Kibitz Tech

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Switch it: Apple and Windows stats

Thought it would be fun to start a series where I take an article written by Techcrunch/CrunchGear which clearly has an Apple bias and re-write the original. The number of articles written about Apple compared to Microsoft is very tipped in Apple's favor, when they do write about Microsoft they usually criticize them over everything and rarely discuss the positives. On the flip side, they rarely criticize Apple and almost always praise them. So here we go:

Here is the original article by Devin Coldewey

Here is my version: 

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, outlined some interesting numbers relating to Microsoft and their growth in the personal computer sector. First, he mentioned that there are some 350 million active Windows licenses out there. That’s a lot, though skeptics will point out that Apple has only 54 million active users. But what of that all-important growth factor?

Ballmer said that Windows 7 has been the fastest growing OS ever, while the Mac market has actually just started to grow. And they’ve been beating Mac's on growth for 15+ years straight now. But Microsoft is definitely pushing the business world: 90% of business have started their Windows 7 Migrations which include Desktop, Laptops and Netbooks.

It’s still a huge piece of the market when you consider all the servers, low-cost desktops, and yes, netbooks out there right now, but Windows 7 growth shows no sign of abating, and the hugely popular XBox and Kinect drives game sales like crazy. We’ll have more news from Ballmer about the upcoming Windows 8.

[kibitztech-blog]

Only 2.5 Billion Dollars?

Let me get this straight, Apple has paid out 2.5 Billion dollars to iOS developers over 4 or 5 years?

That's kind of pathetic.

How much money over the years has Microsoft enabled developers to bring in through their software? Billions every MONTH, easily. Yeah, a Mobile OS versus a Desktop OS isn't fair, but I'm guessing the amount developers bring in from OS X software is pretty small.

Develop for Apple and maybe be a million dollar company, or develop for Windows and be a billion dollar company. Seems clear to me, Scoble would disagree, despite the fact that he says Apps are king, Apps on an Apple OS brings in a fairly small amount of revenue compared to what you could do on Windows.

[kibitztech-blog]

OS X Lion - an Ugly Mess

Today Apple discussed it's upcoming OS X update called Lion. It's ugly, really ugly. Look at these two images from Apple's site. There is no order to this view, it's not alphabetical, some images are larger than others, it's distracting to have the background shrunk down and fighting for attention with the rest of the screen. Ick.

Next up we have this view of iOS apps which they are now bringing to the desktop computer, icons after icons after icons. Instead of removing clutter they are adding clutter. Who wants to flip through pages and pages of boring icons to try and find they one you need, Windows 8 tiles is a far better solution. Icons are so very 1984. Hey Apple, I thought you were supposed to be innovative? Grids of icons are not innovative.

[kibitztech-blog]

Is the mouse dead?

According to Techcrunch writer MG Seigler it is, he has talked about it a couple times now, "The Mouse is Dead, I just Killed it, now can we move on?" and most recently his second article, "Still Think The Mouse Isn't Dead?"

"Others have argued about the ergonomics. No way touchscreen computers replace the more comfortable mouse-on-the-desktop paradigm, right? Those people aren’t thinking about this deeply enough. It’s not just about directly manipulating a screen via touch, it will be about using touch pads as well that reside on desktops. You know, like the Magic Trackpad."

I don't know about anyone else, but to only use a trackpad all day, everyday would drive me absolutely nuts. I'm writing this right now from my laptop which has a trackpad, it's slow, tedious and uncomfortable to use.

Seigler uses the new Windows 8 UI as one of his main arguments that the mouse will be going away soon, the problem is that the new UI is more targeted toward tablets and not desktop usage. When you are on a tablet and using Win 8 then yeah I agree, touch is king, but when you are at your desktop, most people will spend most of their time in normal Windows because that is where productivity will happen. Go into any corporate office and ask people if they could do their job on a touch screen device all day or if they could even technically do it, touch requires simplicity, productivity software often times needs to be very complex (this doesn't mean hard to use though).

People do very little productivity work through touch screen devices, it just doesn't work well, even on the iPad. Traditional mouse based software will exist for years, maybe even decades to come. So fine, the mouse is dead, but not for 15 to 20 years at a minimum.

He is right that mice will be needed for precision based activities, ironically the next viable replacement for precision is a stylus, something you can use as a compliment to a trackpad, something Apple has always scoffed at.