Computerworld to Microsoft: Fear the Fruit
Scot Finnie, who recently made a public conversion to Macs over the course of three months, has an interesting, if disagreeable, piece on how Apple is competing with Microsoft more smartly than it ever has before. His key points:
• Mac is finally able to move fluidly into and out of the world of Microsoft Windows and its applications.• Mac users are more productive than Windows users because Macs experience fewer problems. There's nothing mystical about it either. There are some obvious reasons why this is the case: The Mac is a closed hardware/software system.
• Apple is innovating not just with the software and hardware it creates, but with the value proposition it is building in the marketplace. While Macs still aren't cheap, you get a lot more bang for the buck than you once did.
But he also thinks:
Apple should create economy-oriented, business-class desktop and notebook hardware. Since Apple offers very few SKUs, it's almost impossible for enterprise buyers to save money by specifying this or that lesser feature in order to reduce cost.
While how you view the piece is going to come down to what you think of Apple more so than what you think of Microsoft—do you think Macs are more usable and more innovative?—the fact that the perception is growing that Apple products are more intuitive and better designed than Microsoft's is more problematic than M$ seems to want to realize.
In NY, it seems like Mac users are the majority, though I realize it's not the case everywhere. What's it like in your neck of the woods? Are you considering "the switch"?
Why Microsoft Should Fear Apple [Computerworld]
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