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Vavoom!

way to go apple

Just guessing- but another chair flies in Ballmer's office?

MW: hit

Apr 11, 08 - 08:58 am Comment from: HotinPlaya

The WOW has started

Apr 11, 08 - 09:01 am Comment from: ron

Isn't it AT&T;'s edge? Just kiddin'.

What you say may be true for professionals and power users, but I haven't seen much of such emerging awareness among people who equate the blue "E" icon with "the Internet".

It does looks like the I'm a Mac/I'm a PC ads are doing something, but not to the big masses hinted at above.

It is only when the IT-whiz nephews who "fix" those peoples' computers will loosen their grip and won't feel the need to discourage switching ("out of fear for the unknown and for the lack of (unneeded) IT support in the future"), that the herds will start to switch.

Can't wait to read the Windoze FanBoys emails again on this one ... Will they ever understand? Probably beyong them, as per usual ...

watch the replies ... the "beyong" was done on purpose ...

Umm...OK...so the "beyong" was done on purpose.

And....

On a serious note; glad to see that the news is spreading with the help of some of the more respected magazines.

Apr 11, 08 - 09:20 am Comment from: Chair Dodger

@guessing-

Ya got that right! Monkey Boy's aim is getting worse, thankfully.

Apple is way past "the tipping point". People who had no clue what was happening at the time will look back and pontificate on the "inevitability" of the Mac emergence.

But what is amazing me is the synergy being created by the Mac/iPod/iPhone triumvirate. Molly Wood of Buzz Out loud scoffed at the hype created by the iPhone SDK. But she just doesn't get it. 1) The iPhone has created a brand new platform. In 5-10 years many people will be using a portable phone/computer as their only computer. 2) The iPhone will break down the huge barrier between Apple and Business. 3) The App store will revolutionize the way software is purchased. The ubiquitous, frictionless and intuitive distribution method will simultaneously lead to a massive surge in profits for developers and a ten fold increase in the number of software applications that consumers will be will to purchase. 4) The development of iPhone software will lead to an explosion of Mac software.

We ain't seen nothing yet. The expansion of Apple is just beginning.

@Falkirk,

I completely agree. Apple has been able to convince my Windows-only father-in-law to consider getting a Mac this go-round, after spending the last 20 years telling us about the supposed advantages of MS and Windows and how Macs are what "Liberals use," as if comedian Rush Limbaugh (apologies to Keith Olbermann) and Walker Bush are to the left of Generalisimo Francisco Franco.

Apple has been working their grand plan since Steve returned, and now it has everything in place to go after MS full bore.

Apr 11, 08 - 09:33 am Comment from: Mr. Peabody

I want to believe...

Apr 11, 08 - 09:34 am Comment from: HotinPlaya

@Falkirk
") The App store will revolutionize the way software is purchased. The ubiquitous, frictionless and intuitive distribution method will simultaneously lead to a massive surge in profits for developers and a ten fold increase in the number of software applications that consumers will be will to purchase."

I hope to see this expand to all mac software!, would be great to see software organized by type, now you have to google, do not really know about it, with iTunes it would be vetted, could compare similar offerings, read comments, and purchase using your iTunes account, (hate giving my CC info all over)

What!?

microsoft builds bloatware???

nevAr!!1

If the Apple haters are so blinded that they have not figured out yet that Apple is a force in the tech world (iMac/Macs, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, etc...), they never will. Let them keep their loser heads in the sand or up their butts, either way, Apple is here to stay and there are no amount of words or lies that will change that.

Apr 11, 08 - 09:35 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

vanfruniken…

As one of those "IT nephews" you speak, I'm of the Macintosh variety.

I used to irritate everyone in the family with Mac this, Mac that. At one point My sister forbade me to mention Macs in her house! She was a Windows developer. ;^)

So, I STFU. BUT, armed with my Nikon CoolPix and PowerBook, became the unofficially official family photographer. I just did my Mac thing and when asked would Mac-out. I take photos, do a little Photoshop, have slide shows by plugging the PB into a TV.

Pretty soon people started switching. The first was my uncle, who had an IBM PC, but was afraid to use it and had a "real IT guy" keep it running for him. He finally asked me to make a list of what to buy and bought a Titanium PowerBook. He was extremely happy with it and was thrilled every time he was able to do new things with it… CoolPix, Airport network, even an iPod.

It's been like Viet Nam domino effect. One by one they switched… Aunt, cousins, brother (a WIndows software developer). My sister is the last. Waiting for that loathsome Dell to die. She's even got a list of what Mac gear to buy.

I see apple in 3-5 years having the perfect multi-platform ecosystem with a computer at home, a laptop and an iphone with syncing of everything. Add apple tv and music at home and I'll have the perfect set-up! Apple should buy sonos and integrate it with iTunes though.

Apr 11, 08 - 09:43 am Comment from: dd

I have a friend is an IT director. Just 5-6 years ago, he was trash talking Mac. Now he refers to it as a viable platform that nobody should talk bad about. Amazing. Nothing has really changed other than perception. Eventually, IT guys must admit it and make the change or sell extra fries with their Dells.

Apr 11, 08 - 10:06 am Comment from: Buster

I was a person who said Mac this and Mac that....BUT I backed it up with showing its capabilities vs just empty rhetoric.

Today, I know a number of hard-core PC users both Power and average users have a Mac or are in the process of getting one.

They do sell themselves however, it works better when important magazines point out that the old paradigm, Mac vs PC is dead. It is not Mac+windows+Linux in a cool machine vs PC for roughly the same price.

Ya gotta be the kind of person who leaves pubic hairs on computer laptops not to understand the obvious advantages.

Apr 11, 08 - 10:09 am Comment from: Ampar

First edit of the BusinessWeek article:

"Steve Ballmer This bloating has saddled Vista users with increased costs and poor performance..."

Apr 11, 08 - 10:16 am Comment from: DLMeyer

A couple of things ...
a) vanf..., what are you muttering about? One of my wife's fellow playwrights switched a couple years back and another is talking about switching right now. Nearly ALL the progress has been among the folks who don't want to know how to be sure their anti-malware is doing its job.
b) "It all started with Mac OS X, the multi-core, multi-processor platform" and "By contrast, Microsoft has held on to an OS tethered to the 1980s" ... OSX does NOT require multi-processors, or even multi-cores, though it deals with them each just fine. And, FWIW, Unix (the basis for OSX) is rooted in ... the 70s? OK, maybe the 80's. WinNT was based on the work of the gent who designed VMS at DEC, an OS dating back to the early 80s and "mini-computers".
Yeah ... I'm older than dirt. What's your point? Senility will get us all, in the end. Some of us much 'earlier' than others.

@Mr. Reeee
Funny that you mention this, in the pre-MacOSX days I also ran around "helping" people upgrade or "better install" their systems, adding a utility here and there, such as file translation software, etc, which Apple seemed to provide on and off.... In retrospect, I may have created undue and unhealthy dependencies. More often than not, Mac users can maintain their systems themselves, while the Windows world relies on "IT nephews" for home Winboxes and hordes of self-serving IT staff for business Winboxes.

However, even if such help may have been needed in the past, I feel that MacOSX comes with all the bells and whistles that the average user ever needs, plus, finally well maintained pointers at Apple's Software Download site.

Apr 11, 08 - 10:55 am Comment from: Cubert

Holy crap! I'm not dreaming. Now, we just need to get other mainstream publications to publish the truth, too.

Apr 11, 08 - 10:56 am Comment from: Cubert

Everyone, 1, 2, 3......NORM!!!

@DLMeyer

I grew up at DEC and when I saw NT for the first time, I was disappointed that I did not see any VMS influence. Whatever influence there was, it was hidden from the user. I was looking for the same print, file, and batch queue management that you had with VMS. I have yet to see it today on any OS.

"So, the battle ahead seems clear: It's Apple's seamlessly integrated software strategy, minimally sized and maximally efficient, competing against Microsoft's strategy of multiple incompatible, bloated, and fragmented operating systems. It's Apple's growing customer acceptance vs. Microsoft's rising customer pain. By failing to modernize its operating system in a timely way, Microsoft has left its flank wide open for an all-out assault from a once-vanquished rival."

This paragraph from the article says it all. Nice summary.

Apr 11, 08 - 11:07 am Comment from: Cubert

@DLMeyer,
I think the article meant to say that OS X has been multi-processor aware since the beginning. Dating back to NEXTstep even???

Apr 11, 08 - 11:09 am Comment from: Jubei

If not for that slap in the wrist and continue to monopolize the business market approval, MS would be in deep Zune Doo Doo by now. So many companies would benefit with Mac... too bad they are locked in and can't get out.

Apr 11, 08 - 11:15 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

Switch to a PC for corporate email? Hmmm.. don't see the point of that. Other than being a little garish to look at at first, Entourage 2008 is pretty nice. After spending a few days with it, the over-designed icons get easier on the eyes.

Apr 11, 08 - 11:18 am Comment from: Buster

@C1....except Entourage 2008 no longer has the convenient 'enlarge text' buttons in the toolbar anymore. That was stupid to take out.

Apr 11, 08 - 11:29 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

"It all started with Mac OS X, the multi-core, multi-processor platform officially released in 2001... The modular new OS allowed Apple to condense its core task management function into a tiny computing kernel [which] has proved easily adaptable across the entire Apple product line, from highly complex servers all the way down to the relatively simple iPod Touch. Such modularity allows Apple to add whatever functions are necessary for each product environment—all while maintaining cross-product compatibility."

Like I said... This is why Apple will win. And it's why Windows will be hobbled until MS rewrites an OS from ground up and moves legacy compatibility to a virtualized layer, just like Classic. Windows will NEVER get better until this happens.

With the news today that Windows 7 will be out 'sometime next year', I doubt this is in the cards for a long, long time.

Apr 11, 08 - 11:31 am Comment from: HolyMackerel

And once VMWare and Parallels work out how to run a graphics hardware-accelerated session inside a Space then even Bootcamp will become redundant.

Apr 11, 08 - 11:34 am Comment from: ChrissyOne

@ Buster

Oh yeah... I hadn't noticed.

Okay, I take it back, total fail.

To increase the type size just type Command - + and for smaller press Command - Hyphen(-) Easier than clicking the menu bar.

Yay! I'll finally be able to dump this Windows support job and work on MacOS systems again.

Apr 11, 08 - 12:49 pm Comment from: Buster

@C1...I needed it because being over 40....ok..ok,..being over 50 (just barely) my eyes are getting worse. This explains all the typos when I post.

That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Apr 11, 08 - 12:50 pm Comment from: Buster

@Whatever....I already do that but I disagree...clicking on the button was far easier.

@ChrissyOne

Writing a new kernel ain't nuttin' but a sammich...
That can be done splickitty lick.

Compatibility layer? That'll take some time BUT, of course, the OS part of that is already done. Bloated, yes, but tons of that code is for maximum compatibility - if they were merely to try for minimum compatibility, well, that would speed things up considerably. Get finished in, I dunno, ten years or so?

Seriously, less than 2 years is doable. Whether they do it or not isn't moot - it's do or die time. The masses are no longer asleep at the bloated code-devouring wheel...

M$ will move to a Linux foundation, similar to Apple's move to UNIX. It might not happen with Windows 7, but it should after that. Linux will be used:

A] b/c it will be bad times at M$ when they will be forced to do this, and low/no overhead open source will look like the most cost effective option for their operating system's future,
B] following Apple's lead is one thing, but being too 'me-too' about it (by going UNIX, BSD or otherwise) will not be a ghost that they'll risk having haunt them forever,
C] by going Linux M$ will hope to scoop up the pre-existing geek following that already enthusiastically uses it, and thus will attempt a 'buy in' to the cult following that Apple has fueled itself with (through both boom & bust years), and which provides costless and effective word-of-mouth for their products.

But mainly they'll do it b/c what else can they do? Building a sophisticated OS from the kernel on up to the GUI is something they've shown little aptitude for, and someone in there will realize that for a project that important, they can't afford to screw it up. And of course the bean counters - who have a lot more influence in M$ now that Bill's leaving- will probably (and quite rightly) say 'Why do it all ourselves anyway, when there are so many 'pre-invented wheels' out there to choose from? Just stick to the UI and the virtualization layer for Old Windows, and get it out the door ASAP, before we lose any more market share.'

That's how I see this shaking out. The only question left that still classifies it as a crap shoot for me is, when will the decision makers within M$ realize that this is their best option? How long will the die-hards fight the future, continuing to insist on trying to fix the unfixable, or on keeping the whole reconstruction project an 'M$ Only' affair, and how effective will they be in that fight? Idiocy is like gravity - sometimes it's ability to pull something down, or alter it's trajectory, is irresistible. On that one, only time will tell.

@Odyssey67: A well thought out post. But think about the length of time you're talking about. Let's say that Microsoft stops being Microsoft, does everything you say and does it right. The system they create will have to be an order of magnitude BETTER than whatever Apple's most recent OS incarnation is. Why? Because people will have to move either from Windows or OS X either way. And they are not going to learn a new operating system unless it is BETTER than what the competition offers.

I know it sounds completely nutty to say this a company than nets about 250 Billion a quarter, but I think Microsoft is in a deep, deep hole.

Apr 11, 08 - 07:47 pm Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

In the dark days of the late 90's, who would have ever guessed that they would read this article in Business Week.

As I keep saying: the tsunami is coming. It keeps getting closer to shore. When it hits, the Windows village will be left in shambles--replaced by Apple.

How sweet it is!

Apr 11, 08 - 08:11 pm Comment from: Olmecmystic

"It all started with OS X..."

I'll never forget seeing the Macworld 2000 OS X demo with Steve Jobs showing off what Apple had been working on for the new OS. I said then that "Damn, Apple's trying to take over!"

This was pre-iPod, pre-Intel, pre-Mac mini, pre-iPhone, pre-Apple retail, pre-everything. We're talking JUST THE OS. What I saw was the dock and Aqua alone providing the differentiation from Windoze that even the most hard-core M$ user would be able to see (remember Windows 2000, which was out back then?)

Up until OS X hit, the unwashed masses really thought that as of Windoze 95, M$ had "caught up" with the Mac OS. Now after Cheetah/Puma/Jaguar/Panther/Tiger/Intel Tiger/Leopard, even the mainstream press has to give it up: "Yo, M$ is in trouble vs. Apple."

It did indeed start with OS X, with Steve and the guys at Apple being brave enough to scrap all the legacy code and create from the ground up a brand new, shiny, mainstream OS for the 21st century. OS X is the FOUNDATION for it ALL.

Sweet vindication for us old-school diehard Mac-heads! We'll be seeing lots more stories like this in the next few years.

Peace.
Olmecmystic

Apr 11, 08 - 08:36 pm Comment from: Random Coolzip

The article is rather fact-challenged. "While Apple's "multi-touch" screen innovation made its debut with the iPhone, it appeared on the MacBook within 60 days." Huh? did I miss something? He means the iPod Touch, I assume...

@84 Mac Guy: I for one would have never predicted the Apple resurgence. There have already been business books re-written by the Apple story. A company was not supposed to be able to come back from such a fall. But Apple's appeal was deep, not broad. A core of fanatics kept the flame alive. Unlike the mass media, I am not insulting these customers and suggesting they are weak minded cult followers. What I mean is that Apple earns customers and inspires loyalty. The turn around could not have happened without the genius of Steve Jobs, but Jobs would never have gotten the chance to turn Apple around if he had not engendered an endearing base of customers in his first go around. It's an amazing story. And with Apple's continuing success, literally dozens of business books will try to explain the Apple resurgance and pretend that they knew it was going to happen all along.

fuck you alll,.........

Falkirk says:

"@Odyssey67: A well thought out post. But think about the length of time you're talking about."

I am. I'm thinking about a totally in-house project called Longhorn/Vista which tried the lipstick-on-a-pig approach, and which went from a 2-3 year development to deployment schedule to ... what was it, 5 years? Longer? I don't even remember anymore. Using the Linux kernel is not going to be any walk in the park, especially for M$, but the length of time for that kind of project vs one where they try to do it all themselves from scratch would not even be comparable, with their own history as a guide.

"Let's say that Microsoft stops being Microsoft, does everything you say and does it right. The system they create will have to be an order of magnitude BETTER than whatever Apple's most recent OS incarnation is. Why? Because people will have to move either from Windows or OS X either way. And they are not going to learn a new operating system unless it is BETTER than what the competition offers."

I don't disagree that this will be their stated goal, even if just for public consumption ('Tell em it'll be the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then we'll do what we can'), but again I use their own past as a guide; can they make it as good as you insist it must be on their own? Or will their chance of succeeding there be greater if they use an already proven foundation?

Apple asked themselves that same question in the late 90s and, even with their superior talent level, found using a UNIX base the surer way to go. M$ might ignore that lesson, but I think there are enough people over there more than willing to heed it, given how embarrassing Vista has been for them.

I'd also add that I'm not sure 'WindowsX' has to be completely and obviously superior to whatever version of OSX is out at that time. It would help, but the Office suite will still be there as a major revenue stream, and they seem more capable of keeping that competitive going forward. More important from M$'s perspective regarding the OS side, I think, would be to just get something out that doesn't suck, and then build on it from there. Again, OSX was not a home-run at the time it debuted - it became a winner through consistent improvement to a solid base. That strategy seems timeless to me.

"I know it sounds completely nutty to say this a company than nets about 250 Billion a quarter, but I think Microsoft is in a deep, deep hole."

Their signature product is an industry joke, and consumer spending is likely to take a nose dive for the next few years, so I'd agree on that things won't be rosy for them. But, as you mention, they make a lot of cash - on Office and on the habitual Windows users - for now, and probably will be able to maintain operations at a high enough level to pull something like an OS revamp off. If they don't make a radical change with Windows 7, and it indeed is a Vista-like turkey, it will hurt them badly on that side of their business but they can probably weather it. If what comes after that takes a similarly long time, and isn't based on something solid, I see them getting out of the OS business entirely.

Make no mistake - if I was advising M$ I'd insist that whatever has been planned for Windows 7 should be scrapped for an OSX-like project immediately (I see Linux as their best bet, but any of the Nix's would work for them). I say that they could probably weather it if they don't do that - 90% market share and ingrained attitudes will do that for you - but frankly I can foresee things going south for them much faster, worse case scenario.

For example, iPhone is a game changer in a way that not even the iPod was. If similar interface technologies migrated throughout the Mac line at a rapid (1-2 year) pace, that would make any misstep with Windows 7 fatal for M$'s future as an OS company IMO.

But hey - I figured one speculative post was enough