Geez Louise this has gotta sting and more than a little. To date, two of the more prominent Web metrics firms have pegged Microsoft’s operating system launch somewhere between good for Apple and the Mac, to better than Vista. So much for a holiday home run for Redmond this Christmas shopping season.
The good news for Microsoft over the last week or so is that Windows 7 has seen its share of Web traffic rise by nearly three-quarters from just under 2 percent to around 3.5 percent. The bad news is that the company, at least by this same overall measure, is still losing market share to Apple and its category defining Mac OS X.
And they went ahead and did it anyway. At least three hours after new product hit the streets on Tuesday morning, the company has — better late than never — released updated iMacs, MacBooks, Mac minis (including a server edition, baby!) and a multi-touch mouse.
The world beyond the 1 Infinite Loop woke this morning with visions of ultra-thin iMacs dancing in their heads, but Apple has left us guessing once again. Thereupon, with Microsoft to set begin its Vista SP4 Windows 7 assault, Steve Jobs and his merry band of deviants have already disrupted Redmond’s best laid plans by doing nothing.
Of course the Windows fan boys will whimper and whinge that one or another aspect of these tests aren’t “fair” or otherwise inaccurate. Nevertheless, this is just the latest in a string of many comparisons, going back over four or five years that show the Mac is just plain faster, better and longer lasting.
It’s earnings season and evident joy is emanating from 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California. Moreover, the stars and planets are aligning to both humiliate Microsoft on the eve of the Windows 7 launch and deliver another stunning holiday quarter for the Mac, iPod and iPhone maker.
The world is all abuzz with hype about the upcoming release of Windows 7 and some pundits have even gone so far as to predict that Redmond’s “new” operating system will help it claw back market share gains made by Apple’s OS X over the past few years. If past performance is anything to go by, however, Cupertino’s Mac masters have little to worry about.
Apple’s share of the enterprise market has stalled south of 10 percent and, although worth billions, it probably won’t be growing in any big way any time soon. The villains? Corporate IT departments, of course, which can’t see the dollars for the cents, which is the argument of old — Macs cost too much and are too much trouble.
Industry analysts say that sales of Snow Leopard, aka OS 10.6, are extremely strong and continue to set records compared to previous releases in the first several weeks after launch.
Unsurprisingly, as Mac unit volume has held up and even returned to growth in the first half of 2009, the market for books about coding for the fairer platform have done well, too. Of course, although still tops in terms of volume, sales of Windows related titles have plummeted.
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