Spoiled for OS choice?

1:14PM Thursday August 6, 2009

Part of the dream of Western capitalism is the plethora of choice, and Microsoft really appears to have taken that to heart. Windows 7 comes in ... 66 possible configurations.

That's because you could be upgrading from Windows XP, which means you could be upgrading to Windows 7 Premium in 32-bit or 64-bit, or the same in Professional or Ultimate. That's six.

Or you might be upgrading from Windows Vista Starter - 12 choices. Or from Windows Vista Home Basic (32 or 62-bit), Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate ... look at the chart for yourself at Cult of Mac.

The chart is handily divided into green and blue tiles. Green tiles represent 'in-place upgrades' meaning installing it will keep your files, settings and programs intact. Good - that's how OS X usually installs, too, even if you're switching from a PC.

But the more common blue tile represents 'custom install'. It requires a 'clean' install: you move your files off, install the OS, put the files back in the correct places on the system with the new OS on it, then reinstall all your apps. Sounds like an entertaining, fun and constructive way to spend a few hours (days?) in PC world.

Of course, you could switch to Mac. Snow Leopard comes in one version. One. It's 64-bit. If you have an older, PowerPC based Mac, your choice is even simpler - no choice.

The polar-style cat OS requires an Intel Mac. An upgrade also requires you have a Mac with OS 10.5 Leopard on it already - only Apple OS X Leopard users are eligible for the low Snow Leopard upgrade price. Tiger and earlier OS users will need to purchase a version of the upgraded Mac Box Set.

So, do Apple users want choice à la Microsoft? Apparently not. Amazon has been pre-selling Snow Leopard (released next month) for US$29 (about NZD$43).

Days after that started, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard held the top two slots on the online retailer's software sales chart. The single user version of Snow Leopard is top; the second place was taken by the five-user family version (US$49). Both prices are considered very good when you consider that Apple's OS release traditionally cost more like US$129. (You can't order it in NZ, yet, as far as I know, but you can put your name down to be told when it will be available here - just search for Snow Leopard.)

And in case you think people aren't switching from PCs to Macs, the 254 Apple Stores managed to sell 492,000 Macs to 38.6 million store visitors during the June quarter. Half of those sales went to customers who had never before owned Macs. Since every Mac comes with Migration Assistant software in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder, switching from an older Mac - or even from a PC - to a new Mac is relatively easy.

Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the retail locations totalled $1.5 billion in revenue during the third quarter, topping last year's $1.45 billion in the same period. US$5.9 million average revenue was generated by each store in the quarter (based on an average over the 254 stores).

Since those figures were released, four new Apple Stores opened and another is due shortly in Paris. Another 24 will open by the end of the year and 27 existing stores are being remodelled. Visits to Apple Stores (it's a recession, right?) were up 22 per cent on the same last-year quarter - 38.6 million visits to Apple Stores in three months.

All this data has obviously generated excitement in the Microsoft camp, as Microsoft announced it would seen be opening its own stores near Apple Stores.

Wow, imagine the choices there.

I think Microsoft should switch from bashing to producing. CEO Ballmer seems all too ready to fire at anyone else still standing in various computing markets - as Macworld puts it, for Microsoft: "... there were losses generally across the board, from Microsoft's search (Let's kill Google!) to the division that runs Windows Mobile (Let's kill Nokia!) and the Xbox (Let's kill Sony and Nintendo!)."

Yes, Macworld is a Mac-centric publication. I won't mention Microsoft's 'Let's kill iPod' effort. Microsoft used to lead markets, now it just reacts to them. And it's capable of a lot better. Well, it has been in the past. And I'm hoping the impending Mac Business Unit announcement signals more leadership, as the Mac BU at Microsoft is standout. The announcement (Thursday 13th August) will be by its head, Eric Wilfrid, who I interviewed on mac.nz late last year.

Two other things have been affecting Microsoft's earnings: the still-strong netbook sector looks good on paper, but the Windows licenses involved cost less so they earn Microsoft less. And sales of new PCs to businesses have been dropping, reducing Microsoft's money stream of OEM Windows license fees.

By the way, everyone's still wondering it Apple will produce some kind of 'netbook'. The same financial caveat would count: if an Apple 'netbook' ran iPhone OS 3 instead of Snow Leopard, Apple would make a lot less than it can from a full OS.

Rumours and speculation on an Apple tablet/netbook/whatever just won't die, from specs suppliers, format, you name it - even a possible Apple netbook name is being discussed.

And this is silly - Apple already has a name: MacBook. Think about it - the white MacBook is clearly end-of-the-line, the aluminium MacBooks are now all Pros ... Apple already clearly has a category it needs a new, small, fun consumer device to fill.

Meanwhile, if you're thinking of installing Windows 7, I hope you like choice. Have fun figuring out which one will be right for your setup.

- Mark Webster mac.nz

PHOTO: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, right, and Windows president Steven Sinofsky announce the anticipated release of Windows 7 (AP)

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