Apple to Begin Advertising Push Targeting Windows 7 Launch?

[gnasher729]

They would also have the same shock going from XP to OS X.

In my experience... A relative of mine was using Windows XP at work and at home. Only ever contact with MacOS X was sometimes using my MacBook, without any problems whatsoever (after I told her that the internet is called "Safari" and Microsoft Word is called "AppleWorks"). The cleverest thing is how the touch pad works without any explanation. Then she buys a new laptop with Vista on it. Next day I get a call "can you install Windows on my new computer?"

 

[silentnite]

They say patience is bitter but it's rewards are sweet. Hoping this proves true. I'm ready for my first Imac. This would be a good time for a refresh.

 

[djchuckc27]

all I hear is, gamers, business, enterprise, gamers, gamers...

let's talk musicians, directors, djs, bands, photographers, actors, producers, composers, film editors, graphic designers, web designers...

 

[LagunaSol]

Comical. People that do large spreadsheets, in offices, feel they need a "real powerful computer, because I crunch a lot of numbers". What BS. 99% of the PC's in business today are under utilized.

Therein lies Microsoft's real problem. Its cash cow, Office, is no longer the automatic upsell it once was. Why drop $200 a head on Office upgrades for your staff when they don't use 90% of the functionality of the current version? It just doesn't make any business sense. For anyone but Microsoft, that is. I don't think CIOs these days are the mindless Microsoft fanboys they once were and those checks are not going to be cut so readily.

And once the Office well runs dry, what is Microsoft going to make its money on? Bing? Zune? Xbox? Surface? Selling $50 OEM Windows licenses certainly won't cut it, but will only serve to stanch the bleeding from their crazy exploits in other markets.

I have both windows and mac computers. When I need to replace one I will buy another windows computer.

Until macs can play compressed video files properly I'm not buying another one.

I assume you mean, of course, pirated video files.

 

[liquidsuns]

I've been using the final version of Windows 7 for a few days now and, as a recently converted Mac user, I must say, it is very good. Some features do in fact make it more useable and enjoyable then OS X.

The taskbar is excellent. Aero peak (I believe it's called), where you can preview and manage open windows on the taskbar, is something OS X dock badly needs. Snap-to-fit is also great. I also really dig the way libraries are handled in Explorer; with all your pictures and videos right there, whereas with OS X if I go to my photo library, it's just icons of iPhoto and Aperture.

Another cool thing that I like to see, though it is totally irrelevant, are the backgrounds that come installed. Some of them are beautiful. The only other time I've used a preinstalled background was with Snow Leopard, and it only has one good background. Strangely, the screensavers are the same as ever.

Anyways, I'm just trying to give an unbiased, normal consumers view. I hated vista, and was loving os x, but now...it's up in the air. I like both Win 7 and OS X. Both have great things about them, but windows 7 blows away OS X in windows management now.

And you don't need to buy a whole bunch of software to use windows, in the way normal users would. You can immediately and easily can download a very out-of-the-way virus program and Windows Live Essentials is easy and simple to download for photos, videos and mail.

But heres the thing that keeps me wanting to use OS X; iLife, iWork and the included apps. And this is the most important thing. While both OSs work great and neither is really much better than the other, it's the apps that you really use and OS X has windows beat badly. iLife makes we WANT to organize and edit photos, Photo Gallery doesn't. iMovie makes me WANT to make little movies, Movie Maker doesn't. Mail is much more simple and easy to use (I'm not comparing Outlook here, cause most people wont use it). Contacts, calendars; all better done. The only thing program I kinda like more on Windows 7 is the zune software as opposed to iTunes and that's just cause it looks cool, it's totally unusable with my iPod, so it's irrelevant.

So that's how I, as a normal, everyday computer user, sees things. I don't do anything professional on my pc, I just use it for my enjoyment and the normal things people use it for; photos, videos, music, internet and email.
Both operating systems are now good. But OS X has better included (or in widows 7's case, free to download) applications.

The big question I am battling with as I get ready to buy a new laptop and have to make the decision of OS X or Windows 7, is the higher price of OS X laptops worth it now that windows is good? I say, yes, it is, because of iLife.

That is what os x has over windows 7 that makes me like macs more. iLife.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

"and then reinstalling all of their old programs, assuming they still have the CD"

How old is WinXP? 2001? I believe that a lot of software was still being shipped on floppies in 2001, wasn’t it? This is just a guess, but it could be that Win PCs old enough to have floppies won't have the cojones to run Win 7. Oh, and I hope that you kept your downloaded software installation files safe somewhere.

That PC with a floppy drive can run Microsoft's latest OS, where as your mac with a floppy drive can't even begin to run Apple's latest OS, so I really don't understand what your point is.

Sorry, I can't help but laugh at this. $500 are not "trash" computers, those are >budget< computers for people, well, less fortunate than you. In fact, a $500 custom made PC can have way better components than the cheaper Mac Mini available.

I actually made a $350 PC about a year ago, and after $150 worth of upgrades it's running a top of the line processor, a decent video card, and it's still dead quiet.

In fact, I'm just waiting for my school to get Windows 7 so I can take full advantage of all 4 gigs of RAM in it.

 

[SimonMW]

So Windows 7 is going to magically make all those viruses available for Windows dissapear?

No, but with a more secure and rewritten OS it doesn't mean that they all now work on W7. Further more before I moved to the Mac I ran an Editing PC connected to the internet without any anti virus software and never had any issues. Why was that? I'll tell you why. I was careful, and didn't go visiting dodgy websites or following links from unknown email sources.

I only ever suffered from a malware with Windows once. I had Norton and all kinds of other commercial spyware detectors installed. But of course Norton, and indeed most other virus and malware detectors, are not updated quick enough to catch the latest ones. So owning them and clogging up your windows machine is, I believe, mostly unneccesary. Most email services automatically search for and remove virus etc before they get to your inbox now anyway, and browsers like Safari now flag up suspicious websites.

The fact is that although Viruses and Malware are a risk, if you are careful they needn't be. Windows has far more serious issues that Apple could play on that this.

 

[Fastshutter]

Comical. People that do large spreadsheets, in offices, feel they need a "real powerful computer, because I crunch a lot of numbers". What BS. 99% of the PC's in business today are under utilized. Accountants, Marketing staff, and general business users don't need Quad Core systems with 4GB of RAM, and a dedicated video card. The main reason their systems slow down, is because of poorly written applications, and crap they don't need running in the background. Oh, and because Windows fragmenting the disk and registry, but that's a whole different argument....

I half agree with you. I never tax my work PC, it's an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz with 2gig of ram. It is easily overkill for 99% of the people in the company, just as you say. On the other hand, in a corporate enviornment where software is locked down, no one is adding/deleting software so often that it kills the registry or fragments the disk. The last PC we ever tried to improve performance via disk defragmentor was a Win2K box with a tiny 20gig hard drive. Dang, that was YEARS ago.

 

[Nikos]

Let me just say that I've been using both Mac and PC for years now.

When will Apple quit the virus ********? I've been a PC owner since the 90s and have only had one virus, and that was way back when I first started using computers.

For the record, I've never used any type of anti-virus either. Anybody who is semi-competent should know how to avoid them.

Upgrading from XP to 7? That's like upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. XP is two operating systems ago. Vista was fine, unless you were an incompetent user.

Apple really needs to find a new route for their anti PC campaign.

 

[Fastshutter]

all I hear is, gamers, business, enterprise, gamers, gamers...

let's talk musicians, directors, djs, bands, photographers, actors, producers, composers, film editors, graphic designers, web designers...

Musicians: Garageband - OSX has a clear advantage.
Directors: ??? What is their OS advantage for either system?
Dj's: Garageband - OSX has a clear advantage
Photographers: Split equally. The most important apps are available for both systems.
Actors: ??? What is their OS advantage for either system?
Producers - ??? What is their OS advantage for either system?
Film Editors - Final Cut Pro - OSX has a clear advantage
Graphic Designers - Split equally. The most important apps are available for both systems
Web designers - Split equally. The most important apps are available for both systems

Just my thoughts.

 

[FF_productions]

I think it will be difficult to swing customers away from Windows 7. I'm throughly impressed with 7 over here, and I'm a hardcore Mac user.

 

[baryon]

You mean like how OS X had a Classic environment for many years?



You can tailor the level of UAC interference from "Off" to "Really annoying" now. Pick which one works for you.



You've clearly not used 7 yet, have you?




Windows has come a long way as far as having drivers ready to go for a lot of hardware when you plug it in. If it doesn't have it local, chances are if the hardware was made in the last few years you can tell it to download drivers with a single click.


... I realize you're an Apple fanboy and think that the folks in Redmond can't do anything right, but really.. 7 is miles better than Vista. It's like they took a step back and thought what don't people like about Vista and took great strides to correct it. I use OS X more than I use Windows, but 7 has really made me contemplate changing that (especially since CS4 for Windows comes in a 64bit flavor).

No I haven't used Windows 7 yet since it isn't out yet, so I'm probably wrong on some stuff, but I don't think it will be such a radical change from previous versions. I just have so much bad experience with people using Windows (I stopped in the XP days), with unsolvable problems, that I just can't imagine that Windows solved all of those problems with this new version. I mean I might be wrong, but they would have to be really really damn good to fix all these problems in this amount of time, and experience shows that they are not that good, except if they hired an entirely new crew, who knows! It's like having someone show you very bad drawing skills and then show you amazing drawing talent 1 year later, it's possible but unlikely.

So far Windows was like having a car that ALWAYS has some kind of problem, all the time, no matter what you do with it, it just gets broken down for new and various reasons. If they changed that, then "way to go!". But I would be surprised!

 

[Fastshutter]

Let me just say that I've been using both Mac and PC for years now.

When will Apple quit the virus ********? I've been a PC owner since the 90s and have only had one virus, and that was way back when I first started using computers.

For the record, I've never used any type of anti-virus either. Anybody who is semi-competent should know how to avoid them.

Upgrading from XP to 7? That's like upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. XP is two operating systems ago. Vista was fine, unless you were an incompetent user.

Apple really needs to find a new route for their anti PC campaign.

I think Time Machine sets the bar really high for data security. Even Windows 7 doesn't come close to such an impressive back-up solution. Apple should really focus on where it shines, not the extinct past failings of its rival.

Seriously, Windows users want to hear about the BSOD just as much as Apple users want to hear about a one button mouse.

 

[miknos]

Apple should put ads showing how good their products are instead of showing how "bad" PCs are.

I had many PCs with XP on them and was pretty fast/stable (running for many weeks without reboot). Most PCs (desktop/laptops) sucks because of the bloated software they install on.
Tried Vista and didn't like so I kept using XP until I had the opportunity to buy a mac. Now I spend time creating stuff instead of tweaking my OS to work as expected.

For me, PC is something from the past. I don't even use bootcamp/vmware anymore.

I haven't tried Windows7 but I heard it's a very good OS. Apple will try to attack comparing it to Windows Vista. This reminds me when Steve Ballmer said nobody would buy the iPhone.

 

[ABG]

Comical. People that do large spreadsheets, in offices, feel they need a "real powerful computer, because I crunch a lot of numbers". What BS. 99% of the PC's in business today are under utilized. Accountants, Marketing staff, and general business users don't need Quad Core systems with 4GB of RAM, and a dedicated video card. The main reason their systems slow down, is because of poorly written applications, and crap they don't need running in the background. Oh, and because Windows fragmenting the disk and registry, but that's a whole different argument....

Don't need it? You should be aware outside the Apple mind control bubble, a quad core 4Gb PC is an entry level machine (I even got one from HP with a "bag of hurt " Blu-ray player and it still cost the same as the entry level Mac Mini).

Back on topic - if Apple want their brand essence to be about being a snotty a/hole then they are going the right way about it. Maybe one day Apple will stop defining themselves by how they compare to Microsoft and start just talking about themselves and their products. Tell me what you've got Apple and I'll decide how it compares to the competition. All this "nah nah nah nah nah" stuff is getting embarrassing.

 

[LagunaSol]

When will Apple quit the virus ********? I've been a PC owner since the 90s and have only had one virus, and that was way back when I first started using computers.

For the record, I've never used any type of anti-virus either. Anybody who is semi-competent should know how to avoid them.

Lucky you.

The problem is the PC-using masses are from from "semi-competent." I've had to clean spyware from many of my friends' and relatives' computers, and my neighbor's PC was wiped out by a virus recently (and the repair shop compounded the problem by burning his hard drive and losing everything). He is now using a new iMac, as are many of the friends and relatives I've helped with PC problems in the past. This is not a rarity but a common problem.

The argument that viruses and spyware isn't a serious issue on the Windows side of the fence is ignorant at best.

 

[ashawley]

But wait....

What's I think is missing here (and I've read all the posts) is what MS was actually able to pull off with the entire Vista-to-Win7 fiasco.

First, they put out a junky OS, then they "fix" it and guess what? You get to pay for that priviledge!!!! And it's not a $29 (or $49 for 5 licenses) upgrade as was SL, it's a $199 upgrade on Amazon as of yesterday for Win7 Pro.

And then, they get even trickier with their OEM partners. For about a year or more now, if you want to buy a PC from say Dell for your business and you want XP on it, you get the wonderful option to pay a $100 downgrade fee!! Just to keep Vista off of your PCs. Lovely.

If Apple did any of this stuff, can you imagine the outcry?

And no, I don't believe Win7 to be any better than XP frankly. I'm using the Released to Manufacture version and have been for a while now. It's Vista. That's all it is. Vista finally fixed.

And I do not agree that it's faster than XP. I run both and on the same hardware its much slower. I still have hit the old "Calculating time remaining..." progress bar, even when deleting one file from my desktop. A shortcut no less. Ridiculous.

I run IT in our enterprise, funny, our top execs and myself are on Macs, many, many of our employees are buying them at home. I hear no talk about Win7 at all. Funny that.

 

[dernhelm]

There's not much else they can do, aside from act confident and try to make the most of the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if mac sales (in absolute numbers) went up with so many people deciding it's time to buy a new computer. I will be shocked, however, if mac market share doesn't go down. I personally know too many people who are psyched about windows 7. A lot of people are going to be buying pc's. If phil didn't put on a strong game face, it would be even worse.

Every major release of Windows was trumpted as "this is the one that fixes all the problems". They haven't hit yet, and with nearly every release of windows, Apple has seen its sales spike just after the windows release date.

That isn't to say that Windows 7 isn't "the one", or that this time, Apple won't actually lose market share. But if history is any guide, Schiller's comments are right on the money, and Apple should actually be looking forward to release day.

 

[kate-willbury]

I'd take a broad assumption they will launch new iMacs at that time. Probably an awfully incorrect assumption, but a hope nonetheless.

If I were a casual or low end computer user, I would desperately want a Mac to avoid all the time and fuss PCs create through myriad complexity with virus control and all the expensive and cheesy programs needed to purchase just to make the thing functional after purchase.

If I worked in a company with an expensive tech support crew, I wouldn't give a crap and get whatever I wanted for the job: someone else is paying and supporting all that crap.

If I was a gamer wasting my life trapped in non-productive play, I'd get a PC.

And that's probably how it all falls down in purchasing groups. People know what Apple offers, but the layman looks at price tag of the computer, not at the price tag of the final tally when the two platforms become even with protection and function. And even then, they don't see the time wasted enslaved to a PC as they try to figure it out--time better spent earning dough or being with family or enjoying life or using the computer as desired.

lol. dumbest post of the day.

 

[LagunaSol]

What's I think is missing here (and I've read all the posts) is what MS was actually able to pull off with the entire Vista-to-Win7 fiasco.

First, they put out a junky OS, then they "fix" it and guess what? You get to pay for that priviledge!!!! And it's not a $29 (or $49 for 5 licenses) upgrade as was SL, it's a $199 upgrade on Amazon as of yesterday for Win7 Pro.

And then, they get even trickier with their OEM partners. For about a year or more now, if you want to buy a PC from say Dell for your business and you want XP on it, you get the wonderful option to pay a $100 downgrade fee!! Just to keep Vista off of your PCs. Lovely.

If Apple did any of this stuff, can you imagine the outcry?

And no, I don't believe Win7 to be any better than XP frankly. I'm using the Released to Manufacture version and have been for a while now. It's Vista. That's all it is. Vista finally fixed.

And I do not agree that it's faster than XP. I run both and on the same hardware its much slower. I still have hit the old "Calculating time remaining..." progress bar, even when deleting one file from my desktop. A shortcut no less. Ridiculous.

I run IT in our enterprise, funny, our top execs and myself are on Macs, many, many of our employees are buying them at home. I hear no talk about Win7 at all. Funny that.

Better yet, you get the entire tech press raving about Windows 7 simply because it doesn't completely suck like Vista. Put out a bad enough product (Vista) and people will lap up its replacement with gusto. The mindblowing amount of Windows 7 hype would be a fraction of what it is if Vista hadn't been such a royal turd.

Funny how a company can gain such rabid praise by simply fixing their own sloppy work. I wish my boss were like that...

 

[kate-willbury]

What's I think is missing here (and I've read all the posts) is what MS was actually able to pull off with the entire Vista-to-Win7 fiasco.

First, they put out a junky OS, then they "fix" it and guess what? You get to pay for that priviledge!!!! And it's not a $29 (or $49 for 5 licenses) upgrade as was SL, it's a $199 upgrade on Amazon as of yesterday for Win7 Pro.

And then, they get even trickier with their OEM partners. For about a year or more now, if you want to buy a PC from say Dell for your business and you want XP on it, you get the wonderful option to pay a $100 downgrade fee!! Just to keep Vista off of your PCs. Lovely.

If Apple did any of this stuff, can you imagine the outcry?

And no, I don't believe Win7 to be any better than XP frankly. I'm using the Released to Manufacture version and have been for a while now. It's Vista. That's all it is. Vista finally fixed.

And I do not agree that it's faster than XP. I run both and on the same hardware its much slower. I still have hit the old "Calculating time remaining..." progress bar, even when deleting one file from my desktop. A shortcut no less. Ridiculous.

I run IT in our enterprise, funny, our top execs and myself are on Macs, many, many of our employees are buying them at home. I hear no talk about Win7 at all. Funny that.

do some real research before blabbing on and on with irrelevant mac fanboy banter.

windows 7 is FREE for a LOT of users. first of all the beta release was completely free, tons of students get it for free or for the student price, vista users for the past year on new systems get windows 7 upgrade for free. the initial sale for windows 7 you could buy it for less than $50.

meanwhile, you still have to pay for snow leopard which was essentially a patch (and an incredibly buggy one at that).

very unlikely that you run IT for enterprise. love it when mac fanboys just make up their lives online in order to appear like they know what they're talking about.

 

[kate-willbury]

Better yet, you get the entire tech press raving about Windows 7 simply because it doesn't completely suck like Vista. Put out a bad enough product (Vista) and people will lap up its replacement with gusto. The mindblowing amount of Windows 7 hype would be a fraction of what it is if Vista hadn't been such a royal turd.

Funny how a company can gain such rabid praise by simply fixing their own sloppy work. I wish my boss were like that...

vista post service pack runs great. obviously you have basically 0 experience with windows or else you'd know this and not just rant on and on like another mindless sheep.

 

[inlovewithi]

Don't trust them

Seriously, these Mac commercials have forever turn me off to Macs. They're so sleazy by exaggerating things that the Mac sheeps repeat over and over. I don't trust company that misleads so obviously. Let me guess they're going to talk about the blue screen of death, something that pretty much stopped before XP in 2001, we're in 2009. Sorry, there's no other name I could think of to describe the smug fan boys, no offense to the objective ones.

 

[xIGmanIx]

at the end of the day, apple is going to continue to make adds that make them look like the smartest people in the room, and then still only have single digit market share. You can create what ever "segments" you want, bar none, microsoft dominates. To me they just come across as petty, and microsoft to some extent for even acknowledging them. when its that dominate, why even bother. Both offer their type of experience, the end.

 

[LagunaSol]

Sorry, there's no other name I could think of to describe the smug fan boys, no offense to the objective ones.

Yep, and there's nothing but polite objectivity from the WinBots, as these Engadget comments on an Apple-related story today can attest:

"Let's just call it what you iDouches call everything that's below the marketshare of an Apple product."

"Let the douchery of Apple spill forth. That all the will henceforth spew from the mouth of Apple shall be the waste of dirty douche-wash."

"Phil Schiller: "No matter what I say. I'm still a douche."

"Apple is crap."

Yep, nothing but maturity and objectivity from the Microsoft camp.

(And an incredibly intellectual obsession with the word "douche.")

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/15/...-7-no-matter-how-you-look-at-it-its/#comments