Microsoft Matches Snow Leopard Price With Windows 7, But Only for Students

[*LTD*]

Don't ask - that will just bring out the tin foil hat crowd and their conspiracy theories....

I wonder how long before Window 7 share overtakes OSX. If it was at 1.2% total in August, it shouldn't take too long after the official release....

There's always a larger market for cheap and common.

Selling on volume might not always be a profitable game, but it sure does make those market share numbers look good. At the mid to low end at least.

Nonsense. Price is NOT the only factor here contributing to Window's user base, and you know it.

Or maybe you don't...

And "premium" in this context is kind of a joke, even if you capitalize the word in mid sentence for extra awesome emphasis.

I'm not the one that decided it was a Premium product. The buyers with $1000+ to spend did.

And we've already seen in MS' Laptop Losers commercials that their chief aim is to compete on PRICE. That is the primary differentiator. MS believes that the bulk of its market thinks this as well. That is, unless they were lying or clueless. I'd wager that, as usual, the latter would be the case.

 

[RazHyena]

Don't ask - that will just bring out the tin foil hat crowd and their conspiracy theories....

I wonder how long before Window 7 share overtakes OSX. If it was at 1.2% total in August, it shouldn't take too long after the official release....

Yeah, I know.

Well, my roommates have Win7 on their machines and so far, nothing too ugly is happening. A lot of the bloat that Vista had is gone in Win7 and they've dedicated a lot of time to aesthetics.

We'll see how it works out. I'll be waiting and watching for a while before I make another windows partition.

 

[lathode]

Because Windows got a lot of publicity for being the OS for that IBM computer, then of course got a contract with them.

Fun fact: Microsoft's lack of innovation and imagination has been there right from the beginning, when Bill Gates wanted to call the OS "Interface Manager" and only called it Windows because he was persuaded to.

Fun fact, it wasn't an actual operating system at the beginning. It was an "interface manager" than ran atop DOS. Calling something what it is, crazy concept. Another fun fact, Apple stole the GUI and mouse from Xerox, oooh they're so innovative!

 

[kate-willbury]

all in all, windows 7 rules and i love how its getting the extreme mac fan boys all riled up.

 

[*LTD*]

Fun fact, it wasn't an actual operating system at the beginning. It was an "interface manager" than ran atop DOS. Calling something what it is, crazy concept. Another fun fact, Apple stole the GUI and mouse from Xerox, oooh they're so innovative!

In what context do you mean "Apple stole the GUI and mouse, etc."?

 

[lathode]

There's always a larger market for cheap and common.

Selling on volume might not always be a profitable game, but it sure does make those market share numbers look good. At the mid to low end at least.




I'm not the one that decided it was a Premium product. The buyers with $1000+ to spend did.

And we've already seen in MS' Laptop Losers commercials that theire chief aim is to compete on PRICE. That is the primary differentiator. MS believes that the bulk of its market thinks this as well. That is, unless they were lying or clueless. I'd wager that, as usual, the latter would be the case.

A high price tag does not mean something is a good product. Getting people to spend those high prices is good marketing. Apple does have good marketing, they know that a lot of people are stupid and don't think for themselves but believe what they're told. Apple's are pretty, and pretty much non upgradable unless you spend over two grand on a Mac Pro. This forces people to buy a new system when they want faster graphics or CPU. Pretty smart. They don't care about enthusiasts that would buy a tower for ~$1k, so those people end up building hackintoshes. A 500gb 2.5" HD goes for ~80 on Newegg, 160gb about $40. A ~$40 difference, yet Apple will charge you $200. Because there are people stupid enough to pay that price.

 

[lathode]

In what context do you mean "Apple stole the GUI and mouse, etc."?

Excuse me for using the incorrect word of 'steal', Xerox let Apple get that info from them. However they did not come up with it first. So my original point is that they are not as innovative as people claim.

 

[RazHyena]

There's always a larger market for cheap and common.

Selling on volume might not always be a profitable game, but it sure does make those market share numbers look good. At the mid to low end at least.




I'm not the one that decided it was a Premium product. The buyers with $1000+ to spend did.

And we've already seen in MS' Laptop Losers commercials that their chief aim is to compete on PRICE. That is the primary differentiator. MS believes that the bulk of its market thinks this as well. That is, unless they were lying or clueless. I'd wager that, as usual, the latter would be the case.

Gee, really? Judging by your past posts I was under the impression that BIG SCARY VIRUSES were the big difference.

Or at least that's the specter that's repeatedly brought up in those otherwise uninformative Justin Long commercials. "Nevermind bringing up all of the strongpoints and features of OS X, let's just remind people that PC's have viruses and call it good in our next commercial!"

Nevermind that most $800+ Pc's come with 2 years of free antivirus, but you get the idea. Still, price is just one of factors.

 

[lathode]

Gee, really? Judging by your past posts I was under the impression that BIG SCARY VIRUSES were the big difference.

Or at least that's the specter that's repeatedly brought up in those otherwise uninformative Justin Long commercials. "Nevermind bringing up all of the strongpoints and features of OS X, let's just remind people that PC's have viruses and call it good in our next commercial!"

Nevermind that most $800+ Pc's come with 2 years of free antivirus, but you get the idea. Still, price is just one of factors.

Don't forget they constantly freeze!

 

[*LTD*]

A high price tag does not mean something is a good product. Ge

Except when it's a Mac. The endless customer satisfaction surveys, reports, news items, here's another one to add to the ever-growing pile . . .

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10222213-37.html

. . . that we've seen year after year after year, in abundance, especially since 2006.

Just Google it for yourself and you'll have material going back for years to keep you busy.

Again, it's not my fault this is happening. It's just Apple's customer base talking.

 

[CQd44]

Don't forget they constantly freeze!

I'll be honest, the only time my lenovo laptop freezes is when I turn off the wifi before opening it back up. Well, that has like a 50% chance of freezing it. I always tell myself to wait before I throw that little switch my hands have a mind of their own I swear.

 

[*LTD*]

I'll be honest, the only time my lenovo laptop freezes is when I turn off the wifi before opening it back up. Well, that has like a 50% chance of freezing it. I always tell myself to wait before I throw that little switch my hands have a mind of their own I swear.

Excuse me for using the incorrect word of 'steal', Xerox let Apple get that info from them. However they did not come up with it first. So my original point is that they are not as innovative as people claim.

No worries, fair enough. Their implementations of technologies are what really seems to set them apart.

 

[alabanco]

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10

Vista share about 4 times larger than total Mac share.... And Windows 7 is almost a quarter of the Mac share.

Since Vista has been out for the start of the 2007, 2008 and 2009 school years, most students who got a new PC for college got Vista.

So that proves my words. as I said students won't bye Seven just to have it in their old notebooks or PCs. They will better go and get new notebook with it.

 

[iAlex]

That is ridiculous. Students won't pay for smth to upgdrade ? On what ground ? Legal one ? Not impressed. they will just bye a new notebook if they need new machine. Otherwise they will stay on what they have now. And frankly speaking, XP does its job for them. There is no need to pay extra money just to have Windows Seven on their old hardware.

If they are smart they will just buy a new mac that now includes SL.

 

[*LTD*]

If they are smart they will just buy a new mac that now includes SL.

Gotta pay up first.

 

[AidenShaw]

So that proves my words. as I said students won't bye Seven just to have it in their old notebooks or PCs. They will better go and get new notebook with it.

That wasn't my point.

The point is that it's likely that any freshman, sophomore or junior in college today got Vista on the new laptop that they got when they went to school.

Win7 is a simple upgrade to Vista, so for $10 to $30 I expect that a lot of these will be upgraded - especially since Win7 has lighter requirements than Vista.

Why would a Mac user pay $29 for 10.6, yet a Windows user won't pay that for Windows 7?

 

[iPhone 62S]

Excuse me for using the incorrect word of 'steal', Xerox let Apple get that info from them. However they did not come up with it first. So my original point is that they are not as innovative as people claim.

They are these days. They make a touchscreen phone that does Internet, then everyone else does. They make the App Store, then everyone and their dog comes out with a version. They come up with OS features, then BOOM Microsoft breaks out the Vista photocopier (which must be broken, because all the reliability disappeared from the features as they were copied).

Anyway, you get the idea.

No one claimed that Apple invented the GUI.

 

[HyperZboy]

No it isn't. They're completely different operating systems.

So if Snow Leopard won't run on your PowerPC, you'll just buy a PC and switch to Windows??

And why should I give a sweet damn whether Windows runs on old hardware, when as a Mac user I have nothing to do with Windows in the first place?

Yup. Apple will bring back a discontinued architecture because you're moaning about it. Hey, it's the same as $100 rebate, right?

Please, get an Intel-based Mac already, and save us all the supreme agony of reading your nostalgia-gone-wild about a discontinued architecture that no one really cares about anymore.

I probably owned a Mac since before many of the SNOT-NOSED kids on this site were even born! Kids today have no respect for their elders and it clearly shows on nerdy computer websites like this full of Fanbois.

By the way, for those who got my point, I was comparing Windows 7 compatibility with older machines to Snow Leopard's LACK of compatibility with older machines since I also own an older PC that I don't use. Since we are in a recession, many people won't be buying new machines. They'll be looking for values.

Now I'll return you to the snot-nosed kid chatter...

 

[AidenShaw]

They make a touchscreen phone that does Internet, then everyone else does.

Window Mobile had touchscreen phones with 3G networking and browsers long before Apple. There were some other examples too.

So, Apple copies Microsoft.

 

[HyperZboy]

Microsoft's requirements for Windows 7 are:

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

•1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
•1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
•16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
•DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
​

........

Even the $400 PCs from late 2004 meet the requirements except for standard RAM.

Thanks for the info.

SHOCKING!

Basically, you just told me my old clunker HP PC that I needed to have for work that I don't ever use can run Windows 7 with some additional memory.

Meanwhile, except for my one Intel Mac, none of my NEWER PowerPC Macs can run Snow Leopard!

GO FIGURE!

Oh, and both are $30, so I may actually buy Windows 7 and check it out since I'm in a ticked off at Apple mood lately.

 

[tmoney468]

^But Windows never had to support different CPU architectures, so your point is moot.

 

[*LTD*]

Window Mobile had touchscreen phones with 3G networking and browsers long before Apple. There were some other examples too.

So, Apple copies Microsoft.

Stylus FTL.

It took Apple to show the smartphone industry why their interfaces were broken. No one knew any better.

 

[Richard1028]

Funny that a Microsoft product is considered to have "tanked" when 4 times more people are using it than all Macs put together!

Well, in the words of my good friend LDS... LSD... BLT, (whatever his name is)... Vista users are just stupid retards.

On the other hand, I can't help but wonder how many of those Vista users merely found the OS on the machines they bought. (Along with their free trials of Norton AV, AOL and a 30 day subscription to Mavis Beacons typing lessons - all loading unobtrusively at startup of course.)

 

[HyperZboy]

^But Windows never had to support different CPU architectures, so your point is moot.

Apple has supported multiple architectures throughout its entire history as a computer company. Apple even had an Intel version of MacOS X 10.1 IIRC!
So your point is far more moot actually.

In previous architecture changes, Apple always had a compatibility mode of some kind or there were processor upgrades. There were always options for 3 year old machines because Mac users keep their computers longer than PC users. This is a historically proven fact.

Snow Leopard breaks Apple's previous architecture change tradition.

 

[Sehnsucht]

If they are smart they will just buy a new mac that now includes SL.

Unless they don't have the money (or parents who won't give them any). I know plenty of students who would love to have a Mac but had to get a Toshiba or Acer instead, and are none too happy with being stuck with it.

Being tight on money sucks in a ridiculous number of ways.