COMMENT With the release of its latest Mac operating system, Tiger, Apple is upping the ante in its bid to win over Windows users - and to convert proud iPod owners into Mac desktop owners, says Seb Janacek.
Apple's inexorable progress through the big cat family for its operating system code names continued this month with the launch of Tiger, the fifth major incarnation of Mac OS X.
The operating system has come a long way since the public beta was released in late 2000, when early adopters endured a dual-boot limbo due to a distinct lack of third-party apps written for the new OS. The system was buggy, slow and missing key features such as DVD support.
Since then, the output from Apple's development mill has been prodigious, and if OS X finally came of age with Panther (version 10.3), then Tiger feels like an embellished and polished upgrade to a finished product.
In fact, Apple is so pleased with its new big cat, it seems, there are signs afoot that it may be about to resurrect its Switch campaign.
The original campaign floundered despite a high-profile launch. The campaign used 'real life' testimonies from ordinary people who had switched from PC to Mac, though they seemed alternately too cool, geeky or stoned to be believed or trusted on matters of personal computing.
A note on the Apple website currently reads: "Got an iPod, then bought a Mac? Did you love your iPod so much that you decided to buy a Mac? How did your Mac change the rest of your life? ... We want your personal story of your move to Mac - what you do with it and how it's made your life all around better."
The signs of a follow-up campaign are clear. However, this time the company will be able to take advantage of the much-vaunted iPod 'halo effect' that journalists and analysts love to harp on about.
It's a tangible effect now. According to its second quarter results, Apple shipped 1.07 million Macs - a 43 per cent increase on the same period a year ago. This rise was no doubt boosted by sales of well over five million iPods in the same three-month period - a 558 per cent increase on 2004.
Apple is clearly gearing up a campaign to beckon a few disillusioned Windows users into its open arms before Microsoft's own next-generation operating system, Longhorn, comes to town next year.
The company has already been putting the boot in. Steve Jobs previewed Tiger during last June's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Huge banners festooned the conference call that read: "This should keep Redmond busy", "Introducing Longhorn", "Redmond, start your photocopiers" and "Redmond, we have a problem."
Last week, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in a release: "Our competitors will be trying to copy Tiger's more than 200 new features and innovations for years to come."
Cupertino fancies taking yet another shot at its rival and erstwhile business partner's massive market share for operating systems.
The timing couldn't be better. Longhorn has been beset by a series of delays. A pared-back version of the OS is now slated to appear in 2006 - or 2007 at the very latest.
Meanwhile, the feel-good factor surrounding Apple is tangible at the moment. It has a strong hardware offering, including the bare-bones entry-level Mac Mini, and a mature digital lifestyle software suite in iLife 05.
In addition, Tiger has a series of rather neat features; some genuinely useful and others just crowd-pleasing eye-candy. However, the jewel in Tiger's crown is undoubtedly Spotlight - its integrated, system-wide search tool.
With our ever-expanding storage capacities and proliferating media types, many of us have accumulated gigabyte upon gigabyte of unstructured data on our hard drives. Both Apple and Microsoft have pinpointed the importance of powerful search technology built into the operating system.
The phenomenal success of search engines in recent years indicates just how comfortable and au fait users have become with search-driven methods on the internet.
Extending the search paradigm to desktop computing was the next logical step. Google has made inroads into this with its Windows-only Desktop Search tool, while Mac users have long had a similar technology available in the form of the rather nifty freeware app Quicksilver. However, by weaving Spotlight into the fabric of the operating system the technology becomes an integral part of the interface rather than an add-on.
In addition, Apple has opened the technology to third-party developers to allow the Spotlight to be supported by emerging applications via a number of APIs for configuring metadata.
At a time when search engines are king, this is a cognisant move by Apple, aligning the Mac's core ethos of usability with the technological zeitgeist.
Spotlight will find favour with those who continually fail to set themselves carefully regimented practices for folder naming and file saving despite their best intentions. However, it also allows those monkish users who do follow strict naming practices to contextualise their data in a manner that was previously only available via pricey knowledge management solutions.
In recent years Apple has become known as the company that brought you the iPod - much to the chagrin of some long-time Mac users who have supported the computer company over the last four decades.
With Spotlight and Tiger, Apple has returned to what the company used to excel at: making user-friendly computers with genuinely useful features. Irrespective of the colour of the case, the heart of the Mac has always been the software - and the operating system above all.
There's no realistic anticipation that Apple will regain huge tracts of market share. The OS wars are long over; Microsoft won.
However, the company could convince a few people outside the Apple community to consider making the leap when it launches its follow-up 'iPod to Mac' Switch campaign. Maybe not the droves that Apple might like but certainly enough to consolidate the fortunes of the company. And thanks to the strength and momentum of iPod sales, the campaign will have the added oomph and reach it lacked last time.
Let's just hope its 'real life' testimonies come from advocates who appear a little more down-to-earth this time, or at least less stoned.
Comments
There are 13 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Tiger provides features that will appeal to a lot of iPod users. If they are young then Dashboard will capture their imagination. Older users, like me, will like Spotlight. Got family spread around or kids away at school? iSight becomes exciting.
As for the OS wars, I think that there is another round coming up. Apple is in there for sure, but Linux is steadily improving and they are an increasing threat to MS. Throw in Google and you have 3 alternatives to MS that people actually like. Add IBM's support of Linux and the pressure on MS is very intense. MS had better do something special with Longhorn. If it's just XP SP3 then the computing environment over the next 5 to 10 years will see some dramatic changes in MS dominance.
2. Thomas Barta
"There's no realistic anticipation that Apple will regain huge tracts of market share. The OS wars are long over; Microsoft won."
There's no reason to believe people will dump IE for Mozilla-- the browser wars are long over.
But they are, slowly and surely.
I don't know. When's the last time anyone got excited about a Microsoft product? ANY Microsoft product? We Mac guys really love our machines. Perhaps the excitement will start to be infectious, now that so many people have made the leap and TRIED an Apple product (the iPod), against the advice of the "IT-expert" "friends".
3. anonymous
"There's no realistic anticipation that Apple will regain huge tracts of market share. The OS wars are long over; Microsoft won."
There's still time to lose, and Microsoft is doing a great job of losing. Many forget that Apple once ruled the home computer market with the Apple II, and was again the leading manufacturer of computers in the home with the early Macintosh.
4. anonymous
Ah yes, spoken with the sublime ignorance of a raving Windows zealot.
If you cut out all the slurs, disinformation and sarcasm you would have a one sentence article simply sating 'Apple continues to lead Microsoft's Windows by nearly a decade with Mac OS-X Tiger.'
In spite of your ignorance and campaign of disinformation about 45% of Apples sales are to Windows converts. Apple is growing their computer base at 43% annually. So suck those sour grapes little man.
With all the media ignorant trying desperately to keep Windows drones chained to the pathetic VIRUS operating system (Windows), MANY have found the light in spite of your efforts. It's only the top few percent of the thinking class who are converting so it will be many years before the media ignorant like Janacek will have their dim little bulbs turned bright.
5. David Cantrill
So, here we get to it. Regardless of whether Microsoft have dominated the computer market for the last 10+ years, they have never given us enough reasons to want to stay with them. I work in an office of approx 80 people in a finance environment. In the last 12 months, no less than 6 people (including myself, just got my new G5) have made the move to Mac. Some bought a Mini, some powerbooks/ibooks and some iMacs. That's a pretty big percentage.
What is more poignant is that several colleagues who work in security have also recently made the switch. None of them has looked back, in fact they are so happy that they are recommending people to do the same. How long before the groundswell becomes a tide against Microsoft. Yes, I still run Office on the Mac, and it is better in so many ways. I still run VPC for PC centric apps, but that's a small minority. It just works. Try it. You will love it.
6. anonymous
The irony is that Spotlight right now is just a half baked idea that you would think Apple would fix immediately - but it has been 8 or 9 days since the release of Tiger and it can bearly find the files on my desktop!
7. Steve Simko
The best thing a mac user can do for their fellow person(politically correct) is to share their Tiger experience to a new user and forgo all the misguided o/s war hype that has fallen upon deaf ears thru the years(kinda rhymes don't it). The youth shall prevail and the Mac will live forever(or something like that).
8. Robert Venner
I'd love to switch from Miscosoft to Apple, but there is a major problem facing most would-be switchers - the software investment. Software companies will not allow you to updgrade your software from Windows to the Mac. They require you to buy a brand new full price product. This can in many cases be far more than the cost of the new hardware.
Surely, when one purchases software, one purchases the user licence, why should the licensee be restricted to one OS?
9. Bill Fant
Video iPod just around the corner? This would certainly add a bit more fuel to the 'halo effect' and the clues are there...
Recently released iTunes 4.8 now supports QuickTime and several new iTunes Music Store releases now come with video tracks! The new Dave Matthews Band album includes both a video track and a PDF booklet. Steve-O has a keynote June 6th at Apple's WWDC... mmm...???
It's really a great time to re-introduce the Switcher campaign - especially because of the Longhorn delay. I just hope this time Apple will actually highlight/demo some of the OS features instead of relying solely on switcher testimonials.
10. Mickael Behn
Robert, Call the Company that supplies your software, in most cases they will trade the software for the equal version or will give you the Mac version through the upgrade path you would have taken with the PC. there are solutions out there but most poeple dont go futher then standard phone support. A lot of OFFShore (indiaish) tech support are really bad, they dont know the full issues with the software they support, (OFFshore is cheap for companies but you get a cheap service as well. Press them to talk to a Manager. As for switchers there are many Comsumer Switchers. Companies will take a long time to switch because they dont understand what is needed or involved in switching. Manager ignorance is much more wide spread then we all know about. Its up to the IT dept. to make the move to find the solutions. An IT Dept with salaries worth 60 grand or more should be able to know the difference and should learn all 3 OS's out there, if they dont they are a waste of money. A Monkey can run and manage just one system, It takes a technician to run they all together.
I believe the Mac will win the hearts and minds at home, Microsofts only saving grace is the cheap budgets of Business's, and even then MS are doing to well compared to Linux.
11. Happyonamac
Robert,
There are mac equivalent's for most Windows reliant ap's. Surprisingly, many are actually cheaper (i.e., NeoOffice - free download, perfect seamless replacement for MS Office - reads & writes the same files). Alternatively, get Virtual PC (£100-ish, or £30 on eBay) this allows you to put Windows on your Mac, so then you can just transfer all your unique app's across. I'll let you and your concience decide wether you should get a new copy of Windows for installing.
I got a new mac for work, and had to put a window's only bespoke database on it using VPC- no worries. I then upgraded our accountant to a mac, and did the same with Sage - again, it's all good. Four new mac's, and so far the only problem is that one of the businesses printers won't connect. I'd have had far more problems installing four new M$ machines.
Go on, make the switch. You know it makes sense!
12. Bob Pearce
You did it didn't you! You mentioned Apple and Mac without the words "sublime" or "life enhancing" or "right brain thinkers" or even "save the planet".
And NOW YOU ARE REAPING THE WHIRLWIND. The "Applehead Family" of "Macolytes" that worship at the church of JOBS (not JOB, Jobs - as in Steve Jobs) will not forgive you.
You didn't insult, BUT YOU DIDN'T PRAISE!
Even now they will be sticking pins in your effigy and it's too late to retract.
13. Don Tregartha
I've just switched an XP user to a mac mini in my office because I need to start reducing my support overheads. The machine cost less than a replacement for the Dell we junked. Apart from a copy of office for the mac, that was it, VPC runs the pc apps better than the original machine and we had it running and networked in minutes.
I've been a mac user for years and have only put up with pcs in the office because of the admin guys. But since they all want to 'borrow' my powerbook when they go out of the office and home at weekends, they will all be switching when their Windows boxes hit obsolescence which is normally at 3 years instead of the 5-6 years with the mac. BTW the oldest working mac in the office (the mailserver) is an original pizza box power pc and it works like a dream.