Sometimes it's misrepresentations by politicians that drive me up the wall but lately it is the flat out false advertising that Apple has served up to the public via their Apple versus PC ads on television. First let's get one thing straight, Apple has only 14% market share on computer sales. That's right only 14%. So why do these pip squeaks think they are so great?
Their main argument seems to be about people's dissatisfaction with the new Windows operating system, Vista. Well who are these people? I did a little research using Google, which is decidedly anti-Microsoft to begin with for obvious reasons that Microsoft is a constant threat to Google's surge in success as a competitor. I found that most of the critical articles were (1) regarding the Vista upgrade from XP and (2) the source of articles were from Apple users and Apple and Google based PC Technology newsletters and articles.
Further research revealed that Vista users, with either a new PC with Vista pre-installed or PC owners that had done a complete uninstall of XP and complete install of Vista, were overwhelmingly pleased with the product (88%), (8%) with no opinion yet and (4%) unhappy with the product. Obviously there appears to have been problems with the "upgrade" installation product and I can attest to that myself. I have a PC desktop with Vista pre-installed and a laptop that I did the upgrade. I encountered a lot of problems with non-compatibility with manufacturer based programs (HP) and with printer drivers, web camera drivers etc., however all were resolved fairly quickly with updated downloads from HP and the other manufacturers with compatibility problems. In my opinion the real problem was not with Vista but rather with the other manufacturers who quite obviously had poor planning and were unprepared for Vista's introduction to the market. Some did not have updated compatible drivers ready for download until up to 3 months after Vista was introduced. To be fair Microsoft could have withheld the upgrade product and could have just introduced the full install product until the major manufactures had caught up with their updates but then, this is business isn't it and weathering the problems that I encountered is small potatoes when considering what they would have lost in sales. So yeah a lot of us got pissy, but do I think Vista stinks? Heck no! It is a great improvement over XP and with the full install, works smoothly and has a wide variety of improvements and sexy offerings in graphic displays and communication areas.
Also, I would point out that the second point that Apple belabors is patently false regarding the security of Vista and I quote (from Apple Insider news no less), "Windows Vista has fewer than half the security vulnerabilities of Windows XP," Microsoft said. "It's also 60% less likely to be infected by spyware or malware than Windows XP SP2. And in early 2008, Windows Vista was shown to have 89% fewer vulnerabilities than MacOS X 10.5, making it the most secure Windows release to date." I would think the mouth breathing Apple fanatics should shut up on this one. They might swallow some flies when Microsoft finally starts countering Apples misleading ad campaign with their own ad campaign rebutting Apple's.
One final point that I should mention. Did you know that all Apple products are in the $1000 plus category, so the average Joe looking for a decent but less expensive computer for himself or his kids is not going to find one from Apple. Apple and Mac have obviously targeted the upper echelon of income brackets for their clientele and that's fine and that is also why they are still only 14% of the total market in computer sales. I recently purchased a new HP laptop for my niece for $549.99. When I first saw the price I was skeptical but I started to look into the details and found this was a Vista operating System with an AMD dual core 2 gig processor, 3 gigs of RAM, 512 dedicated graphics memory and a double layer DVD drive (with Lightscribe) and a decent complement of basic programs for serious work or study use and a good dose of entertainment programs. All I added was Microsoft Office for Students and off she went off to her freshman year at USC. Being a Clemson fan that was difficult for me but I got through it. I played with the laptop before she left and set it up for her and found it was an efficient, speedy great little computer and with a 250 gig hard drive leaves her plenty of room for songs and picture storage. Well Apple you may want to sell your computers to the more wealthy amongst us but who do you think people like my niece are going to remember when they graduate, get jobs and come to making a choice about buying themselves a new computer? You lost a customer is how it will come down and that is further reason why you will remain with only the small market share that you hold (14%).
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