On Jun 9, 2009, at 9:16 PM, Wallace Adrian D'Alessio wrote:
> > That's right Apple, embrace Windows users and > alienate Mac true believers. Great business plan. Actually, since Apple's consistently profitable and is outperforming all the rest of the major PC manufacturers in this economy, I'd say damn straight it's a good business plan! What 'true believers' are they alienating? The ones who won't buy a new Mac every four to five years? What's in it for Apple to spend millions to keep supporting these people? Keeping 68K support in the Mac OS after the PPC transition helped kill the Mac OS during a time when Windows 95 and 98 were killing it in the market. It wasn't until 8.6 that the last of the 68K code was purged from the OS. Apple's misfortunes in the mid-late 90's can't be laid at the foot of the slow development of the classic OS, there were some remarkably stupid things done throughout the company, but the grim determination to maintain backwards compatibility DID doom all efforts to update the Mac OS into a modern form. OS X was a clean break, and Apple has steadily shed backwards compatibility throughout the product's lifetime. Beige G3's with 10.3, G3's with 10.5, G4's and G5's with 10.6. Apple doesn't need 'true believer' evangelists anymore. The last ten or so macs that have come into our building have been for people I would have never in a million years expected to switch. Those Windows users are coming over of their own accord; starting at the top...the Dean of the college and both department heads use 'em, and each of the 5 specialty research centers have Macs in 'em as well. Much of this is a DIRECT CONSEQUENCE of Apple's move to Intel. Like it or not, progress happens, and NO ONE who has been even peripherally involved with Apple and IT professionally should be the slighted surprised or angry with the move to Intel-only for 10.6. A great deal of the 'failure' of Vista can be ascribed to Microsoft when they lowballed the system requirements for Vista, to intimate that any system that could run XP would run Vista. They could, but horribly, horribly slowly. This was to Vista what the 'Doonesbury effect' was to the Newton: an early stumble that they never recovered from. Consumers stayed away in droves form upgrading, and since the solution was to buy a new computer, well, "Hell, I gotta buy a new computer anyway, and Jerry down the block who just got his Apple keeps raving about it, guess I'll check it out." This is business as usual for Apple, always has been. They have consistently dropped older systems whenever it would compromise performance and the user experience..the user experience is THE ONLY THING Apple sells. Not cool, or looks, or Steve's overinflated ego or any of the other crap you hear about: the difference between OS X and Windows is using the thing. The difference between the iPod and any of it's (now) distant competitors is not 'everybody has to have one to be cool' or 'stupid Apple fanbois', but the fact that it is staggeringly simple to to complex things with. The Dean of the college brought this home to me yesterday. He said " When I run into something I don't know how to do on the Mac, all I have to do is stop, calm down, and do what comes naturally, it almost always works. I only have trouble when I get stressed and start just trying things." That's a deep, deep level of UI design. Recent switchers are the evangelizing force behind new switchers. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to g3-5-list-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
