Written August 2009
By Cliff Feldwick
This ought to be interesting.
Microsoft, obviously not happy with Apple's TV ads mocking Windows Vista and PCs in general, has started fighting back. Running now are the "It's a PC" ads, depicting people looking at different computers and lamenting the small screens and higher prices of Apple, then choosing different PCs - with the payoff of being handed money to cover it.
Of course, if I was going to be paid to pick a PC, I wouldn't hesitate either ... but the hired help always looks surprised, like they don't know that they're in a commercial. Whatever.
This, apparently, is not enough. Microsoft has vowed to open retail stores "right next door" to Apple stores by fall. And it has hired a former Wal-Mart executive and Apple's former real estate chief (who was with The Gap before that) to do the placement.
So we'll start seeing direct competition, up close and personal. It would be fun to think that such competition would come to our local mall; would rival groups start chanting at each other, making fun of people taking their units in for repair or sneaking into the other store to hog their computers and try to crash them? Would it escalate from T-shirt giveaways to food and drink?
That could be good since almost all of the Apple tech people look like they seldom eat, but maybe that's because they're so engrossed in their fun/work that they don't go out often.
Personally, I wonder what Microsoft is going to sell at its stores. OK, it makes software, mice and such, but you can get that at better-than-retail prices on the web or at Best Buy. And in the gaming area, it does make the X-Box, a popular draw with kids. But as far as Microsoft computers go, the only MS branded item I can think of is the Surface tabletop computer, which is a pretty obscure item; it may want to change that.
So what it's likely to offer are a variety of other manufacturers' PCs with Windows 7 installed, etc. But will it have representatives from those companies available to help with purchase, or more importantly, with problems?
Score One for Apple
One of the very big plusses with the Apple stores is their Genius Bar, with tech people readily available to diagnose problems or explain software and give classes. They have a definite advantage here, since Apple completely controls their hardware platform.
Several companies have tried over many years to make Apple clones and they have all been shut down by Apple's lawyers, or by Apple refusing to license their software, including the basic operating system, to the clone makers. So Apple knows what is in each unit and has developed very good diagnostics, as well as accumulating a large body of experience in troubleshooting. You are likely to come away from its store satisfied with how problems were dealt with.
Windows, on the other hand, has to be designed to install on anything from a major-brand highly engineered workstation to a homemade unit, built from cheap-and-cheesy parts bought from hotel ballroom vendors.
Add to that the many other add-ons and pieces sold by other manufacturers that may or may not be fully compatible with the original unit, and it can be amazing that Windows boots at all.
So is Microsoft going to have tech people available to help explain your blue-screen-of-death moment, or why it freezes every time you open a photo in your e-mail? You would think that it had better, because people who do buy a computer there will be expecting to get help if they have problems.
This could be messy the first time a Microsoft employee blames it on someone else's product, however. As I said, it should be interesting.
Bits and Pieces
Microsoft has officially released Windows 7, its latest version, to manufacturing. That means the original testing and tweaking has been done and soon the major manufacturers will get their master copies to install. Retail copies, as well as official release, are still slated for October.
The big boys (Dell, Gateway, HP) will do their usual trumpeting of how history books should be rewritten to reflect how fantastic this is, and most of us won't care.
MJ is still dead
Much has been made of the recent "shutdown" of the Internet following the death of Michael Jackson. Apparently the traffic at Google from people looking up information was so heavy that Google thought it was a denial-of-service attack and shut down some of its servers in a protective move.
Yep, that's the death of the Internet: "I can't find it on Google." What this highlights to me is the morphing of the Net from a highly redundant military and university tool to one supported by phone companies that may not be keeping up their end.
Attacks by foreign groups, most notably the North Koreans, have increased as
well. What should this mean to you? Be wary of your dependence on a tool not under your control, and be protective of your own data and hold it close.