Apple: People Will Upgrade to Macs, Not Win 7
Apple seems confident.
Windows 7 will be launching a week from today, and many are looking to it as a revitalization of the PC industry. While every new release of Windows does bring with it a sense of newness, Vista failed to convince those happily running XP that newer was better.
The upcoming version of Windows hitting next week is better than Vista, which has PC business excited. Most will agree that Windows 7 gets things right and will finally get those still working off XP machines to finally upgrade.
With such a compelling, reinvigorated PC operating system coming out, one would think that Apple would be worried that PC would become the popular kid in school again. But Apple isn't worried at all. In fact, Apple sees the release of Windows 7 as an opportunity to snatch even more users over to the Mac camp.
"It presents a very good opportunity for us," says Philip W. Schiller, Apple's senior vice-president for marketing, in a BusinessWeek report.
Schiller reasons that those running Windows XP machines may view the upgrade to Windows 7 as too complicated and daunting, giving customers a reason to ditch PC for Mac instead.
"Any user that reads all those steps is probably going to freak out. If you have to go through all that, why not just buy a Mac?" says Schiller.
Granted, users going from XP to 7 will have to perform clean installs, as in-place upgrades are only supported from Windows Vista. Schiller doesn't believe that many users will upgrade to Windows 7, at least not as many as Mac users who have upgraded to the $29 Snow Leopard.
"I expect Snow Leopard will have an amazing upgrade rate, and Windows 7 won't," he said.
Earlier this week, we reported historical evidence that showed Mac sales increasing with each release of a new Windows version.

I really hate apple...
I really hate apple...
If someone is going to buy a new computer instead of going through the fearsome task of :gasp: installing a new OS, they could just-- buy a PC with Win7 already on it!
It's the Digital Age, and if people think an upgrade to Windows 7 is too complicated, and even daunting... then go to Mac, please! Let the rest of us evolve in peace.
There comes the point though, every time a user comes to buy a new computer, they will have the opportunity to consider buying a Mac. If they've had an unpleasant user experience so far then they could edge towards the Mac side even more. This has less to do with Windows 7 and more to do with the user experience your average user has had with Vista/XP over the years.
A new Windows release has the result of boosting PC sales - this is also likely in part due to PC manufacturers taking the opportunity to pump out extra advertising for users to buy new computers with the new OS. Hence more average computer owners will get it into their heads that it may be time to buy a new machine than usual. This can also lead to an increase in Mac sales as a by-product since some users will think "Actually, do I really want Windows again? Windows 7 is meant to be better but... I've really hated Vista so maybe when I buy a new computer I'll try something different."
Keep in mind that what I've written above is not typical of the average user on here who is far more likely to buy a Windows 7 upgrade and is very unlikely to buy a Mac ever. I'm not talking about gamers, I'm talking about the average user, the average college student, the average housewife, the average parent etc.
The entire macs in existence add just to the decimals on the number of windows in existence.... and that is not accounting the DIY PCs in the world. Only the trademarks ones.
On developping markets 99% of PCs are DIY (Assembled in retail stores), trademark PCs are on the 1%, and Macs are just a statistical error.
Translation: Schiller thinks potential Mac users are morons.