Windows 7 will give 'heck of a Christmas' — Microsoft CEO says new PC designs cooler than Apple

Tech Radar ^ | 07/30/2009 | By Mark Harris in Seattle

[Swordmaker]

Ballmer expects Windows 7 to grab share from Apple In a bullish presentation to financial analysts today, Steve Ballmer promised Windows 7 PCs that would 'overturn the conventional wisdom that Apple has the coolest hardware'.

He also described Apple's impact on Microsoft sales this year as 'a rounding error', saying that; "Apple's share globally costs us nothing."

"Hopefully we will take share back from Apple," said Ballmer, "But they sell only about 10 million computers globally so it's a limited opportunity."

Taking a bite out of Apple

Ballmer said that research data showed that Microsoft adverts targetting Apple's prices were working, claiming that three times as many 18-24 year olds now think that Microsoft represents better value than Apple - a reverse of the situation before the commercials ran.

"We don't believe in coming to market like Apple - high margin, high quality, high price. We believe in high volume and low price," Ballmer told the Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting. "Investors are pushing us to spend more money on this marketing."

Ballmer also released the latest data on Windows 7: 8 million copies of the release candidate have been downloaded; half of IT managers plan to upgrade to Windows 7 'as soon as it's available'; and 80 per cent intend to move within 30 months.

The Microsoft boss revealed a change in pricing strategy for Windows 7 in developing countries: "We did a programme to cut the price of Windows in emerging markets. The theory was that lower prices would lead to higher attach rates and higher revenues. That theory was wrong, so for Windows 7 we'll readjust those prices north."

He also had a few words to say about open source rivals, noting that: "It's hard to build ecosystem momentum with a chaotic operating system like Linux," and gloating over expected delays to Android-based netbooks.

[SmokingJoe]

“But then he'd be lying.”

Nope.
He'd be telling it as it is.
HP for example has as much a reputation for quality, as any other company, going back to since the company was founded by Hewlett and Packard. I have been using HP laptops for years without any problems. Sam with Compaq(got that name by combining Compatibility and Quality) who's very name was synonymous with quality from the get go. They ended up being bought by HP.

[RichardW]

I’ve used all three, XP, Vista and Windows 7. They all work fine and the latest better than the one before. I’ve got three copies of Windows 7 on the way to me as soon as it is released. There is no point in staying in the past. The newer computers have plenty of RAM and all of the nay saying about Vista is silly. It works fine. I’m working from Windows 7 on this laptop but my desktops have Vista and they work equally fine. Just do it.

[antiRepublicrat]

The entire kernel was re-written from XP to Vista

Incorrect. Windows Server 2003 was an evolutionary update from the Windows XP codebase. Vista was an evolutionary update from the Server 2003 codebase.

with huge improvements in security and every aspect of the operating system(that's why Vista took over 5 years to make

Incorrect. Vista took five years because of poor vision and management. The project lead, Jim Allchin, described Vista development as "crashing into the ground." They completely lost sight of what they wanted to ship. Vista was originally built on the XP codebase, but that was junked in 2004 with a complete project reset, restarting with the 2003 codebase and using a new development process.

In addition, resources were pulled from Vista development, essentially stalling it, while Microsoft concentrated on XP Service Pack 2 after the infamous 2003 Summer of Worms.

Win 7 really polishes up what was started in Vista.

Win 7 is the culmination of a project that was started in 2000, before Vista. You may see some similarities in technology because some features destined for Win 7 ended up in Vista.

Even Vista was a heck of a lot more than a mere incremental over XP

As stated, Vista was a two-generation incremental over XP.

You'd think an avid Microsoft fan would know his Microsoft history.

[SmokingJoe]

“Didn't MS do this by themselves with Vista? (Zing!) “

# 1. Them vicious Apple ads were running long, long, long before Vista was even launched, while XP and Win 2000 were being shipped.
# 2. While Vista initially had plenty of compatibility issues with software that run on XP and Win 2000(mostly because of the huge security improvements for Vista they out in by rewriting the kernel), and couldn't run fast enough on some of the 512 MB laptops that they put Vista on, those issues were resolved pretty quickly as most PC’s started shipping with over 1GB RAM, and new software was written specifically for Vista.
# 3. Irrespective of whatever issues Vista may have had, in business, you hit back and hit back hard at any competitor that is busy attacking you every day. It's not even an issue.

” I realize it is a weird time for them with a pretty well hated version of Windows on the way out and what is supposed to be a much better version soon to hit”

My Vista works just fine on my laptop, thank you.
And of course there is always a new version of Windows or any other operating system on the way in a few year's time.
These Microsoft ads have even running for some time now. It's not like they started one day before Win 7 ships.
And most of the points being made in the ads, will apply equally to Win 7 too.

“I realize price can be a major determining factor, but that doesn't really say anything about the quality of their product.”

To 90% of PC buyers on the planet, price, and the ability to run all their applications and games , are the only things that matter.
Why pay more for a machine that can't even run your vital apps, unless you go and buy another copy of Windows and install it again on your mac? And that is after spending a fortune on your mac in the first place. Don't make sense to me, and it don't make sense to most consumers either.

“”But that isn't what they are doing. They are running ads promoting a product they don't sell
......If Dell or HP or Acer or any hardware makers were running these ads it would make sense. “

There is no question these ads are being done in conjunction with HP and Dell. You can't go about making ads to sell someone else’s products without your marketing people working it out with their marketing people. And why should Apple care if Microsoft is doing ads for HP anyways? HP sell more Windows machines than any other company on the planet. It would make sense for Microsoft to spend money pushing HP comouters.

“Or if MS was running ads to compare Win 7 to OS X, that would make sense coming from MS. I just don't get advertising a product you don't make’

Win 7 will sell like hot cakes alright. No question.
Read above.

“The Mac owner in me wants to say because they don't have a lot of reasons to throw out to the average user these days, but I will refrain.”

Window runs all the apps that the average computer users needs?

[SmokingJoe]

“Windows Server 2003 was an evolutionary update from the Windows XP codebase. Vista was an evolutionary update from the Server 2003 codebase.”

Huh?
Win Sever 2003 is a server operating system
As far as desktops are concerned, the next operating system after XP was Vista.

“Incorrect”

Correct.

“Vista took five years because of poor vision and management. The project lead, Jim Allchin, described Vista development as “crashing into the ground.” “

Jim Allchin also said Vista was one of the most complex, biggest software pojects ever undertaken, and he was right.

“They completely lost sight of what they wanted to ship.”

They knew exactly what they wanted to put in Vista. It just turned out it was much harder and complex than they first thought it wuld be. The ended up leaving out some of the features they initially planned to put into Vista. Like all major, very complex projects, you tend to have hiccups along the way.
NASA has them. The Manhattan Project had them. Practically every major complex project ever undertaken has them

“Win 7 is the culmination of a project that was started in 2000, before Vista. “

Win 7, is the direct continuation of what was started in Vista, not Win 2000. Of course all new versions of Windows would have some parts traced to Win 2000, and even NT3.1, NT 4 etc, but Win 7 follows directly on from Vista, not 2000.

“As stated, Vista was a two-generation incremental over XP.”

It wasn't.
Win 2003 is a the server operating system, and Vista is a desktop operating system. Vista wasn't developed from Win 2003 base code. Vista was stated even before XP shipped, from XP base code, not win 2003 server base code.

[Mr. Blonde]

What apps does Mac not run that the average user needs?

Most people I know run games on a gaming console these days. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is WoW and it is Mac compatible.

Since switching to Mac their have been exactly 3 things I can’t do, and one of them is MS’s fault. Office for Mac 2008 does not support Macros. I can sync my BB, but I can’t upgrade the software from a Mac, although this will be fixed in September. And the software my school uses for people to take tests on their computer is Windows only, but I prefer to write my tests anyway. Other than that, I have not run into anything I have desired to do that I cannot do. I have turned down copies of Windows and Fusion because I have no need for them.

Other things like Mail, iCal, Address Book exchange support is coming in September as well.

In most cases even if the exact app is not on Mac, there is an alternative to use. Maybe I’m just an abnormal user who isn’t using the things that others use daily.

It just seems to me that taking the long view of things you get your money back on a Mac. My dad was going through a PC laptop a year at around 1,200 a pop. Then I convinced him to switch to Mac after a Toshiba crapped out on him in about 3 months and they would fix it. It still works almost 4 years later, but he upgraded to an Intel Mac. About a month after he got it he was flying and the airline dropped his computer putting some pretty good dents in it. We took it to an Apple store and they ran diagnostics on it and said it was still in good shape and as I said it is still fine. I know there are PC laptops out there designed to handle similar shocks but they are purpose built to handle that type of shock. Macs on the whole just seem tougher. Instead of dents, the case on a PC laptop would have been in pieces.

[DCBurgess58]

Vista would not accept any of my legacy software

I managed to get all my legacy softwares running on Vista by authorizing them in the User Account Control. It may sound like a pain but it's actually not a big deal. I have no issues with the UAC because it helps keep malicious programs from executing on my computer. I freaking hate hackers.

[SmokingJoe]

“Rewind a few years and you could substitute “Windows Vista” for “Windows 7”. The exact same comments were being made then as now.”

Nope.
Unless you are gonna tell me Vista was freely available to ANY member of the public to down load and install on their computer for free, and that to the tune of 8 million ordinary consumers(not the techies), installed Vista and were raving over it, before Vista was launched.
That was clearly NOT the ase.
Win 7 is currently being used by 8 million ordinary members of the public, on their normal, ordinary computers(some of them pretty old), and it simply rocks, and it's still in beta.
It installs smoothly, recognizes all your devices, runs all your apps, and runs as smooth as old brandy with nary a hiccup, and it runs better than Vista on the same hardware And this is all on Win 7 on beta code.
Vista never did all that in beta.

[SmokingJoe]

“Most people I know run games on a gaming console these days”

Some use consoles, some use Windows PC's.
You seem to forget that sales of PC game download services like steam, have been hitting record levels in recent years.
Even for console gamers, if you only own a Wii or PS2, and you wanna play hot games like Fallout 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, you are gonna have to play it on your Windows PC.

As for the rest of your post, my own HP laptops over the past few years have worked fine for me. They are not “in peaces’, they work fine even though I use them as work horses, and right now I am happily enjoying Win 7 on my latop.

[WVKayaker]

Funny. I have one and I haven’t even turned it on in four months.

Your screen name seems appropriate. Why would you own a Mac and not use it at all? How old is it? I'm not doubting your veracity, just questioning your reasoning. I may buy it from you.

I have Macs, and I use Windows XP SP2 on one of them. It allows me to run the only other Microsoft program I want. I am a part-time pilot, and MicroSucks quit supporting the Mac version long ago. I use FSX for Windoze. I keep that machine off the internet. Otherwise, it would likely get the cooties and flu's associated with Gates and Co.

My Macs are run naked, with the best guardians I know. They live in CAlifornia...

[antiRepublicrat]

Exactly what Apple designs are these that Apple actually invented that Microsoft has “ripped off”?

PC makers have been copying Apple designs since the original iMac. Dell and Gateway currently have iMac clones, and most phone manufacturers are attempting to copy the iPhone. The Zune came out looking suspiciously like an iPod. That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more.

It's been argued on some internet sites a few years back, that Vista had some features that appeared first in Vista before they appeared in OS X.

It's possible. Which features were you thinking of? If you think of it, the OS X Dock can be said to be a copy of the Windows Task Bar. That's probably why the Dock receives many of the usability complaints.

At an approximate $50 per copy for OEM’s

$50-$60 estimated for the low version. Still $500 million is a lot of money for any company, definitely something on the radar.

I also like this purely for how laughable it is given that most of Microsoft's commercials lately have been designed to respond to Apple. Obviously someone's worried.

[TheBattman]

No - what I was saying is, that at about this point before Vista’s release, all the pre-release reviews and publicity read exactly like what I quoted above. I didn’t imply anything about Vista being released for free like Windows 7 has been.

And I would be rather disappointed with Balmer and MS if they didn’t learn some really huge lessons from the Vista mistake. I know LOTS of people who bought new computers in the last two years who immediately wiped the drives and installed XP. That says something.

[TheBattman]

1. Them vicious Apple ads were running long, long, long before Vista was even launched, while XP and Win 2000 were being shipped.

Would those "vicious Apple ads" you are referring to be the ones that were 100% accurate?

[Crusher138]

I have a couple of XP machines running and I will be very hesitant to upgrade to Windows 7.

A few questions:

Will the $195 upgrade to Ultimate upgrade XP?
Will my existing apps work after the upgrade? I am running QuickBooks Premier 2008 and QuickBooks doesn't have the best track record when it comes to OS upgrades.
I run credit card authorization software that seems to be VERY OS specific. Will that still work?
My t-shirt printer uses proprietary software that only runs under XP and has had issues with Vista. Will that work?

Just the hassle of having to ask these questions makes me wish I had been able to go 100% Mac, but until Intuit and some other vendors port their products I am stuck with at least a little MS in my life. :-(

[Poser]

Your screen name seems appropriate. Why would you own a Mac and not use it at all? How old is it? I'm not doubting your veracity, just questioning your reasoning. I may buy it from you.

I have a Mac mini from two years ago and a 24" Imac purchased in November. I bought it because people were raving about Macs and my job requires me to keep up on the latest microcomputers.

In my office I have:
• 2 PCs, one Intel, one AMD (I built them both)
• 2 Macs, one Mini and one Imac
• 2 Linux machines one Fedora, one Ubuntu (I built these as well)

Our Exchange system doesn't play well with the Macs. The business software isn't as capable as the PC versions. I use Access for my small databases.

Frankly, I haven't found anything that the Macs do better than my PCs and the Linux boxes are much more fun to play with.

I do not find the Mac user interface to be any better than either XP or Gnome; Different, but not better.

The extra thousand I paid for the Imac yielded only a pretty white computer. It works fine. It looks fine. My usage results indicate that I far prefer the XP-PCs and even the Ubuntu computers. I haven't turned on the Fedora box in a long while either.

The Poser thing has to do with riding motorcycles. I never ride my motorcycles. No one has ever seen me ride. I just stand near them posing and looking great. Somebody else must be stealing them at night and adding all the miles.

[discostu]

You can’t upgrade from XP to 7. Of course really you shouldn’t. One of the biggest sources of pain in the Windows world since 3.11 sent away was upgrade, Windows has just never been any good at it. I’ve got a machine with XP that will be plenty capable of handling 7, my plan when I decide to go ahead and get 7 (which will happen the first time they make 64-bit Madden) is to buy another HDD and clean install there with dual boot. I ‘ll install any apps I want available under 7 clean there, then when I turn it on it’ll be decisions time.

[WVKayaker]

So, you can't run Windoze on your Macs. Everybody else seems capable. The hardware is definitely easier to use. It seems that you could have the best of both worlds, but are stuck within your mindset.

So how much money do you make as a network administrator? Are you too heavily invested in making sure the status is quo? My seven year old grandson is my 4 Mac administrator. He showed me how to do some things with my iPhone, too...

[SmokingJoe]

“Would those “vicious Apple ads” you are referring to be the ones that were 100% accurate? “

As “100% accurate” as the Microsoft ads against the mac, which had Apple's lawyers all steamed up and in a huff so much they called a top exec at Microsoft and whined?
Off the top of my head lets just look at some of the big lies in your so-caled “100% accurate” mac attack ads agnst Windows PC's shall we?

LIE: - Macs have embedded webcams, PCs don't.
FACT: PCs had embedded webcams way before Macs had any.

LIE: - Macs don't have security vulnerabilities, PCs do.
FACT: Just look at Apple's OS updates and you will find dozens of security holes fixed in each update. The most ironic thing about that ad was that the same month the ad started appearing, a new OSX update was released that had 5x (I think it was 54) security vulnerability fixes in it.

LIE: - Macs have all-in-ones, PCs don't.
FACT: Both PCs and Macs have all-in-one versions. There were many all-in-one PCs (very nice models from Sony, HP and Dell).

LIE: - Macs make better home movies, PCs can't.
FACT: There are plenty of superior video editing solutions for PCs, let alone the question of “if” they can.

LIE: - Macs have better device support than PCs. (the japanese woman with camera ad)
FACT: This is by far the biggest lie of all. _ALL_ devices have Windows support, only some of them have Mac support. Macs are a closed hardware system, PC world is completely open to new hardware.

LIE: - Macs have automatic backup, PCs don't.
FACT: Windows had automatic backup (in XP) way before Mac had any.

I could go on and on... But just one of these is enough proof that Apple is full of lies. When they lie about PCs, it is somehow okay, when others tell them that Apple is overpriced (simply proven by looking at price tags at the time the ad was filmed), it is not okay! Yeah right.

[mikeus_maximus]

three times as many 18-24 year olds now think that Microsoft represents better value than Apple - a reverse of the situation before the commercials ran.

Let's see: 3 x 1% = 3%. He's right!

As a non-IT person, I came to despise PCs' vulnerability. Yeah, individually they were cheaper than Macs- but I had to buy three of them to get the same useful life, not to mention the costs of tech help I needed to get rid of viruses and poor performance!

There's a reason IT repair guys say Macs hurt their business.

[SmokingJoe]

” - what I was saying is, that at about this point before Vista’s release, all the pre-release reviews and publicity read exactly like what I quoted above”

That's just the point.
The pre-release reviews for Vista and publicity did NOT in fact read just like for Win 7.
More than that, most corporates did NOT in fact commit to deploying Vista before release, like they have for win 7, which now has a staggering 50% of corporates ready to deploy Win 7 at once and 80% of corporates ready to deployg in just 30 months, because of all the positive feedback they have been getting from the Win 7 beta/RC1. That's simply umprecdented.