Are Vista’s failures the boost Apple needs to get ahead in business?
Apple is poised to launch the greatest offensive on the Microsoft stronghold in computing history. Though Apple’s popularity and support in consumer homes has reached an all-time high, the only way Apple can successfully overthrow the Microsoft regime is to couple in-home dominance with office superiority.
We all remember the first “I’m a Mac vs. I’m a PC” commercial. Many curiosities were aroused, and as Mac fanatics of old know, those who satisified their curiosities have found that Apple’s OS X, iLife, and iWork are simply more intuitive, aesthetically pleasing, and problem-free than Microsoft’s Windows or Office software.
As more and more people have realized the simplicity that Macs bring to computing life, even more have become displeased with the direction Microsoft is heading.
After 5 years in development, Windows Vista has left a bad taste in many mouths; most common consumers either don’t have the hardware necessary to utilize the new features of Vista that distinguish it from XP, or don’t care to upgrade when the benefits aren’t that ground-breaking.
Furthermore, most businesses are also disenchanted with Microsoft’s new OS; though Office offers some creative changes, the bugs, flaws, and lack of drivers or support for the new Windows OS have swayed businesses from upgrading their current systems to Vista.
This has left Apple in a potentially advantageous position; as Microsoft’s recent efforts leave users dissapointed and wanting something new, Apple has been gaining public favor with the simplicity and creativity of OS X, iLife, and iWork.
For the first time in years, Apple is facing the opportunity to convert PC users to the Mac users on a large scale. To do this, Apple must gain control of a few key markets:
1. The business and professional world
2. The home
3. The gaming industry
4. The digital media industry
The key to Apple’s victory over Microsoft is controlling the majority of these markets. Each individual industry must be considered an asset that will affect, either positively or adversely, each player’s progression towards total industrial dominance.
It is no secret that Apple controls the digital media realm. Graphic designers, video editors, and musicians would all agree that Apple computers simply outperform PC’s in this field. It seems Microsoft and other leading software manufacturers have conceded this asset to Apple, what with the overwhelmingly lack-luster show of “competing” software (Note, when I say competing, I am referencing software that is not cross-platform, and is PC-specific).
With the digital media industry squarely in its pocket, Apple’s recent campaign on the home has proven quite successful as well.
Though most homes do employ PC’s at this point, Apple’s sales numbers since switching to Intel have displayed a public shift towards Macs’ safety, ease of use, and aesthetic appeal. Recent optimization of virtualization software like Parallels has granted home users access to Windows applications on primarily Mac platforms.
Apple has two possible routes it might follow with the ideal destination of computing dominance.
First, Apple could wage a marketing war against each individual industry, pursuing professionals, gamers, and average consumers on separate plateaus; individualized campaigns, specialized incentives, and even more “I’m a Mac†commercials. This path involves millions in marketing, a good deal of luck, and most importantly, time.
Alternatively, Apple could concentrate a large amount of resources on the business realm. The business world’s reliance on Windows and Microsoft Office productivity tools is the dam holding back Apple from flooding the gaming and home markets, and a concentrated push for business integration could be the key to total industrial dominance, as I will detail below.
Microsoft’s success has been based almost exclusively on the integration of their productivity and networking tools in the business realm. As professionals and business executives were required to standardize their business practices through Microsoft applications, integration in homes was inevitable.
Though Microsoft still dominates this market, many feel Microsoft is rapidly losing ground to the appeal of Macs; many feel that Macs offers greater network security, a safer and more intuitive operating system and strong, user-friendly productivity tools.
Additionally, Microsoft’s latest and greatest, Windows Vista, is flopping royally in the home and the professional world. Vista offers nothing to the professional realm, save hardware upgrading costs, a lack of drivers, and a host of new problems to identify and rectify. Office 2007 is improved, but both Office 2007 and Vista are simply an effort to emulate the simplicity and creativity of OS-X and iWork.
Some companies are seriously considering spending the money needed to upgrade their systems to Vista on completely revamping their offices with Macs; many are losing faith in Microsoft, and fear sticking with Microsoft will present greater long-term upgrade and maintenance costs.
In an article for MacWorld News, Stever Robbins of the Stever Robbins Company, a business consulting firm, said, “switching to a Mac infrastructure has been far less disruption than I imagined, with far greater usability and far smoother operation.”
In reference to the cost-effectiveness of switching to Mac in the corporate setting, David Griswold, founder of Sustainable Harvest Coffee, said, “All the new hardware paid for itself in two years. Also, we didn’t have to pay for annual support fees to clean out adware-laden hard drives. That was a savings of several thousand dollars for each PC.”
Though new hardware would pose a somewhat substantial immediate cost, Apples are known for longevity, not frequent maintenance, necessary upgrades, and frequent trouble-shooting. The cost-effectiveness of Mac integration is far superior to upgrading office hardware to utilize Vista.
If Apple can gain the support of the professional world, the remaining markets would fall as follows:
1. As business professionals shifted to Mac use in the office, Macs would begin flooding homes so workaholics could continue their destructive work habits away from the office.
2. The rapid influx of Macs into homes would force game designers to refocus their efforts towards Mac compatibility.
3. Once Macs became standardized, schools, libraries, and every other public or private computing venue would work towards compliance.
The time is right for Apple to make a revolutionary power play; OS-X Tiger, iWork ’06 and iLife ’06 are swaying the public tide towards Apple, and OS-X Leopard is just around the corner. Vista has left consumers and businesses disgruntled and searching for something stronger, more secure, and easier to use.
By attacking Microsoft’s hold on the business and professional realm, Apple can create a trickle-down effect that could grant them a firm grasp over the major market groups permanently. In the words of Horace, “Carpe diem.”
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April 9th, 2007
[...] Full article here: Source [...]
April 10th, 2007
In January, we were all set to upgrade 2 desktops and 3 laptops to Vista. Now, we’re looking at Macs and wondering if the whole office should switch over.
http://goukblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/dear-bill-gates-where-are-20m-vista.html
April 10th, 2007
I would question whether or not Apple has the digital realm. It’s not secret they control the MP3 player market and while it used to be true that Apple used to be the choice for graphics and audio professionals, there is almost no difference between the software packages on Macs and PCs. You can get PhotoShop for Macs, you can get PhotoShop for PCs… and so on…
iWorks is not part of OSX and must be purchased separately, when it comes down to that, I’d rather get NeoOffice for OSX.
Macs have inferior hardware for gaming, not processor or memory wise but graphics wise. I’d like to have a Mac Pro with a Geforce 8800 series to do some serious gaming on the Windows side… it’s not an option in the Apple Store though I suppose you could install one yourself… whether or not it would work is another story.
That being said with its current attitude and lack of supported graphics cards, Apple will never have the gaming market.
I do like the simplicity of Macs and the design of their laptops, I can’t see myself with a Mac desktop any time soon because of the lack of graphic card options but I think I’m ready to toss my PC laptop in favor of a MacBook Pro.
April 10th, 2007
Are Vista’s failures the boost Apple needs to get ahead in business?
Apple is poised to launch the greatest offensive on the Microsoft stronghold in computing history. Though Apple’s popularity and support in consumer homes has reached an all-time high, the only way Apple can successfully overthrow the Microsoft regim…
April 10th, 2007
In regards to Apple controlling the digital media realm, I would have to restate that they do. I know many people who are professional photographers, digital artists, graphical designers, and they all recognize apple as superior. Though Adobe is available for PC, true digital media professionals gravitate towards Mac…this is evidenced by Adobe catering CS3 specifically to Mac; they wouldn’t have done so if Mac wasn’t the preferred platform for these applications. In regards to the rest of the digital media world, check out Aperture, and do some research as to what machines put together LOTR and 300…Macs were responsible.
iWorks is not included, however neither is Office included with Windows. iWorks is much more intuitive; look at Windows 2k7…it is simply an effort to implement the quality and simplicity of iWorks.
My article makes it fairly clear that Apple is not in control of the gaming market…however, with the advent of Intel processors, you can install whatever graphics card you like on a Mac Pro…this is no different than any other PC you would want a nice graphics card in. Obviously Macs are not catering to gaming as of yet; if you look at the progression I outlined of how Mac can take over the computer world, you will notice that the gaming industry FOLLOWS the home and office..as of yet Apple does not have that, and thus they have not specifically marketed their machines towards gaming.
If you are considering the iMac the “desktop”, you have to remember the iMac is designed for normal consumer in-home use. However, if you want to do high-end gaming, just like anything else you would need to purchase a customizeable tower…which the Mac Pro is. In fact, the hardware of a Mac Pro is superior to other normal towers now, specifically with the 8-core processors being integrated. Your gaming would be better, hardware-wise, on a Mac Pro.
Truthfully there is no distinction between the Mac Pro and any other tower, save software and perhaps superior case design. You should really research the options included in the Mac Pro before ruling it out for next-gen gaming. How many major producers do you know allow you to customize a tower with 4 Geforce 7300 GTs or a Quadro FX 4500, an 8 core processor, 3 terabytes of storage, and 16 gigabytes of RAM? Oh yeah, and OS X instead of Vista? Tell me THAT wouldn’t be an adequate gaming machine.
April 10th, 2007
As an IT professional that has used nothing but Windows since Windows 3.1, I am now planning on buying my first MAC since I can now have the best of both worlds running Windows on the MAC. I would think a strategy to convert the world to MAC would be to get the IT people converted and initially concentrate on the home users. Once more people are converted to MACs at home, the 800lb gorilla in the business world could be more easily swayed. The problem with attacking the business world initially is that IT people wouldn’t be able to support the paradigm shift with the users. Thousands would call in asking how to do this and that on the MAC. The IT department would be unable to support this even if they wanted to switch. But as I convert I’m talking to other IT professionals about switching who in turn tell their non-IT friends who in turn tell their friends, etc. When the common user sees their respected gurus switch, they will consider switching. When the common user switches, as employees the will ask their IT Dept to be switched once they are familiar with MACs. When done this way, the force for moving the 800lb gorilla comes from within rather than from outside, and, I think, would be much more successful.
April 12th, 2007
I would have to agree with Richard D… Apple would have much more success converting home/student users than large professional entities. Although small businesses that focus on media/PR work are already Apple users, large, stodgy organizations like the federal government or financial institutions still perform much of their work on IBM Z/OS mainframes along with UNIX distributed systems and Windows PCs for end users.
These large organizations have conservative cultures and are under the powerful influence of certain vendors. It is very difficult as it is to switch to an open source (FREE!) platform such like Linux, which is already in the door. It would be even more of a stretch for something proprietary and relatively alien like OSX to be considered.
Apple’s best bet is to maintain the lead in media/design, keep pushing into homes and schools, then work itself upwards to large, professional organizations.
April 14th, 2007
[...] My colleague Triston McIntyre recently wrote a piece Are Vista’s failures the boost Apple needs to get ahead in business? where he speculated whether Vista’s shortcomings might help Apple sell more Macs to business. Well the truth of the matter is that generally “business” takes a dim view of computer companies that divert resources from building computers to building boy toys like the iPod. I don’t recall Microsoft diverting resources from Vista to build the Zune, for example. In January Apple announced a $1 billion net profit for the previous quarter. Surely some of this money could have been used to hire more staff if the company really felt it needed more resources to finish both Leopard and the iPhone on time. Perhaps if Apple managed the announcement of the delay of Leopard a little more professionally, rather than issuing a rather sickly-sweet, awkward press release, people might be a little more understanding. I think it’s become clearer where Apple’s priorities lie and it’s not in making computers. All I can say is thank goodness we will still have Linux to provide some real competition to Windows. [...]
May 2nd, 2007
[...] My colleague Triston McIntyre recently wrote a piece Are Vista’s failures the boost Apple needs to get ahead in business? where he speculated whether Vista’s shortcomings might help Apple sell more Macs to business. Well the truth of the matter is that generally “business†takes a dim view of computer companies that divert resources from building computers to building boy toys like the iPod. I don’t recall Microsoft diverting resources from Vista to build the Zune, for example. In January Apple announced a $1 billion net profit for the previous quarter. Surely some of this money could have been used to hire more staff if the company really felt it needed more resources to finish both Leopard and the iPhone on time. Perhaps if Apple managed the announcement of the delay of Leopard a little more professionally, rather than issuing a rather sickly-sweet, awkward press release, people might be a little more understanding. I think it’s become clearer where Apple’s priorities lie and it’s not in making computers. All I can say is thank goodness we will still have Linux to provide some real competition to Windows. [...]
June 15th, 2007
“It is no secret that Apple controls the digital media realm. Graphic designers, video editors, and musicians would all agree that Apple computers simply outperform PC’s in this field.”
Not the true !
Take a breath outside Mac world, sometimes !
Just 50 / 50 at this time. I coud put here so many links. But this page is so small for that !
January 2nd, 2008
Jack…
Thanks, I recently started my own business so this type of post is of great interest to me. Keep it up
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