe everyone is happy except people who like 4″ phones, because the ecosystem is strong. But Mac users have been ignored for so long that yes, many are jumping ship. I think Apple needs to focus much more attention on the Mac or more pro users will leave the fold.
“John Smith”: Bite my bum.
Mac user here since the early 1990s.
In an open forum I can say whatever the blankety blank I like.
In summary:
OS X should be much better.
Spending a freaking YEAR to add links and checklists to Notes is a stinking joke.
M$ is gaining ground at an alarming rate.
W10 is actually not a steaming pile.
The tide is already turning.
Pro users have less and less reason to go Mac.
Cook is oblivious.
Clear now?
You think that everyone here on MDN should be prostrate at Cook’s feet? Think again.
Have a nice day.
Bite my bum, too, John Smith. That old ‘then get for this forum’ crap betrays blind loyalty and the lack of independent, critical thinking. You know, like you learn in college?
We’re not interested in your spin-doctoring Mike.
Apple is just a company that makes hardware and software products. If you don’t like them, go away, buy stuff you like, and have a good life.
Stupid troll! Still singing the marketshare mantra? How about:
– iPhone has the vast majority of mobile profits
– Mac is dramatically out-performing ALL other computers… and has most of the industry’s profits.
– Apple’s market valuation is vastly more than Microsoft’s.
Stupid fanboy not realizing the profits that Apple is losing because it’s not keeping its Mac competitive with the rest of the industry.
Of course, you wouldn’t know how well the competition is doing because much of the Mac competition is private or foreign-owned. But that doesn’t stop you from spouting your ignorant fanboy worship, does it?
Performance matters, and the Mac is faltering due to lack of Apple leadership. The number of people buying low-end Mac laptops may be high, but high end computing world is dramatically swinging away from Apple.
What “high-end computing world”? The tiny number of people who want a super high-end customized gaming computer that could run NORAD?
The Windows PC industry is going off a cliff. Apple is the only computer company showing positive.
The iPhone takes, what is it, 95% of ALL mobile profits? Or is it more?
And Apple is the largest company on the planet by market capitalization.
“much of the Mac competition is private or foreign-owned”
Who?
Do you think we don’t know Samsung’s real profits on their phones, and so on?
High end: workstations, servers, gaming machines. Computers that cost significantly more than Apple’s flagship machines. For example, the HP servers that Apple bought to run its own iCloud.
Windows PC off a cliff: PC sales — including Macs — are relatively soft right now, since China and Europe and much of South America is in economic turbulence. But the USA market is growing and, yes, companies are investing while they have strong cash balances. Except Mac sales are also flat.
Mobile profits come from Apple taking a 30% cut of app sales. Good for Apple, but it is not matched by a strong Mac business ever since Cook took over.
If you don’t care about market share, then you should care even less about market capitalization.
Dell is private. Lenovo is Chinese. Samsung is Korean. Each have significant profits made and held overseas, not reported to US investors. Do I need to do all your homework for you?
Samsung is a key supplier to Apple. No matter how much they may win or lose making knockoff stuff with a Google OS, they know that Cook will keep buying their components. Why? Because Cook’s weak leadership is too short sighted to bring production in house with a vertical manufacturing business model.
Spoken like a true windows zealot…
Except that he’s not a windows zealot and not wrong.
Movies are all produced end to end on PCs, gamers laugh at us with our integrated graphics and soldered on RAM.
I love FCPX but all but one of my creative pro buddies has moved to Adobe, and many have bought PCs as they run faster and cost less.
wrong
Profit stands for opposite of quality.
That’s the reason Apple makes 94% of profits in the smartphone market share while having less than 12% global market share!
It basically means that when you buy an iPhone, you get screwed!
Apple is low quality hardware at extremely high price and that’s why they make the insane profit they make.
IOW, Apple offers the lowest value proposition in the smartphone industry.
Now do you get it?
Yehhh, sure. That’s why all other companies copy the iPhone and customer satisfaction surveys consistently have the iPhone at #1.
Why do you bother coming here and spouting this gibberish?
Gibberish????!!!!???
It’s high school math and economics 101!
Seriously, are you a pre-school student?
Oh, fuck off. Spouting pablum such as “Profit stands for opposite of quality.” is NOT economics 101.
“It basically means that when you buy an iPhone, you get screwed!”
“Apple offers the lowest value proposition in the smartphone industry.”
Customer satisfaction surveys disagree with you, over – and over – and over.
“Apple is low quality hardware at extremely high price…”
For this statement and those immediately above, why are you here?
Just go away, buy those products you think are better and get a life.
What kind of mental disorder would lead you to come here to talk about products you think are no good? Pathetic.
You resort to ad hominem Sean, you lose the debate regardless of the merit of your argument.
Grow up.
@hilarious:
I think you meant to say that oversized profits are an indicator of poor value to the consumer.
That is to say, Apple may still produce good quality on most things, but their prices — especially on RAM and cable adapters — sometimes are obscene. At some point, customers take their money elsewhere. I fear that has already started to happen again on the Mac, because Apple leaders aren’t keeping the platform competitive.
It’s almost as sad as fanboy Sean attacking the Mac users here who wisely point out that Apple needs to up their game. Why is that message so offending to Sean?
MDN tends to care more about profit share than sales, but it is interesting that 3rd party Mac applications really haven’t improved or progressed much. Much of the best software is still available only on Windows. That’s why many of the people I know are forced to use Parallels or VMWare or Crossover.
“Forced”? Yeh, suuuurrrre they are.
What is this oh-so-important “best” software that all these people need Parallels etc. for?
Some Cad software, Navis Manage, and specialize Calc software, by the way anything made by Autodesk (Autocad) on the Mac sucks. sImilar to using Microsoft or Adobe software.
I am VERY sure Apple’s goal is not to have every single program be better on the Mac than on Windows. What a ridiculous standard to told Apple to… “some programs are better on Windows”. So some are better over there. Big deal.
It’s JUST a computer and it’s JUST a program. Why so much whining and hatred? If that’s a better environment for you, off you go.
We are not whining and there is no hatred except the scorn that people like Sean spew when people like me who use both Mac and Windows everyday make the obvious point that Apple is no longer the value leader. There was a day when Apple was, and we are very sad to see the bureaucracy at Apple build to the point where Macs aren’t updated in a timely manner, and OS X just continues to get uglier and buggier.
Some coal miners appreciate the warnings of the canaries. I guess some fanboys just can’t be bothered to listen to the advice of people who have been disappointed in the direction Cook has taken the Mac.
I doubt a month has gone buy since Steve came back without us reading, “Apple is so screwing up ————- (fill in the blank). So Apple is going pathetically downhill and is doomed.”
I think the present round is just more of the same.
You can selectively read whatever you want to, but I see that Apple is putting much of its resources into iOS, iCloud, and subscription services for consumers, as well as fashion accessories that promise to shave seconds off of reading distracting messages. The Mac, in comparison, has really got no significant improvements to make it clearly better than a Windows machine for a lot of pros out there. They want a machine that takes hours off of hardcore computing work.
So why are you surprised when Mac users grumble? Cook hasn’t delivered any innovation on the Mac that didn’t come straight from Intel. More sealed boxes with no room to customize anything.
IMHO Snow Leopard was the best OSX ever was too. Since then I have seen no improvements for pros at all. Just more bugs, more crap added to the OS that should be independent programs. Default programs iLife and iWork have been clusterfucks since 2009. And to top it all off, Apple spends 100:1 on iPhone versus Mac advertising, which just proves they don’t really care about it.
In full disclosure, I use MS Office for the Mac, because I find it better than Apple’s iWork by every measure. And yes, I am also one who has to use Fusion to run some Windows programs, which work just fine.
Even with the horrid Windows versions MS usually releases, they’re successful by innovating just enough to keep its professional users locked into the Windows platform.
Me, I’m waiting for a new desktop Mac that allows for a few hot swappable drives that I can hook up to a pair of 4K monitors. Neither the Mac mini nor the trashcan Mac Pro are up to the job. Is anyone listening at Apple?
All you’ve done is prove that MS’s share is of legacy equipment. Between Windows XP and Windows 8 (which are how old) is about 75% of older PC equipment still being used on the market which people, companies and government agency’s can’t afford to upgrade.
Let us really compare MS’s “share” vs Apples market share and add iPhones and iPads into the mix. Add in all of MS’s phones and their slates/tablets into MS’s numbers and then lets compare “market share”.
You can say what you want but iPhone and iPads are computers, period. Just as much as MS’s phone and slates are. Sure, people still have Mac and Windows desktop computers but from what I see they sit in the corner until needed or to perform a specific task while the majority of peoples tasks are done on mobile devices.
Don’t believe me, look at the web analytics and it will prove my point. You can continue to stick your head in the sand and believe that desktop is the bench mark but if you “pull your head out”, you’ll see Mobile is the dominate platform and who rules the Mobile world…..???? Apple does.
“which people, companies and government agency’s can’t afford to upgrade.”
I’d suggest that some is ‘can’t afford’, but a lot is ‘don’t need to’?
Ever gone into a small or large business and examined what most people are doing most of the time on their computers? I have.
Most of it is VERY basic… the sort of tasks that computers have been doing for many, many years — and that new computers don’t really speed up. E.g. beginner word processing, email, inputting or retrieving simple information from a central database.
Agreed, can’t afford or don’t need too. And yes, they do basic things with them and that is why there is so many “legacy” PC’s out there.
I can say personally that many small towns don’t have budget for new PC’s and even when they do get budget, it’s all about “cheapest”. Plus, their are filled with Windows IT goof’s that couldn’t get jobs anywhere else, let alone even know how to turn on a Mac.
My point is/was Hive pointed out market share based on OS. That shows “legacy” numbers based on web data. So, if he/she want’s to use web data to measure than iOS devices should be included because MS tablets are.
Time to bring back the PC vs Apple guys.
My first ad would go like this….
Apple guy walks up to PC guy who is doing a workout for triceps…..
Apple Guy: Hey PC what are doing?
PC Guy: Just building my triceps for the touch screen on my new Windows laptop.
Apple Guy: I think….ahh… biceps might be more appropriate.
PC Guy: Er…..oh…yeah I knew that!
Fade to white……with a picture of Apples trackpad.
Over 200 million downloads. I guarantee 199,999,999 of those were forced on users without their knowledge of how to stop it.
Steinberg is wrong. Not a Windows user (mostly because of indifference). But, the Windows 10 Rollout has been a success.
Those that live in glass houses should not throw stones. I love my mac, but Mac OS X has some serious issues that have developed over the last several years that have not been addressed. Something as simple as copy and paste should work flawlessly. It no longer does which is seriously degrading my productivity. This needs to be fixed ASAP.
I’ll add the coverflow viewing option in finder when attaching files to emails or uploading them online which was inexplicably removed in El Capitan, ridiculous.
I’m not very fond of the new folder expansion setup myself. Reminiscent of having to hit the Shift key along with Command+N to create a new folder. Damned annoying. And to make matters worse, the folders no longer expand to just expose the items within it.
Had to use the touchscreen on a PC because the trackpad was so bad.