Apple and Microsoft are readying big updates to their operating systems. Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 will be released in the next 18 months and both look set to be rock-solid offerings. The Mac vs PC wars are hotting up again.
Microsoft's marketing people must be fuming. The company's US$300m advertising campaign, aimed at improving the poor perception of Windows Vista, has been derided by Apple in a new series of spots flighted in the US.
In one of its now legendary "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" television advertisements, the dour character that plays the PC is sorting through a mountain of money, separating bank notes into two separate piles, a large one for advertising and a small one for fixing Vista.
"Do you really think that's enough money to fix Vista?" the Mac character asks the PC character. The PC looks dejected and sweeps the smaller pile into the larger pile. "I guess you're right, I'll just put it all in advertising."
That's got to sting. Can Microsoft, which has so far shown admirable restraint in its ads, resist the urge to fight dirty, too? With new versions of Windows and Mac OS X on the horizon, the battle may yet get really ugly.
First up, let's look at the next release of Mac OS X. Many people were surprised when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced in June that Snow Leopard, the next update to Mac OS X, will not deliver a raft of new features. Instead, Apple will focus on improving the operating system's performance and efficiency and reducing its installed footprint.
Its predecessor, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, is already an excellent operating system. Released last October, it is stable and robust and won over many new converts to Mac.
Apple's aim now, it seems, is to create an even more highly optimised operating system that runs like greased lightning. It makes a pleasant change from the bloat and feature creep we've come to expect from developers.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, 1 100 km north of Apple's Silicon Valley headquarters, Microsoft is talking up the successor to the much-maligned Vista. The tech industry's other Steve - Microsoft CEO Ballmer - says Windows 7 will be a much-improved Vista.
Windows 7 will share the same kernel, or core programming code, as its predecessor. Many of Vista's initial problems were because third-party hardware manufacturers took their time releasing the device driver software needed to ensure their hardware worked properly with the operating system. By using the same kernel, Microsoft will avoid many of these problems in Windows 7.
Unlike Snow Leopard, Microsoft's next operating system will have plenty of new features, including support for touch-sensitive screens and improved speech recognition tools. There will also be improvements under the hood, such as better performance on modern, multicore processors.
But critics have said that Windows 7 should be called Windows 6.1 since it won't be as noticeably different to Vista as Vista was to Windows XP. Indeed, based on screenshots of early builds of the new software, it looks almost identical to its predecessor.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Microsoft was accused of focusing too much attention on Vista's graphical user interface and not enough on improving the operating system's feature set. Many of the features that had been planned for Vista fell by the wayside as Microsoft realised it couldn't possibly deliver them in a reasonable timeframe.
Microsoft has not set a deadline for Windows 7's release - company insiders will only say it's likely some time in late 2009 or early 2010. That will be some time after Apple unleashes Snow Leopard, which is slated for a mid-2009 release, but close enough for people to draw parallels between the two.
Meanwhile, expect the marketing departments of the two old adversaries to keep hostilities alive.
Source : http://free.financialmail.co.za
Microsoft's marketing people must be fuming. The company's US$300m advertising campaign, aimed at improving the poor perception of Windows Vista, has been derided by Apple in a new series of spots flighted in the US.
In one of its now legendary "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" television advertisements, the dour character that plays the PC is sorting through a mountain of money, separating bank notes into two separate piles, a large one for advertising and a small one for fixing Vista.
"Do you really think that's enough money to fix Vista?" the Mac character asks the PC character. The PC looks dejected and sweeps the smaller pile into the larger pile. "I guess you're right, I'll just put it all in advertising."
That's got to sting. Can Microsoft, which has so far shown admirable restraint in its ads, resist the urge to fight dirty, too? With new versions of Windows and Mac OS X on the horizon, the battle may yet get really ugly.
First up, let's look at the next release of Mac OS X. Many people were surprised when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced in June that Snow Leopard, the next update to Mac OS X, will not deliver a raft of new features. Instead, Apple will focus on improving the operating system's performance and efficiency and reducing its installed footprint.
Its predecessor, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, is already an excellent operating system. Released last October, it is stable and robust and won over many new converts to Mac.
Apple's aim now, it seems, is to create an even more highly optimised operating system that runs like greased lightning. It makes a pleasant change from the bloat and feature creep we've come to expect from developers.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, 1 100 km north of Apple's Silicon Valley headquarters, Microsoft is talking up the successor to the much-maligned Vista. The tech industry's other Steve - Microsoft CEO Ballmer - says Windows 7 will be a much-improved Vista.
Windows 7 will share the same kernel, or core programming code, as its predecessor. Many of Vista's initial problems were because third-party hardware manufacturers took their time releasing the device driver software needed to ensure their hardware worked properly with the operating system. By using the same kernel, Microsoft will avoid many of these problems in Windows 7.
Unlike Snow Leopard, Microsoft's next operating system will have plenty of new features, including support for touch-sensitive screens and improved speech recognition tools. There will also be improvements under the hood, such as better performance on modern, multicore processors.
But critics have said that Windows 7 should be called Windows 6.1 since it won't be as noticeably different to Vista as Vista was to Windows XP. Indeed, based on screenshots of early builds of the new software, it looks almost identical to its predecessor.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Microsoft was accused of focusing too much attention on Vista's graphical user interface and not enough on improving the operating system's feature set. Many of the features that had been planned for Vista fell by the wayside as Microsoft realised it couldn't possibly deliver them in a reasonable timeframe.
Microsoft has not set a deadline for Windows 7's release - company insiders will only say it's likely some time in late 2009 or early 2010. That will be some time after Apple unleashes Snow Leopard, which is slated for a mid-2009 release, but close enough for people to draw parallels between the two.
Meanwhile, expect the marketing departments of the two old adversaries to keep hostilities alive.
Source : http://free.financialmail.co.za
