Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer shills Windows 7 on U.S. national TV in front of Apple Mac (with video)

Mac Daily News ^ | 10/24/2009

[Swordmaker]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appeared on NBC's Today Show on Thursday to shill his company's Vista service pack, er, "Windows 7" and spent the entire segment in front of an older model (note the latches above the screen) Apple MacBook Pro (courtesy of an NBC graphic designer — Mac user, no doubt — who must have a wicked sense of humor):


Direct link to video via Hulu here.



Of course, it's easy to run Windows 7 (or any other Windows version, Linux, etc.) and non-Mac applications on OS-unlimited Macs natively (via Apple's Boot Camp) and/or via fast virtualization (VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop for Mac) which is just another reason to Get a Mac. But, Ballmer T. Clown doesn't like that concept very much at all (a href="http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/9412/">Couldn’t you just buy a Mac and run Windows? Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘No, we prefer real PCs’) because he knows that when people get a Mac and really begin to use it, they never want to boot up Windows again if they can help it. Then they start to use iWork in place of Office and... suffice to say, it's bad for Microsoft's sales. Microsoft banks on ignorance; without it, they have nothing.

MacDailyNews Take: It must suck to work for Microsoft where important details routinely go left unchecked and, no matter where in the world you go, you're constantly surround by professionals who all use Apple Macs. Plus, every time you try to promote your inferior products, Apple's keep showing up in your TV appearances and even in your sloppy company's own ads that are, of course, also creating on Macs.

[ChessExpert]

It stopped working 6 months ago. I had the Apple store send it to depot for refurbishing at that time. Cost aside, it was a good experience.

Last week I upgraded to a larger hard disk. I can’t complain. I obtained a benefit for the cost.

After 8 days of use, the Mac would not boot up. (This is six months to the day after refurbishment). The Apple store will not touch it. It is no longer “vintage.” I took it to an independent retailer earlier today. The shop guy doesn’t work weekends, but it is in the queue for next week.

[Swordmaker]

I hear they are setting up Bootcamp for Win 7. I laughed my ass off.

Why? Windows7 RC has been running fine on Macs for months. If you want to talk about non-pre-installed, then probably the #1 will be iWork'09... or Microsoft Office for Mac. It won't be Windows.

I see numerous Macs and Mac users during the year and the percentage that have Windows installed in any way is less than 2%. I have several professional offices using Macs and only one of them has Windows... and it is installed only on one of the Macs in the office so that they can access an old vertical solution office management database of no-longer active patients. The Windows install is used maybe one time every two or three months... when a deadbeat patient finally pays a bill or a collection agency succeeds in getting some blood from a turnip and they have to bring back the dead account.

You make the classic Windows' user's error in assuming that there are lots of Windows applications for which there are no Macintosh equivalent apps and that a user will NEED to run Windows to do something they are used to doing. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

[Mr. Blonde]

Windows 7? Unlikely. Microsoft Office for Mac? Maybe, if you mean non-stock. Although even then, Firefox would probably beat it.

[cabojoe]

You make the classic Windows' user's error in assuming that there are lots of Windows applications for which there are no Macintosh equivalent apps and that a user will NEED to run Windows to do something they are used to doing. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I never said that and don't put words in my mouth. But, that's what you do.

[antiRepublicrat]

Beyond that, I'm failing to see how NBC-controlled Today Show background images are somehow secretly planted by Apple as a "gotcha."

No, it's just that Microsoft tends to use them, and that's kind of funny:

Actually, Macs are apparently popular at MS, aside from the actual Mac team they have there. I was working with an MS engineer a while back and he had, guess what, a MacBook Pro.

[Swordmaker]

That’s the difference between having no competition and having tons of competition. Only one company makes Apple, they can set the prices how ever they want; there’s a dozen major brands of PC makers plus custom build shops in pretty much every town, they compete on everything including and often especially price.

It's still not a monopoly.

Nor can Apple set the price to anything they want. There are laws of micro-economics that control what price a product will sell at. There are consequences if they ignore them.

• Currently Apple is selling every single computer they make at the prices they have set.
• Consumers are buying every single computer that Apple makes at the prices they are being offered for.
• Inventories are not rising.
• Inventories are not falling.

If Apple priced their computers too highly, then consumers would not buy, either eschewing a computer completely or selecting one from the competition, and that Apple Computer would remain on the shelf.

If Apple priced their computers too cheaply, then they would have a supply problem and could not keep their stores stocked with merchandise to sell because more consumers could buy them and Apple would have problems meeting demand. There is some strong evidence that iPhones are priced too cheaply because Apple is having trouble keeping the supply chain full of iPhones.

Ergo, since none of these things is happening, Apple computers are priced just right for the market that Apple has targeted.

There are more micro-economic laws that can show one how to maximize profits within the law of supply and demand and the range of prices implied by that law that Apple seems to know much better than its competition.

[Swordmaker]

Yeah. Easy for you to say. Tell me how I convert BookUp files?

You're right. It is easy for me to say. I don't play chess... at least not since I was in high school, some 45 years ago.

However, the maker of the BookUp software is the guilty party here, not Apple, not you. Creating an app for them that runs under OS X, UNIX, or LINUX should have been a high priority... then their users could continue to use their product. Eight years is plenty of time for them to do it. Apple has people who will help them do it for free and Apple provides the tools to do it free as well.

[Swordmaker]

I never said that and don't put words in my mouth. But, that's what you do.

All right. Then explain yourself. Use the words you want to use. Why, then, do you think that Windows will be the most installed software on a Mac?

[Terpfen]

Oh, I’m aware. But Extremely Extreme Extremist is not aware of both that and numerous other Mac-related facts. But hey, we’re a cult, right? *eyeroll*

[cabojoe]

Because some 3 percenters will want to try what the 92 percenters use. Because they can(Apple has a program that screams”Install Windows on your Apple!!!”). Because of advertising. Because of word of mouth. Because Windows is the premiere platform for computer gaming. Because most likely as in the past they will torrent it for free and install it. Plenty of reasons. It might not be THE most installed software on a Mac, but it will be the most installed (alternative)OS on a Mac.
There is an alternate question. Why would I need OS X on a screaming workstation. I wouldn’t. Win 7 does very very nicely. Would I install it if I could to check it out? Yes. Would I install it if I could torrent it for free? Absolutely. Most Apple users aren’t any different in this regard.

[Swordmaker]

OK, Thanks Joe.

[left that other site]

“Didn’t anybody show you how to configure your mouse and turn on the other buttons?”

Ooooo! Can you DO that??? LOL! No one ever SHOWS me ANYTHING! I always end up figuring out everything myself.
:-)

[La Lydia]

I think the appropriate term is “punctuationally challenged.”

[discostu]

I didn’t say it was a monopoly. And yes clearly there are the limits of reason on the prices Apple can set.

But there is the basic reality. In a competitive market there’s really 3 avenue of competition: the product itself, price, service. In the PC market there really isn’t competition on the product, they’re all Windows based PCs using mostly the same parts from mostly the same manufacturers. So that leaves competition on price and service. Both of these lower the margins for PC makers, because not only do they have to try to find a way to sell the same product for cheaper, they wind up spending more money to make the customers happy.

Apple has none of this competition, maybe if PsyStar ever becomes not a joke they will, but even then it won’t be like the PC market, CNet has reviews for PCs made by 34 different manufacturers, that’s 34 different companies (and that’s just the ones that get reviews on CNet, then there’s the custom shops you can find in almost every city in America) competing on price and service. Apple will likely never have that kind of drag on their margin. Which is why the whole “their margin is better” argument is silly, they are in a different market place, one that by the most basic market forces described by Adam Smith is pretty much guaranteed to give you better margins.

[IncPen]

Apple may install more unnecessary files on your PC than Symantec. And that's no easy feat.

I would say that's more of an indictment against the PC than it is against Apple...

[6SJ7]

Mac OS 9 runs on Mac OS X up to Panther, Mac OS 10.3. New Macs have newer versions of OS X that do not run Mac OS 9. I have gigabites of BookUp files that run under Mac Classic (OS 9) only. I also have lots of games and some outstanding work applications for OS 9. I would have to spend a lot of money trying to reproduce this capability, in those cases when it is possible to do so.

Check out SheepShaver, a Power PC emulator that runs on new Macs, including intel machines. It allows you to then install and run earlier versions of the Mac OS (7.5 thru 9).

[Swordmaker]

I didn’t say it was a monopoly.

Your comments implied that it was a monopoly that has no significant competition. You used the definition of a monopoly, a market with a single or overwhelmingly dominant supplier, to make your argument contrary to facts and evidence. Then in this post you continue that argument using that definition:

In a competitive market there’s really 3 avenue of competition: the product itself, price, service. In the PC market there really isn’t competition on the product, they’re all Windows based PCs using mostly the same parts from mostly the same manufacturers.

Apple has none of this competition, maybe if PsyStar ever becomes not a joke they will, but even then it won’t be like the PC market, CNet has reviews for PCs made by 34 different manufacturers, that’s 34 different companies (and that’s just the ones that get reviews on CNet, then there’s the custom shops you can find in almost every city in America) competing on price and service. Apple will likely never have that kind of drag on their margin. Which is why the whole “their margin is better” argument is silly, they are in a different market place, one that by the most basic market forces described by Adam Smith is pretty much guaranteed to give you better margins.

Absurd, Discostu. Apple competes against ALL of those manufacturers. Apple sells a personal computer useful for doing those things that a personal computer does. All of them.

And there are several other avenues of competition you ignore completely... quality, style, integration, and ease of use. The consuming public has demonstrated that a good percentage of them are willing to pay extra for what Apple offers... quality, style, integration and ease of use. Part of the way that Apple accomplishes these difference is by offering a different operating system, exclusive to their computers.

Your assertion that in the personal computer market every OS is a market unto itself is patently and legally wrong. Legally because Federal courts have so ruled. Patently because all personal computers, whether running Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, TheOs, etc., provide the same underlying functionality. The offer to the consumer of another choice of personal computer operating system is merely a means of differentiating one's product from other similar products and thereby competing in the overall personal computer market. The consumer is free to choose that OS or not... but can, as many of you Windows fans claim, get the same underlying functionality. CNet, in addition to those 34 PC manufacturers who use Microsoft's generic operating system, also reviews Macs using the same criteria they do for the other reviews.

[discostu]

You’re spending a lot of time telling me what I said, and getting it all wrong. I never said they were a monopoly, I never said each OS was a market unto itself. when you’re ready to reply to what I ACTUALLY said you go right ahead, meanwhile what I said stands, Apple does NOT have any price competition.

[Woebama]

Your courtesy is as breathtaking.

[WVKayaker]

I “print” to PDF on my Mac. No problems with documents not posting properly.