I think Apple is close to getting me here with this 27" iMac. If I want Windows 7 I can run it on there, too!
Posted on 10/24/2009 4:16:49 AM PDT by Swordmaker
I think the saying goes that those that don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it.
This is likely to point with Apple this month as they sit stunned that Windows 7 is doing so well and they are left looking foolish with products priced out of the segment. Their big news this week was a couple of PCs, a new keyboard and a multi-touch mouse. This last will likely go down in history as one of the lamest devices yet as they should know, given the iPhone, that touch is connected to the screen and not anything else. They likely would have done better putting fir on the damn thing and building it to fart the star spangled banner at least that would have been patriotic.
Apple is clearly one of the strongest marketing companies in any industry and Steve Jobs is a considered to be a master while Microsoft in recent years hasn’t really seemed to be in their league. This goes to the core, no pun intended, of how Microsoft blindsided Apple and left the firm looking like they had given the PC market back to Microsoft. The other part is that Apple is now fighting on two fronts against two powerful companies for the first time since the 80s. Let’s talk about this while we think of that poor challenged Apple mouse.
Windows 95 and Historic Mistakes
Apple, back in 1995, while Steve Jobs was on his forced vacation from the company I met with them and suggested they needed to bring up their game because Windows 95 had a lot of positive buzz and they were in danger of being trivialized. The Apple executives, most of whom were let go in the following years or fired by Steve Jobs, told me they had it well in hand and that, after all, Windows 95 was simply a bad copy of the 1988 version of the MacOS.
A few record selling days, and lines around the block, later they felt differently but were unprepared to take advantage of Microsoft’s mistake and so began what was a slide into bankruptcy saved only by Steve Jobs return. The mistake that Microsoft made was they hadn’t budgeted for sustaining marketing. This allowed Apple a huge opportunity to point out Windows 95 problems and showcase their product in a favorable light. But they weren’t prepared and missed the opportunity.
However Microsoft made this same mistake every year following and Steve Jobs finally started to pick up on this with Vista and the Mac vs. PC campaign is his historic response to Microsoft’s classic mistake. But the mistake was in two parts, a product that had problems at release and an inability to market the product’s advantages because the Microsoft team had no money left.
Windows 7: A New Hope
Windows 7 is coming out of the gate with only one known issue and that appears to be tied to problematic Flash update Adobe did in August that most may never actually see. Not only is this a short problem list the issue should track quickly back to Adobe and not damage the launch much. In edition Microsoft didn’t blow their entire budget before the product actually hit the stores and has a substantial sustaining marketing budget. This means, this time, both the product and the marketing program is in relatively good shape and instead of being tired and vulnerable, Microsoft is ready for war.
Steve Jobs and Apple clearly planned for the same traditional behavior and were completely unprepared for both the quality of Windows 7 and the fact Microsoft has a war chest this time. Their near pathetic recent release of a couple slightly improved PCs and a couple peripherals showcases this. They figured they could easily skate through the next few months because, traditionally, Microsoft would be vulnerable and not able to fight back.
Second Front
However this isn’t their only problem. Verizon, Google and Motorola have opened a second front with the Droid iCan’t campaign (this is actually rather funny) that targets the iPhones weaknesses. None of these companies has any love for Apple. Verizon thinks Apple has been trying to blackmail them into a contract they don’t want to sign, Google’s CEO was just fired from their board and Apple booted Google Voice from the iPhone, and Motorola was burned by the ROKR joint venture with Apple. Each of these companies thinks of Apple as a firm they would like to squash and while separately they represent little risk, collectively they are the strongest carrier (in terms of size and customer satisfaction), the most powerful web company, and the firm who had the hot phone (Razor) before the iPhone.
This combination of the Microsoft budget and the Droid attack splits Apple’s resources and focus and makes it vastly more difficult for the firm to respond timely or well. The end result is an unprecedented exposure.
Wrapping Up:
Two good lessons here, even when you are on top it is very foolish to under estimate a competitor with Microsoft’s resources because they can actually get it right, and picking too many fights at once can take out the most powerful of entities just as it took out a nearly unbeatable Germany in the second world war.
With Steve Jobs in Apple the firm can respond to threats like this one very quickly but only if they see it coming in time. I think they are likely to repeat the 1995 mistake and that means they probably won’t be either quick enough or effective enough to dodge this bullet. However, this is Apple after all and this fight is still young, it would also be very foolish to count them out early.
Regardless of the outcome, we are seeing history made this week and it’s an amazing time to be alive.
Rob Enderle is one of the last Inquiry Analysts. Inquiry Analysts are paid to stay up to date on current events and identify trends and either explain the trends or make suggestions, tactical and strategic, on how to best take advantage of them. Currently he provides his services to most of the major technology and media companies.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
With all due respect....
It is an insult that Apple's low price laptop is $999 for a puny 13.3" tinker toy
That laptop is suitable for a child's dollhouse
Numerous Windows laptops come in at $350-500 And you get a 15.6 inches screen
You don't get gypped by Steve Jobs with a 13.3" thang
The Apple cheerleaders here will start reeling off all the software features you get but who needs them? So what?
IOW Perfectly adequate laptops running Windows 7 are much less
And will do what you need such as word processing and internet and email etc
To get a 15" Apple laptop it will set you back $1599
I have no dog in this fight, since I don’t use Mac or Windows, but...
...if you’re going to criticize Apple for its political contributions, maybe you ought to look at:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638
where you will find that Microsoft was the fourth-biggest contributor to Barack Hussein Obama.
University of California $1,591,395
Goldman Sachs $994,795
Harvard University $854,747
Microsoft Corp $833,617
Google Inc $803,436
So, if you don’t want to contribute to leftist causes, your best bet is to run Linux (since it’s free).
Wow.. How many windows does Rush have open on that pc?
Siting out here on my porch with my Mac Book Pro, using my wireless keyboard, listening to Cigar Dave on my Iphone. Giving my wife an Ipod touch tomorrow, will be using my 24 in. Imac later. Oh Yes smoking a cigar. Thinking about getting another app. Ah, life is good. A former PC guy!!
The entire article is about a stuned beeber. However, not as series or hugh as stated.
He apparently makes enough money to buy drugs from somewhere. I doubt he will much longer, though.
Actually, I drive a Subaru but used to drive a Volkwagen. I drive those cars for the same reason why I use a Mac, not because they're trendy or I identify them but because they work and I don't have to spend any time to "administer" or "maintain" them.
It's been my experience that people who really like Windows are like people who buy cars to modify them or do all the maintenance themselves. They get a kick out wasting half their day upgrading every obscure utility on their computer to the latest revision or getting the gap on their spark plugs correct down to the micron. I have way too many other things making demands on my time for my home computer or my car to be a hobby, let alone another job.
I see you every day. I work in IT. You know what - my coworkers and I put our feet up on the desk drink coffee and tell stories about you. The cool pastel shirt.....
You see, I work in IT, too. My last three jobs have been at start-ups where the "IT people" are programmers, DBAs, system administrators, and desktop support for everyone else because there isn't an "IT department" full of people with their feet up on their desks laughing about Mac users to call. It's bad enough that I have to deal with Windows problems at work. Why would I want to deal with them at home, too?
But seriesly, don't you think the author might have been bitten by a moose?
If you don’t mind I will send your post straight to Steve Jobs. That should straighten Apple right out.
By the way, what is APPL’s stock price? Poor things!
It should work well. I use Parallels on a 15” MacBookPro and it does everything I need it to do. The only times my MBP has crashed has been when I was running windows.
Great points - I do wonder when the “programmers, DBAs, system administrators” etc. are thought of as IT people. I spend as much time getting their PC’s to work as most of them do in their jobs.
We do have a mac guy on staff but he is not really technical - just hand holds the graphics department. He doesn’t do the on-call rotation nor does setups or troubleshooting on anything other than that department. Wasted job as far as I am concerned but he is a nice guy - young kid - degree in graphic arts.
As far as working on the car - I don’t see a correlation - I’m the only one in my shop (40 or so guys and gals)who does anything with a vehicle other than putting gas in it a driving. I do drive them occasionally to the dealer to get their cars.
- have a good weekend.
I'm with you on this - and when that "clock is cleaned" I want Microsoft to come out with some ads that "fight back"...
Probably at least 10 maybe more? I tend to do the same thing when I’ve working in my art/embroidery programs because I’m working between screens editing on one, importing into another, etc. and it’s easy to do that without any complaints from the computer.
Closed at 203.94 on Friday. MS stock closed at 28.02.
If not yet he soon will be, or at least his sister will be.
Do you think we have been Freeping too long?
:-)
Thanks chris! I didn't realize Jmouse's advice would work so quickly! Maybe in the future SJ and Apple will do some things right.
I think Apple is close to getting me here with this 27" iMac. If I want Windows 7 I can run it on there, too!
Punched cards got a mid-career boost when IBM introduced the 129 buffered keypunch. On previous models, you typed on a QWERTY keyboard, and each keystroke punched the appropriate holes in the next card column. If you made a mistake, you ejected the card, duped it onto a new card up to your error, and typed on. With the buffered model, your keystrokes went into memory and were not punched into the card until you finished and hit release. So you could backspace and correct if you realized you'd messed up. However, no display. Only a two-character numeric column number. LCDs were not invented yet, and an 80-character LED display was too expensive.
Apple cut the prices of the Macbook Pro line a couple months ago. The 13.3" Macbook Pro starts at $1199, down from a starting price for the Pro line of $1699.
A 1979 Apple II is not and never was an Apple Macintosh. Even a pre 2001 Apple Mac is not, although quite a few were upgraded to be, an OS X Unix based Apple Mac. You display your ignorance, whipper snapper.
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