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Microsoft vs. Apple's "Thunder"

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-just-bizarre dept.

jaymzter writes "Cnet has an interesting article on Microsoft's attempt to steal the thunder from the upcoming Macworld show, and also to slap Apple down for not showing enough gratitude. What's really interesting, is that Microsoft supposedly helped Apple 'fix' Mac OS X, and that Microsoft doesn't think Apple is pushing Mac OS X hard enough. Oh, the tangled webs we weave." Strange story. Basically its a battle of PR.

6 of 550 comments (clear)

  1. PR vs. Manipulation by intermodal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    PR is relations with the public. Manipulation is when something is falsely influenced or pushed. This is manipulation. Making OSX seem strong makes Microsoft look less like a monopoly, without actually having to take on the real competition publicly (read real competition as "BSD, Linux, (and maybe OpenBeOS someday)") which would make the public actually aware of these options.

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  2. Love this quote ... by SirSlud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > "What does $150 million buy you? It doesn't buy you eternal gratitude."

    Shit, thats a great quote. Especially considering MS poured the money in for purely (mostly, whatever) selfish reasons - we can assume the DOJ trial would look much different today had MS not participated in the 'wonton act of goodwill for which Apple should have eternal gratitude'. ;)

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  3. Catch-22 by mcwetboy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    1. Apple doesn't promote Mac OS X enough. Fewer people shift to the platform than Microsoft would like. Microsoft Office for OS X doesn't sell as many copies as they wanted. Microsoft is pissed.
    2. Apple puts considerable effort into the next version of OS X, code-named Jaguar. New features are added that make competition-obsessed Microsoft nervous. Microsoft is pissed.
    Microsoft is pissed if Apple doesn't promote OS X enough. Microsoft is pissed if Apple develops OS X too much or advertises the platform too aggressively. (And what flavour of nuts will Microsoft go if Apple launches an OS-specific ad campaign?) Apple can't win, so they have nothing to lose.
    1. Re:Catch-22 by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think it's more likely that Microsoft is trying to get Apple to divert it's marketing budget away from the current compaign encouraging users to ditch windows, and instead spend those advertising dollars to get the existing apple user base to upgrade to MacOS X. I'm sure that they're selling more then enough copies (1.2 millon in the first 6 months, did it say?) to justify having developed Office X, but what they really want is for Apple to stop going after their core business.

  4. Switch by weefle · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Well, I can see how Microsoft might be getting a little anxious, what with Apple pushing hard for people to switch from Windows to a Mac, coming out with a 17" version of the LCD iMac, making Mac OS users' default homepages Netscape instead of Microsoft pages, and designing iChat to use AIM and not MSN.

    As for Microsoft's opinion that Apple isn't pushing Mac OS X hard enough? Well, that just sounds like a software company's opinion of a hardware company. Apple's shipping machines with Mac OS X as the default OS and has made plenty of announcements about the sunsetting of Classic Mac OS. Apple's money comes from selling machines, so that's all they need to do.

    And how does Microsoft intend to "steal Apple's thunder?" By simply by making announcements of its own versions of what Apple has been doing with tremendous success for years. Movie trailers will continue to be in QuickTime format, MPEG-4 is still QuickTime, and Apple will continue to sell 802.11b harware in addition to their robust and easy-to-use software.

    If Bill thinks he's going to lead the game, he'd better try to get out in front on a thing or two.

  5. Questions to ask that weren't by ddtstudio · · Score: 5, Insightful

    -- office xp sales have deen dismal. is this the fault of windows xp's slow adoption rate?

    -- ms has split office v.x into a number of baffling skus, such as an entourage/word combo, a word/excel combo and so on. were sales of these packages counted in the single number they're tossing around?

    -- is the soho/home productivity market saturated?

    -- has the sudden stop on hardware upgrade sales affected sales of os x, new macs (which all ship with os x as a default boot) and office?

    -- is office v.x just not that great of a product? either in enticing sales or enticing upgraders?