“Apple and Microsoft have shared various battles over many years, in an ongoing rift over the direction of computing, but this week has marked a switch in both of their war strategies,” Tom Warren writes for The Verge. “Microsoft is now going after Apple’s core customers, and the two are split over the role of touch and input interfaces for PCs.”
MacDailyNews Take: Wow, Medicocresoft is dropping Windows and licensing macOS? Oh, they’re not? Heh, then they’re not going to get any of “Apple’s core customers.” Anyone who claims otherwise doesn’t understand Mac users at all. It’s the software, stupid.
The fundamental differences and disagreements between the pair of tech giants can be tracked back to the hardware and software products they both produce. Apple separates its tablets and phones with the iOS operating system, and its range of Macs running macOS,” Warren writes. “Microsoft on the other hand believes in having one operating system, Windows 10, to rule them all and work across phones, PCs, tablets, and even devices like the Xbox One and HoloLens. The strategies are remarkably different.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s strategy is right and Microsoft’s is, as usual, wrong.
The competition is different…they are confused. “They chased after netbooks. Now they are trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs. Who knows what they will do next? I can’t answer that question, but… we have a very clear direction and very ambitious goals. We still believe deeply in this category and we are not slowing down on innovation. We have been really hard at work on the Mac and we have exciting new products. – Apple CEO Tim Cook, October 22, 2013
Unlike Microsoft, “Apple doesn’t believe in touchscreen Macs, but it did add a touchscreen of sorts to its MacBook Pro, just not where you’d expect to find one: the Touch Bar, an OLED touchscreen, replaces the function keys at the top of the keyboard. It includes Touch ID and is easily accessible, customizable, and has the relevant controls displayed dynamically in each app,” Warren writes. It’s tough to compare a laptop directly to a desktop, but it further highlights Apple’s resistance to touchscreens on Macs… The two tech giants are split by fundamental disagreements about the new methods to provide input to modern PCs.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple does touch right and, as usual, Microsoft does it wrong – as we’ve been saying for many years now:
As we wrote of the new Touch Bar during our live coverage yesterday, “This is the smart way to have Multi-Touch on your personal computer, as opposed to the stupidity of smearing fingers all over your Retina display.”
To us longtime Apple watchers, Cupertino seems to be saying, “Multi-Touch on the screen only when trackpads are not part of the device.” – MacDailyNews, November 19, 2008
Does it make more sense to be smearing your fingers around on your notebook’s screen or on a spacious trackpad that’s designed specifically and solely to be touched? Apple thinks things through more than other companies… The iPhone’s screen has to be touched; that’s all it has available. A MacBook’s screen does not have to be touched in order to offer Multi-Touch™. There is a better way: Apple’s way. — MacDailyNews, March 26, 2009
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Jony Ive explains why Apple ‘many, many years ago’ decided against adding touchscreens to the Mac – October 28, 2016
Amazon offers big savings on Apple’s all-new Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro models – October 28, 2016
IBT: Apple’s MacBook Pro Touch Bar is the coolest thing ever; will change the way we use laptops – October 28, 2016
Wired hands on with Apple’s New MacBook Pro: It’s a whole new kind of laptop – October 27, 2016
CNET on the new MacBook Pro: Apple’s amazing strip show reinvents the notebook – October 27, 2016
Hands on with Apple’s new MacBook Pro: Looks and feels so good it’s unreal – October 27, 2016
Apple debuts three new TV ads for all-new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – October 27, 2016
Apple unveils groundbreaking new MacBook Pro with revolutionary Touch Bar and huge Force Touch trackpad – October 27, 2016
