Tech Blog

[#1]

This is the week the war could be decided.  At the very least it's being taken to the next level.

The marketshare battle between Mac and PC has never been a fair fight.  The cycles of product releases between the companies was never on par, and while Apple has soared for the past few years with each release of it's hardware and software, Microsoft has been spinning their wheels (Vista). 

Now things will get interesting as in less than 72 hours forces in Redmond and Cupertino lined up their best efforts.  It's the equivalent of an all star game.  The best and shiniest from Apple against the best and shiniest from Microsoft. 

First to fire this week was Apple.

While the Apple operating system has hummed along for the past few years, the summer release of Snow Leopard was seen as little more than a service pack upgrade by some analysts.  The basic argument being the product didn't deserve all the hype it received and it wasn't quite ready for prime time.  That said, (now I sound like a fan boy) the big winners for Apple has always been the hardware side.

Sure, the software is more stable and iTunes has been the biggest winner in getting apps on iPhones and songs in iPods, but the honey that is bringing the bees to the Apple hive is the hardware.  The design is beautiful and elegant. Yes, there is an Apple Tax to be paid for these premium products, but the blend of esthetics from the hardware with user experience in the software is a spoonful of sugar to help the price tag go down.

Here's the new sexy from the Apple press release this week:

An all new iMac line featuring LED-backlit 21.5 and 27-inch widescreen displays in a new edge-to-edge glass design and seamless all aluminum enclosure. The new iMac line, is the fastest ever with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for up to twice the performance.* Every new iMac ships with a wireless keyboard and the all new wireless Magic Mouse, the world’s first mouse with Multi-Touch™ technology pioneered by Apple on the iPhone®, iPod touch® and Mac® notebook trackpad.

“The iMac is widely praised as the best desktop computer in the world and today we are making it even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With brilliant LED displays and the revolutionary Magic Mouse, the new iMac delivers an amazing desktop experience that we think customers will love.”

“The new MacBook includes many of the great features found on the innovative MacBook Pro, such as an LED-backlit display, glass Multi-Touch trackpad and built-in long-life battery,” said. “With the only lineup of notebooks all featuring unibody enclosures, LED-backlit displays and long-life battery technology, there’s never been a better time to switch to a Mac.”

Tomorrow Microsoft's Windows 7 will land.

While Vista spun it's wheels with a longer than anticipated development cycle leading to a less than adequate product, by all accounts Windows 7 more than makes up for the past few years of frustration.  Many businesses, the heart and soul of the windows marketplace, didn't bother with the Vista upgrade.

Many of us wait for new OS upgrades before buying new hardware.  The negative publicity over Vista kept many consumers not only away from the software upgrade, but away from hardware upgrades during the entire Vista lifecycle.

Now with a celebrated operating system landing on the heels of a summer campaign that hammered home the price advantages of Windows based machines, the buying binge will begin.

As we blast in to the busiest buying season of the year, recession or not, you've finally got a tough decision to make: Mac or PC, which will it be?

Andy Walker, a tech analyst who has literally written the books for many Windows products, had an interesting post on Facebook last week. "More of my dollars than ever go to Apple and not Microsoft these days. Maybe I should buy a nice MacBook Pro, you know to run Windows 7."

catch the buzz ... pass it on.

Message Edited by buzzbishop on 10-21-2009 12:17 PM

Message Edited by buzzbishop on 10-21-2009 12:19 PM

Message Edited by Laura on 12-09-2009 02:29 PM

[#2]

Apple tax? Give us a break on this Microsoft given phrase. While it seems you pay more for a Mac, not one PC has iLife software, a Mac doesn't need virus security, has a MUCH better OS, and JUST WORKS! Microsoft on the other hand has no iLife, you would need to spend another $5-600 to come even close, needs virus/spware/etc. protection ($???), and my personally favourite of paying $60-90 or more for repair after you get that lovely virus with a good chance that you will lose your photos, etc. when the hard drive has to be wiped. Plus, what's your hourly time worth for not having the computer especially if you do business with it? And the upgrade from XP to Windows 7... you need to WIPE your hard drive? Sorry but after almost 10 years of OS X, I've never wiped any system to upgrade. What a hassle! That to me is a major M$ tax! Sorry but over the last 10 years, I have NOT seen M$ innovate and Vista was a major flop. This is pathetic considering they are richest software company in the world. Just goes to show that money does not necessarily buy innovation. 

Ian Graham

www.smalldogstudio.com