Steven Jobs sees decline in Windows popularity (His opinion met with surprising agreement)

Financial Times ^ | 6/2/2010 | Joseph Menn

[SeekAndFind]

Steve Jobs’ assertion that personal computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system are in a permanent decline has been met with surprising agreement.

In an onstage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference on Tuesday night, Mr Jobs, chief executive of Apple, said Windows computers would decline in popularity as people used other means to connect to the internet, consume content and work.

He compared the PC with trucks, saying that the vehicles were pervasive when most people lived on farms, but faded in importance as most of the population moved to cities and suburbs. Some people still want trucks, and a fraction will still want PCs, Mr Jobs said: “One out of every x people.”

Executives and other technology and entertainment companies who heard Mr Jobs speak at the conference appeared to agree, pointing to the rapid spread of smartphones and internet-connected devices, including those made by Apple and Google.

“He is pretty clear about ‘it’s over’, and it is,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, who added that he himself had stopped using a laptop in favour of an Apple iPad and a BlackBerry, made by Research in Motion.

Mr Jobs cited security issues, poor battery life and difficulty in use as drawbacks to the PC laptop. The iPad has no attached keyboard and is not designed for creating material, but Mr Jobs said the device would evolve.

One senior technology executive at a large movie and television company said that as long as Apple’s operating system for the iPad and iPhone relied on finger-touches, instead of the precision of mouse clicks and cursors, office workers would do detailed work on other devices.

[mowowie]

When EVERY company has their little toy out will it be running a Mac OS?.....NO.

[SkyDancer]

The only place you'll see Apple computers is in the movies and only when the hero wants to get going and the Apple computer is dog slow ...

[sionnsar]

I am really starting to dispise Microsoft crap.

Me too. Including its spell-checkers.

[mowowie]

Got my Win 7 64bit the week it came out.
Works GREAT.

[aft_lizard]

The problem with any Linux distro, Android included, is fragmentation. That is one uses version x while another uses version y, another uses a different distro etc. Then of course there is the platform differences(x86, ARM...) etc. It becomes very convoluted and hard to keep up with.

[sionnsar]

Now I can't think of the last time I used a diskette

I used one a few months ago. To recover my photos from Australia in 1999 (camera stored them on floppy).

[aft_lizard]

Mine too. Every copy still boots and is ready to go in less than 30 secs still and it’s been what 9 months? Not exactly bloated as someone else here said.

[RegulatorCountry]

One of those “esxoerts” was Steve Jobs, who has been predicting (wishful thinking mre like) the demise of Windows for as long as anyone can remember.

Really? I've followed the progress of Apple back from the abyss since the early nineties, and have never heard Steve Jobs say this before.

Source, please.

[VanDeKoik]

The collective chorus of Apple morons would actually see that as being anything short of laughable.

The insane number of Windows 7 machines + XP + VISTA dwarfs anything from all other OSs combined times 2.

You can take Vista on its own and OSX is still behind it.

But of course like Obama supporters, Job’s parrots will just take anything that comes out of his mouth as the holy word of God himself.

[RegulatorCountry]

Me too. Including its spell-checkers.

Just because there is one, doesn't mean it's being used. Look at the replies on this thread.

Heck, there's even a spell-check on FR, for all the good that does, lol.

[sionnsar]

My point eggsactually! *\;-)

[SmokingJoe]

The insane number of Windows 7 machines + XP + VISTA dwarfs anything from all other OSs combined times 2.

More like all other OS’s combined times 9.
Windows dominates with over 90% share of the world’s desktop/laptop market. That leaves all the other OS’s combined with less than 10% share. 90/10 = 9.

[mdmathis6]

Jobs sounds like Joe Biden stating that the stimulus is working “temendously”. As for Apple stock being worth more than MS; I think the stock is overvalued and is going to be undercut by short sellers real quick!

Mean while my Windows 7 machines(5!) in my house are all running and networking together like a quintet of finely tuned string instruments! Loving the music and the speed!!!

[RegulatorCountry]

We value you’re eggspurtese for all intensive porpoises, sionnasar.

[SmokingJoe]

Jobs sounds like Joe Biden stating that the stimulus is working “temendously”.

Pretty much.

[Born to Conserve]

In the spectrum of devices, the iPad is closer to a phone than a computer.

[sionnsar]

We value you’re eggspurtese for all intensive porpoises, sionnasar.

Tanks. Frum mye Linucks bocks.

[qwertypie]

As a content Windows user, I tend to agree. Desktops and laptops are overkill for the average person. Most people just want conversation, Hollywood gossip, and socializing access.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Executives and other technology and entertainment companies who heard Mr Jobs speak at the conference appeared to agree, pointing to the rapid spread of smartphones and internet-connected devices, including those made by Apple and Google.

Wow, what a surprise. Entertainment executives who've seen their business models vaporized have dreamed of a dumbed-down Internet where ordinary people just sit there and pay for content - pay television with a bit of customization for a price. Apple, which produced beautiful, well-designed desktops and laptops that no one bought, has obliged them with devices tailor-made for the passive consumption of content. And they all get together and state that this is the future.

I think - or at least I hope - that they can't put this genie back in the bottle. Young people these days aren't Jeffrey Katzenburg - they're used to creating their own content and they aren't waiting for Jobs and Big Media to dumb-down and neuter personal computing power.

[Richard Kimball]

It's a mistake to do a direct comparison between Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Each is profitable, and each uses an effective business plan to be profitable. MS has two cash cows, Windows and Office. When they move outside of these areas, they do not do as well.

While the MS desktop share has many thinking that it's a David/Goliath situation, Apple owns 70% of the portable music player market, is the single largest seller of music content in the US, and is a major player in the smartphone market. In these areas, MS closed their online music store. The Zune is a punch line. The Microsoft "Kin" smart phones will likely be a lower profile Zune. After the iPad came out, H-P bought Palm and delayed the release of their Slate tablet.