In the current US election, I would argue the winner actually will benefit from the excessive negative campaigning done by his opponent, who sacrificed trust and in many cases implied the U.S. voter was too stupid to go to the Web and look things up. The well-executed Mac vs. Windows ads, while at least funny and entertaining, drifted from solid hits to outright hypocrisy as Vista was improved and Apple seemed unable to remember its own advantages. Hint: As a percentage, Apple’s ratio of marketing dollars to development dollars leads the industry.
Really, whatever woke up MS and convinced them that their business depends on shipping an OS that a) works and b) does so fast is fine with me. If the constant whining of users, the bashing by tech journalists and the refusal by customers was not enough to convince MS to do something, and it took the "Get a Mac" ad to wake them up, more power to Apple!
And if Steve Ballmer now thinks he'd rather concentrate on beating OS X in user experience than beating Google in the online search market, more power to Apple!
Rob, you operate from a bias of interoperability where the OS writer can only succeed if it is applicable to several hardware vendors. This bias is one that offers many opportunities to participate in the "ecosystem". That supposed bias was sold to the armies of Microsoft users that bought the idea that a wide open ecosystem is better for them than a high quality user experience, which has NEVER been a Microsoft hallmark even though XP was it's closest ever.
Your ties to HP make this bias evident. However, even HP will abandon the "let Microsoft make my engine" thinking because the user experience with Vista is such crap.
Note, Microsoft said Windows 7 was going to be "Vista yet less annoying". Apple has said Snow Leopard will be the most advanced operating system available anywhere. So, Microsoft sells an 'ecosystem' value chain and Apple sells a 'client solution leading to satisfaction ' value chain.
Which model do you think will win in the future? I'll bet on Apple. And forget not, Apple is an enterprise of over 20,000 people around the world and they don't use Windows. And this is the last Office for Mac they will be using. How do they do it?
A few weeks ago, in this same column, Rob was telling us how great the Microsoft- Seinfeld commercials were even though almost no one else did. The next day, Microsoft cancelled them. LOL.
Now Rob is telling us that Apples' negative ads have really, really, focused Microsoft on win7.
"while at least funny and entertaining, drifted from solid hits to outright hypocrisy as Vista was improved and Apple seemed unable to remember its own advantages."
What's the matter, Rob? No sense of humor? I thought the "Bean Counter" one was a masterpiece. You think hipocracy because Apple spends just as much as Microsoft on advertising. Tell us then, Rob, does the Microsoft ad numbers include all the shills like you that write for Microsoft all over the internet? Apple wouldn't need ads like "Bean Counter" if Microsoft competed fairly.
In one way, it is good that MS is motivated by Apple's gains with OS X, as the consumer will (hopefully) be the eventual winner, since competition raises the product quality and value.
However, there are far too many examples of large behemuths functionally defeating themselves by their lack of corporate agility. For example, the USA's 'Big Three' automakers are still waging the war against Japanese 'upstart' automakers...since the 1980s!
As such, I find Rob's "if they're successful, they'll win" (sic) prediction to be a meaningless self-fulfilling prophecy. When there's actually some proof that MS has gotten their act together, call me...but please spare me the inane predictions in the interim.
Moving on to the HP TouchSmart, I'm reminded that many years ago, my desktop PC was an HP-150, which featured a touchscreen.
From a technology perspective, it was interesting, but from a practical consumer value perspective, the UI did not materially enhance the UI for general desktop application and subsequent productivity of its user.
Perhaps an analyst can make an objective assessment of HP's current effort with the appropriate 'Lessons Learned' perspective on past history, to got beyond Rob's "Gosh, its a neat feature!" shill-like hype.
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It's Dangerous to Assume People Are Stupid
Posted by: Rob Enderle November 3, 2008 04:00 AMIn the current US election, I would argue the winner actually will benefit from the excessive negative campaigning done by his opponent, who sacrificed trust and in many cases implied the U.S. voter was too stupid to go to the Web and look things up. The well-executed Mac vs. Windows ads, while at least funny and entertaining, drifted from solid hits to outright hypocrisy as Vista was improved and Apple seemed unable to remember its own advantages. Hint: As a percentage, Apple’s ratio of marketing dollars to development dollars leads the industry.
And if Steve Ballmer now thinks he'd rather concentrate on beating OS X in user experience than beating Google in the online search market, more power to Apple!
Your ties to HP make this bias evident. However, even HP will abandon the "let Microsoft make my engine" thinking because the user experience with Vista is such crap.
Note, Microsoft said Windows 7 was going to be "Vista yet less annoying". Apple has said Snow Leopard will be the most advanced operating system available anywhere. So, Microsoft sells an 'ecosystem' value chain and Apple sells a 'client solution leading to satisfaction ' value chain.
Which model do you think will win in the future? I'll bet on Apple. And forget not, Apple is an enterprise of over 20,000 people around the world and they don't use Windows. And this is the last Office for Mac they will be using. How do they do it?
Now Rob is telling us that Apples' negative ads have really, really, focused Microsoft on win7.
"while at least funny and entertaining, drifted from solid hits to outright hypocrisy as Vista was improved and Apple seemed unable to remember its own advantages."
What's the matter, Rob? No sense of humor? I thought the "Bean Counter" one was a masterpiece. You think hipocracy because Apple spends just as much as Microsoft on advertising. Tell us then, Rob, does the Microsoft ad numbers include all the shills like you that write for Microsoft all over the internet? Apple wouldn't need ads like "Bean Counter" if Microsoft competed fairly.
However, there are far too many examples of large behemuths functionally defeating themselves by their lack of corporate agility. For example, the USA's 'Big Three' automakers are still waging the war against Japanese 'upstart' automakers...since the 1980s!
As such, I find Rob's "if they're successful, they'll win" (sic) prediction to be a meaningless self-fulfilling prophecy. When there's actually some proof that MS has gotten their act together, call me...but please spare me the inane predictions in the interim.
Moving on to the HP TouchSmart, I'm reminded that many years ago, my desktop PC was an HP-150, which featured a touchscreen.
You can see it on HP's website here:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personalsystems/0031/index.html
From a technology perspective, it was interesting, but from a practical consumer value perspective, the UI did not materially enhance the UI for general desktop application and subsequent productivity of its user.
Perhaps an analyst can make an objective assessment of HP's current effort with the appropriate 'Lessons Learned' perspective on past history, to got beyond Rob's "Gosh, its a neat feature!" shill-like hype.
-hh