Last evening I saw the latest Mac vs PC commercial in which the PC guy wants everyone to get Vista so they have to buy new hardware. He goes on to state that he has even dumped Vista and went back to Windows XP just like everyone else has. All the time the Mac guy remains smug and cool, which is to indicate to us how much better a Mac is. I actually found the commercial funny. But after giving it some thought, it made me think about the perception that Vista has.
I’m not going to get into the old PC vs Mac debate, nor defend or argue against Vista. Instead I want to talk about a problem that Microsoft is going to have to face in the next few years, that could lead to a few chinks in their armor. It is what the public thinks about Vista because of all the bad press.
This may be the first Microsoft operating system where the average person, who is not a techno junkie, who wouldn’t know Windows from a door, actually believes that Vista is bad. How did I come up with this startling conclusion? By listening to what others around are saying, with absolutely no input from me. Several weeks ago we had a social gathering in our home which consisted of family and neighbors. A neighbor mentioned he had recently purchased a system with Vista on it. Three people chimed in that they had heard that Vista wasn’t any good. What surprised me was the three that said something are not known for their computer abilities nor being tech savvy. They were just parroting what they had heard from others.
But this is not an isolated case. I have heard this from others like my barber, people at my bank, and even had one guy tell me Vista was no good while I was just computer browsing at a retail store several months ago. Which would lead one to believe that word of mouth about Vista has spread like wildfire. Most comments being made are negative. I would also venture a guess that this is also coming from folks who may not even have tried the new os yet.
There is no doubt in my mind that Vista will eventually hold a high market share. It impossible for it not to. Every time one buys a new PC it is ‘hello Vista’. I know that you can still get XP from some OEM’s and even Linux, but I’m talking about down the road, like the later part of 2008. We may also see more corporate users heading to Vista as well during 2008.
Microsoft can use Alfred E. Newman’s famous signature of “What, me worry?”
Comments welcome.
[tags] mac, pc, commercial, vista, [/tags]