Is Windows 7 finally halting the Mac migration?
Summary: Earnings information released by Microsoft yesterday point to there being a huge resurgence of interest in Windows 7, outpacing consumer interest in Apple's Mac platform. Is this a temporary blip, or is Microsoft back in fighting form?
Earnings information released by Microsoft yesterday point to there being a huge resurgence of interest in Windows 7, outpacing consumer interest in Apple's Mac platform. Is this a temporary blip, or is Microsoft back in fighting form?
Todd Bishop of TechFlash combs through the details:
In the financial data accompanying its earnings release, Microsoft said worldwide Windows consumer licenses grew by more than 35 percent in the recent quarter. By comparison, Apple this week reported an increase of 33 percent in Mac sales over roughly the same time period. That was impressive, too, of course, but Microsoft is growing from a significantly larger base of sales to begin with, making its higher growth rate considerably harder to achieve."Of course we're going to outsell them on a unit basis, but on a rate basis, on a market share basis, we actually outgrew Apple Mac in the third quarter worldwide," said Brad Brooks, a Microsoft Windows corporate vice president, referring to the quarter in the context of the Redmond company's fiscal year, ending in June.
Saying that Windows 7 is the catalyst for this reversal of the flow doesn't really tell us much about what's really going on here, and whether Microsoft is merely enjoying a brief honeymoon, or whether something more long term is happening here.
So what's behind these strong sales? Well, there could be several reasons behind this bout of strong sales:
- First, and most obvious reason, is that we're coming out of a recession, and people once again have enough free cash to do something about that "PC that's starting to look old."
- Another possible factor is that users are still feeling the recession and are price sensitive, and since PCs are cheaper than Macs, people are going for what they can afford.
- Upgrade. Upgrade! UPGRADE!!!! Why buy a Mac when you can make your old PC look like a new PC
- Apple seems to have given up on pushing the Mac like it used to. There hasn't been a fresh "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ad since Windows 7 was launched. Maybe Apple needs to bring back Justin Long ...
- Perhaps people see Windows 7 is a good OS. Word of mouth and reputation did a lot to cripple Vista, so perhaps the reverse is happening with 7.
I've said before that we can't read too much into the first year sales of Windows 7. With XP running long in the tooth, and Vista being so hated by many, there was a lot of pent-up demand for a new, better, OS. This is clear from the rapid sales and the short time that it's taken Windows 7 to grab 10% of the market share. What will really count is how well Windows 7 does in the long run.
There's still a heck of a lot of XP and Vista users out there who Microsoft needs to convince to make the switch. Microsoft still has a lot of work to do to make Windows 7 a big hit.
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Talkback
Those Mac Ads...
I didn't like them
virus
but, you are right, apple should have warned users before installing
windows about the ongoing virus mess.
There are a few
not true
Ignorant to the point of dangerous
OS/X is one of the easiest OS' out there to hack, and given the Apple policy of protecting Apple from bad PR being more important than protecting users from malicious software, OS/X should also generally be banned from business computers operated by non-experts. It simply isn't safe to run in a corporate environment.
But I really doubt you're that benevolent...
It's all based on motive.
hack?
to be able to speak with such authority! Also, can you enlighten us with
any other viruses that attack Macs, other then the only one you
mentioned, which you state is 'rather ineffectual'?
My guess is that you have never used a Mac and have no knowledge or
experience in hacking an OS.
Anyway, your point is that people should only be able to use Windows
because everyone knows it is easy to hack?
@ john_gillespie@...
Macs HAVE no viruses - Steve Jobs said so...
To be honest, I think we've all heard the arguments many times over, and have even contributed to a few of them. As a Windows user (advanced) and an ex-Mactard to boot, am well aware of all the points of debate.
But for once it would be nice to follow thank link in my in-box to an article about either Windows or OS X and NOT have to sift through 400+ rants from BOTH sides of the fence; both exuding Y-Gen-style allegiances and hyperbole. This article had NOTHING to do with most of the cr@p being spun by all in sundry. Can we for ONCE just leave the baggage at the door and invest in intelligent discussion... or am I asking to much of the average visitor here??
as ignorant as saying aids only affects the poor
As for mac. It gets hacked in less than 20 seconds. Thats not security.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=5836
brain cramp?
someone with better reading comprehension explain it to you. Maybe
some elementary school child in your area would help.
@ john_gillespie@...
http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=hp&q=hacking+macs&meta=&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=hacking+mac&gs_rfai=&fp=610f19d309f278f5
Wrong. Thats an Apple Jack fantasy/myth
The Apple apologists scream NO! NO! NO! Apple cannot get a virus. Well, as it turns out a simple net search will prove otherwise.
This of course leaves the Apple Jacks one recourse; define a virus in such a way that anything that has ever got into a Mac doesn't fit their definition. Fine. Then say it that way...
Apples don't get viruses of the type as defined by Apple enthusiasts.
Absolutely !!
simple net search will prove otherwise."
That's right. Just do a Google search on "number of mac viruses
in the wild"
You might find:
"The Unix security model is more secure than the pre-Vista
Windows model, and must take the lion's share of the credit for
the lack of OS X viruses. There may eventually be Mac OS X
viruses, but to claim the reason there are none is that the
platform is irrelevant is more than a little bizarre."
"Yesterday we reported on an alert from Norton Anti-Virus of a
trojan called "hacktool.underhand" appearing on a number of
user systems.
It was subsequently determined that this was a false positive
generated by Norton Anti-Virus, and in fact, Norton Anti-Virus'
attempt to eliminate the non-existent "trojan" can cause a host
of other issues, including kernel panics and extreme slow-down
in some applications.
The problem stems from the fact that Norton Anti-Virus
identifies this issue as a problem with Mac OS X's swapfile, and
attempts to correct it, causing the aforementioned issues.
The solution is to disable Norton AntiVirus' Auto-Run feature by
removing it from the /Library/StartupItems folder.
Follow the instructions and you should be back in business
Hope this helps"
It's easy...
We had this discussion on a mixed format forum, with a few Mac users going on about being invulnerable. A couple of other Mac users came up with a script in less than an hour which could infect a Mac and mail out the contact list - it stopped with an open email listing all contact email addresses, it didn't send it.
That was using the onboard tools. If they had poked around and looked for a vulnerability and if they hadn't just wanted to prove that it wasn't impossible, it could have wreaked a lot of havoc.
OS X is reasonably safe, at the moment, but only the most foolhardy of Mac users would deny the possibility and not keep their eyes and ears open.
Of course...
Applescript and coming up with an ACTUAL virus.
An Applescript has to be launched. A real virus
doesn't need you to hold it's hand and type in your
password to run.
I wonder why so many Windows users don't understand
the difference between a virus and a Trojan.
Here we go again...
1) If I'm writing a virus and want to attack the maximum number of computers, I'm not going after Apple. Windows has the largest user base - why waste the time?
2) If OSx is bullet proof, then why does Apple constantly release security updates for it?
3) OSx is NOT Apple's creation. It is BSD Unix under the hood with Apple's GUI and branding. Apple had very little to do with making it secure!
do you talk about things you know nothing about often?
I never said that it was happening everywhere
I manage a fairly large network of mostly PCs but we do have 120 or so iMacs and just like our Windows PCs the vast majority of problems we see are user based ones. I have my computers set up pretty darn well if I say so myself and utilize every security measure at my disposal from Group Policies to strong firewalls and protection on the backend to keep the stuff from coming in through the internet and the only viruses we have ever gotten have been from people bringing them in on flash drives and such and those are always stopped at the computer level. And no we have not gotten a virus on our Macs but I do have a security suite installed on them because you never know.
So Mr. Rude I do know what I am talking about and the ONLY reason Macs are not getting viruses/malware is because there are only a few out there for that platform. But it can happen and if you think MacOS is immune then you are just plain nuts.