"MS could perhaps woo Mac users with a new house brand. It would need to feature hardware as pretty and innovative as Apple's, specially tuned for a customized OS uncluttered by butterflies and Windows logos, with distinct performance advantages over current Mac hardware."
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Of course, for this to even have a chance of working, I think there would need to be some major changes in the design/aesthetic philosophy of Microsoft, certainly as far as the GUI is concerned. Some of their hardware is well designed (such as some of their mice and keyboards), and some seems a bit clunky, with vague stabs at trendy curves (like the XBox).
Of course these are all subjective criteria, but it seems to me that most would agree that in the computer hardware market, Apple tends to have more design "hits" than anyone else. This aesthetic philosophy seems to also be reflected in their interface design. The aesthetic focus toward interface (both physical and graphical) served to improve the experience of use, and while that's very often a secondary concern for people interested in computing, for the user it's all about the quality of the experience.
Not that anyone's perfect...the only possible justification I can offer for that beatifully frustrating one button mouse is that it tends to make one want to learn keyboard shortcuts to do anything more complex than poking around, which ultimately speeds up use.
Slashdot Mirror
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Of course, for this to even have a chance of working, I think there would need to be some major changes in the design/aesthetic philosophy of Microsoft, certainly as far as the GUI is concerned. Some of their hardware is well designed (such as some of their mice and keyboards), and some seems a bit clunky, with vague stabs at trendy curves (like the XBox).
Of course these are all subjective criteria, but it seems to me that most would agree that in the computer hardware market, Apple tends to have more design "hits" than anyone else. This aesthetic philosophy seems to also be reflected in their interface design. The aesthetic focus toward interface (both physical and graphical) served to improve the experience of use, and while that's very often a secondary concern for people interested in computing, for the user it's all about the quality of the experience.
Not that anyone's perfect...the only possible justification I can offer for that beatifully frustrating one button mouse is that it tends to make one want to learn keyboard shortcuts to do anything more complex than poking around, which ultimately speeds up use.