Apple a major OS maker? How does 3 percent of the desktop qualify you as a major anything except a pain in the ass for software developers who have to develop for that platform?
There is no OS battle here. Apple makes money selling iPods and they have a captive market in the Graphics, Film, and Music Editing fields (for a while) where they can sell really nice machines to people who simply must pay for their machines to run the software they need.
There's no question that mac users are loyal to the platform - and for good reason. Apple has the best hardware designs and ergonomics of anyone making computers and has for a long time (except for their mice which suck).
The OS usability advantage Apple had so many years ago is gone - XP and many Linux distros are just as easy to install and use as OSX. The difference is the software that runs on those OSes.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple was getting pressure from major software developers (Microsoft, Adobe, Avid,...) to switch platforms - they may even be getting paid to do it. The threat of simply dropping software support for the mac is very real - virtually all of these applications already run on Windows. I know changing processors doesn't make cross-platform development that much easier but it helps. It's one less variable in the mix.
I think Apple would still do pretty well selling high-end hardware that can run OSX, Windows, and/or Linux.
People in Hawaii do. It's a little known fact that the state of Hawaii consumes more SPAM (the meat) than all other states combined. You can even get SPAM and eggs for breakfast at McDs.
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There is no OS battle here. Apple makes money selling iPods and they have a captive market in the Graphics, Film, and Music Editing fields (for a while) where they can sell really nice machines to people who simply must pay for their machines to run the software they need.
There's no question that mac users are loyal to the platform - and for good reason. Apple has the best hardware designs and ergonomics of anyone making computers and has for a long time (except for their mice which suck).
The OS usability advantage Apple had so many years ago is gone - XP and many Linux distros are just as easy to install and use as OSX. The difference is the software that runs on those OSes.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple was getting pressure from major software developers (Microsoft, Adobe, Avid, ...) to switch platforms - they may even be getting paid to do it. The threat of simply dropping software support for the mac is very real - virtually all of these applications already run on Windows. I know changing processors doesn't make cross-platform development that much easier but it helps. It's one less variable in the mix.
I think Apple would still do pretty well selling high-end hardware that can run OSX, Windows, and/or Linux.
I wish my laptop was made out of Titanium...
People in Hawaii do. It's a little known fact that the state of Hawaii consumes more SPAM (the meat) than all other states combined. You can even get SPAM and eggs for breakfast at McDs.