Stop the Noiz

Vista Is Not 'Leaving Macs in the Dust'

Frank Fox - 2008.07.16 - Tip Jar

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Windows Vista usage share surges 355 percent, leaves Mac OS X in the dust

Paul Thurrott felt he had to strike back at Mac users again with this catchy headline. Somehow it is wonderful to know that Vista is finally gaining market share - it only took Microsoft discontinuing XP to make it happen!

Vista has been out since November 2006. That is over a-year-and-a-half on the market with no spikes in sales until now. To Paul I can only say, no duh!

With around 300 million PCs being sold, if the average consumer can no longer buy XP, of course Vista sales are going up. This isn't about consumer demand or a sudden switch in consumer preference. This is about Microsoft putting a gun at their heads and saying "buy it or else."

This says nothing about how well Macs are selling. This is nothing more that typical Microsoft arm-twisting.

Don't get me wrong, when Apple came out with Leopard, all new Macs came with it as well. But despite the complaints by some people that Leopard wasn't ready, you didn't see Apple offering businesses a chance to downgrade to Tiger if they just bought some more expensive version of Leopard.

What the heck kind of marketing is that? Sell your business customers the Business or Ultimate versions just so they can downgrade to XP? It guarantees that these can be booked as Vista sales and inflates the number of Vista users. They can just ignore what people actually want and what business is comfortable using.

It inflates the numbers, and at the same time Microsoft gets to charge you more. This is the kind of plan only Microsoft can cook up to make themselves look good.

Paul, some Mac users may be afraid to admit that PC sales are higher, and that's not going to change any time soon. I'm not one of them. Windows XP is a dead end with its market share just waiting to be carved up. Sure Vista will get a big piece - it can't be helped - but there's plenty for Apple and even Linux to cut away for themselves. [Editor's note: See The Windows Death Spiral to see how that's happening. dk]

Macs are selling better now because of Vista's limitations: If you got to buy a new computer just to have the OS function, why not switch to the best OS available.

You better try again to dish out humble pie to this Mac user. You haven't impressed me yet.

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