a stunting Vista
Good news for Mac users from a blog on IT-Director.com, which concludes that, based on first quarter sales figures in the US, Vista is not helping PC sales and is not hurting Apple Mac sales. I’ll quote a bit:
…The sale of Apple Macs grew by 30% in the quarter as they have in quarter after quarter for quite a while now. In other words Vista made no competitive dent whatsoever in the sale of Macs—and that (sic) very bad news for Microsoft.
We are witnessing a tipping point in the PC market. Apple now has 5% of the US market, which may seem small, but that 5% punches well above its weight because Apple focuses on the home market—that 5% is more like 15% of the people that actually choose their PCs (in the corporations you get what you are given) and at current rates of growth that 15% will be 30% in the US in about 2 years, unless Apple's momentum slows….
Apple's momentum has not been stopped at all by Vista, and this is ahead of the release of Apple's answer to Vista—the Leopard version of OS X. Let me just speculate a little on that. I think Apple put back the release of Leopard because it concluded that it didn't need to worry about Vista.
I couldn’t speculate on what Apple knows or plans or how long its momentum might last. I just know that my Windows-using friends groan whenever Vista is mentioned. I believe one called it “a giant steaming turd.” Another, forced to use Vista on his new laptop, said, “Everything I can do on Vista I can do on XP, only faster and with fewer annoying intrusions.” (I believe he was referring to the security alerts).
I also know how much I love my MacBook Pro, and that seems to be the way everybody who has one feels about theirs. Mac users are satisfied customers, by and large, and that says an awful lot.
Comments
I'm not the first person to say it, but Vista is the longest suicide note in history. I like to think I've done my small part in helping convince Dell they need to be offering XP as an option on home machines. But Vista is Microsoft's future, and it's a damn dim one.
I know Apple put out the word that Leopard was delayed due to work on iPhone, but I also wonder if they didn't decide it was wise to take the time and make it as stellar as possible. That way when the computer industry enters its big sales quarter, Oct.-Dec., buyers will have the choice of a year old and much abused Vista, or the sparkling new Leopard. It could be a big stake in Microsoft's annual sales.
Posted by: Reid | April 29, 2007 11:57 AM
Vista sucks. The security alerts are a pain in the ass and my mom gets all sorts of unexplained error messages.
But my MacBook is the sexiest computer I've ever owned.
Posted by: Andrea | April 29, 2007 12:07 PM
I have XP on my MacPro tower and Vista on my MacPro laptop, both on secondary boot drives. Admittedly, I've only been using them for a couple of months, and somewhat sporadically- but I'm a Vista fan at the moment. It's a beautiful OS in my opinion, and it 'feels' like a logical successor to XP.
For what it's worth, and with all due respect to them, my opinion is that typical PC users don't understand how to go deep into the Control Panel in order to turn off the annoying firewall options or make other similar adjustments.
I'd be interested to know whether users of the so-called 'advanced' or 'pro' versions of these operating systems felt the same dissatisfaction.
Posted by: Chris | April 29, 2007 05:49 PM
As someone who uses PC's and Macs, and who is obsessive about "going deep into the control panel" to tweak my environment, I feel like it's a lot more than that. The big turn-offs about Vista for me are:
[1] DRM crippling, hardware and software, that XP lacks. Why should Hollywood and the RIAA benefit from my OS in ways that I do not?
[2] That "beautiful OS" takes about twice the RAM and VRAM that XP does simply to render on the screen.
[3] No compelling new features, functionality, or benefits to productivity ... other than eye candy. After nearly seven years of development.
[4] Try comparing boot and reboot times. Vista loses, by a factor of two or three to one.
In my opinion, when it comes to "getting things done," Vista is simply pretty bloatware.
Posted by: Reid | April 29, 2007 09:50 PM
Hmm... must've hit a nerve.
I'm a Mac user first and foremost too, and grateful for the choice. I won't get all emotional about Windows here since this isn't my blog- but as much as Microsoft rips off most consumers with their proprietary bundled crap, Vista at least makes an effort to accomodate mobile users and their presentation media. On my machine at least, it's very fast to load and run.
And, since I've never met a Windows user who WASN'T pissed off about a new version, I'm yawning at all the rants.
Posted by: Chris | April 30, 2007 02:51 AM
Hey, Chris, I've been trying to email you all morning, but apparently your mailbox is full.
Posted by: pat | April 30, 2007 02:56 PM
thanks, pat- 1700 spam emails were clogging the server :-(
I'm sending you an email with another addy.
Posted by: Chris | April 30, 2007 09:21 PM