I would like to apologize for not being more active posting lately. I've been completely overloaded in my MBA program and less frequent posts have been a side effect.

Recently I've wondered what will happen to the recent market share gains the Mac has been enjoying when Vista is released. Mac desktop and notebook sales are seeing very healthy increases relative to PC sales which has largely coincided with the combination of Tiger and Intel Mac's. Hey it got me to switch back over to the Mac!

As an Apple and Mac fan, I would like to think that the Mac will continue to gain market share over Windows after the release of Vista. However, the pessimistic view is that Vista will put a major damper on Mac sales. I think more people have switched to the Mac recently because Windows XP sucks in many ways, not because OS X looks neat, they like their iPod and figured what the heck, that Mac sure looks cool, I'll make the switch. It's not a painless thing to switch platforms, people don't make the change lightly. I could believe that the current lack of virus and spyware on OS X could attract people.

I've gone over this in my head several times, with several different scenarios and while I don't have the ability to predict what will happen with any certainty, my gut feeling is that the Mac will hold or lose some market share for a while after the release of Vista - maybe even up to 12 or 18 months and then the Mac will begin to pick up some steam again and slowly start a climb up the market share ladder.

I don't have to have the Mac market share increase for me to feel good, justify my computer or anything like that. I'm just thinking purely of myself here, if the Mac market share grows from where it is today to something larger, that will mean more developers writing applications for the Mac, bigger economies of scale for Apple in terms of hardware pricing - in other words I want the Mac market to be vibrant and large enough to bring benefits in terms of software and hardware pricing. 10% - 15% of the computer marketshare is a number where I would love to see Apple reach, of course this is a far cry from the current less than 5% share. But it could happen, and that would virtually ensure the viability of the platform down the road.

I really don't want to have to run Vista on my iMac, so encourage your friends and family to by a new Mac instead of a new Dell or HP with Vista next year. Trust me, supporting your parents PC troubles is no fun!


My thoughts on Windows XP and OS X.
Windows XP was a vast improvement over Windows 95, however, and I would argue that Windows XP is largely a 'home' version of Windows NT. Regardless, in the PC world, Windows XP has become the dominant OS not because it was the best, but nonetheless it is the standard OS. I've not ever used Linux, Solaris, or other OS's, but in most ways I absolutely find OS X to be superior to Windows XP. There are a few areas where I think that Windows XP excels over OS X:

-The Finder is lacking, and I think Windows Explorer is far superior
-Key commands Home/End and Ctrl+Home Ctrl+End are much more logical in what they do than the equivalent on the Mac (This is actually my biggest single complaint is that I can't go "PC" for these key commands on my Mac)
-If you're a hardcore gamer look elsewhere, OS X isn't THE platform, though Apple could influence this and they don't for some unknown reason.
-More choices for notebook computers. There is such a wide variety of available computers, I think it's much easier to find a notebook that suits you and often at better prices than what Apple offers. The MacBook should have discreet graphics and 1GB of ram for the price, many people don't need or can't afford a MacBookPro, but they shouldn't be stuck with bad integrated graphics because of that. Even though Apple has a limited line of Desktop computers, I think they cover the bases very well here, I don't see any major gaps on the desktop like I do with the notebook. What about people who want a 12" MacBook or MacBookPro, why in the world isn't this available?
-Greater selection of Applications on Windows, granted not all of them are that great, but there are some nice Apps that aren't equivalent on the Mac. I hope to see this equalize over time.
-Media Center Edition. I still have a MCE box which powers my home audio/video system. Fantastic DVR and I have an addin to strip out TV commercials from my viewing automatically. iTV is a very limited niche product, MCE is capable of powering a whole home AV setup, I am very excited about Vista, not for my desktop, but for my home AV system, VistaMCE is what I'll be buying some time next year. Please don't send flame mail on this topic, I've tried front row/iTunes, and trust me, it's not even in the same ballpark as MCE when it comes to powering a home AV system.

Those are the areas where I find that I still favor Windows XP over OS X. But virtually every thing else I far prefer OS X over Windows, and these items I weight more heavily.
-Stability!!! I've been on my new Intel 20" iMac for around 10 months now, and I use it heavily. From past experience I can assure you that I would have already had problems with Windows XP that would have crippled some functions of the OS or applications which would necessitate a clean install of the OS to remedy the situation. Meanwhile my iMac with OS X is running just as well today as when I installed it!
-Less things to tinker with. On Windows XP I felt like I was a part time system administrator. On OS X there's just less administrative stuff to have to muck about with.
-iLife. This is a killer App for me, I love iLife, nothing like it on Windows comes even close.
-Shareware, I have found some incredible shareware for OS X, and the creme de la creme of freeware apps on OS X seem to be head and shoulders above what is out for Windows XP in my opinion.
-While some people complain about Spotlight, I find it to be an extremely powerful tool that I use daily. Sorely missing from Windows XP.




Your Comments appreciated.
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