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 $29 Snow Leopard.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
"I expect Snow Leopard will have an amazing upgrade rate, and Windows 7 won't," he said.
Earlier this week, we reported historical evidence that showed Mac sales increasing with each release of a new Windows version.
-
Ambictus I don't get the Apple/Mac mentality... "Why upgrade?? Just buy a whole new machine for a lot more!" Maybe I do get it... revenue...Reply -
bill gates is your daddy Right...and while you are at that...why don't you come over here and take a gander at this monkey coming out of my rectal area.Reply -
ohim well at the pricetag that their hardware has if they would put a 200$ OS upgrade that would be suicide at least this is one thing to brag about to make customers come to them but we all know how any company behaves when they are the top brand so by then they will have expensive PC hardware and expensive OS ... so shut the f... up Apple.Reply -
the_one111 Of course Apple forgets that 90% of the world uses windows..Reply
I really hate apple... -
leo2kp Ummmm, weather or not they move from XP to Vista or XP to Mac, they'll have to go through the same daunting file transfer process. And now they'll have to worry about weather or not they can open their files on the Mac or if they have to buy the compatible software, or if they have to run Windows on the Mac for compatibility purposes. IMO, why not just get Windows 7? :)Reply -
martin33w20 Sounds like another (if you build it they will come statement), Apple does what the people who use it want. Apple is just over priced and will never get the widspread attention they are trying to get with the limited compatibility, that PC useres require.Reply -
doomtomb Apple, screw you. Fresh install of an OS or buy a whole new machine with a fresh install of a completely unfamiliar OS. Why that makes sense.... no...Reply -
Honis I'd rather have an OS with free service packs and can be installed on any PC made in the last 10 years.Reply -
coonday I don't think he actually believes any of this bs he's spitting out. I think Apple is just worried because once they can't bash Vista in their commercials any more they will have nothing left to criticize.Reply