Microsoft may have only just launched Windows 7, but Apple isn’t sitting back and letting Redmond enjoy its time in the spotlight. Instead, last night it revealed three new ads in the popular “Get a Mac” series featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long, all of which go after Windows 7 by name.
The three ads, “Broken [...]
Talk about biting someone else’s style. Not only is Microsoft trying to add some cool factor to its brand using celebrity influence, a game which Apple has long had in the bag, now it’s also opened its first official brick-and-mortar retail store, and it even just began offering PC hardware for sale via its online [...]
Apple did pretty much everything they could to steal some of Windows 7’s thunder by announcing some pretty major hardware changes earlier in the week, but Thursday is here nonetheless, and that means Microsoft’s latest OS is on store shelves now, ripe for the picking. Question is, will Mac users be helping with the harvest?
I’m [...]
From Computerworld, the ponderings of Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall may state the obvious, but nonetheless bear repeating: Windows 7 is no threat to the Mac.
Having looked at the data on Windows release dates, Marshall “found no negative correlation between them and Mac sales.” Further, Marshall suggests that “new OS launches from MSFT may have [...]
Mary Jo Foley reports on her ZDnet blog that Microsoft is seriously considering making Zune services, such as the subscription-based Zune Pass, available to other platforms — and that includes Apple’s very own Mac OS X.
It’s early days though, as Foley admits, “There’s no guarantee that the Redmondians will end up doing this — or [...]
It took the designer-store concept from Apple. It took the Genius Bar concept from Apple. What’s left for Microsoft to take from Apple as it gears-up to the launch of its first brick-and-mortar retail stores?
Well, the staff, of course.
According to The Loop, Microsoft is poaching Apple’s retail store managers with the promise of “significant” salary [...]
On August 6th, 1997, Steve Jobs stood on a stage in Boston and announced that Microsoft had purchased $150 million in non-voting stock and promised to continue to develop Office for five years. While the crowd reacted as if had he announced his love of Pabst Blue Ribbon, it’s one of the moves that’s widely [...]
So far we’ve had to sit back and watch while Office 2010 news for PC users rolled in, but the MacBU over at Microsoft has finally come through with details of when and what Mac users can expect regarding the industry-dominating productivity suite, announced at a press conference this morning. They also detailed some changes [...]
As more and more households have multiple PCs, the idea of a “family pack” (i.e., a piece of software with multiple licenses for use) makes a lot of sense. Since Apple and Microsoft are set to release new versions of their respective operating systems this fall (Apple’s Snow Leopard in September, Microsoft’s Windows 7 in [...]
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has an unimpressive track record at predictions, which is why his latest comments should be of concern to Apple and, especially, MacBook Air fans:
Those new ultra-thin PCs, the first of which will be coming later this year and, presumably running Windows 7, won’t be as cheap as $299 or $399 netbooks, Ballmer [...]
The locations of the first Microsoft Retail Stores have been announced. Microsoft’s foray into brick-and-mortar retail will begin in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Viejo, Calif., CNET News‘ Ina Fried reported in an article yesterday.
Microsoft confirmed it has signed leases for both locations, where it expects to open its retail stores in the fall. Microsoft spokeswoman Kim [...]
A few weeks back, Steve Jobs returned to his duties at Apple. During his absence, Apple appears to have operated effectively and efficiently. Few people asked the question, “What will Apple do without Steve?” because the question was getting a dress rehearsal. But now that Steve is back (meaning, one day, he will “leave” again), [...]
Last week Gizmodo published a leaked proposal (32MB PDF) from marketing agency Lippincott detailing plans for Microsoft’s upcoming brick-and-morter retail stores. It makes for mind-numbing reading, running at a mammoth 124 pages of (mostly) brain-freezing execu-speak.
I’m glad I don’t work in Marketing. It’s a troubled, stressful world where there’s no such thing as a “lie” [...]
A lot of stories like this one are circulating about how NPD is saying Apple has a 91 percent market share of all PCs sold over $1,000. They give that impression by claiming something like “a 91 percent share”, or “91 percent of the market”.
Truth be told, if NPD really stated this as market share, [...]
After so brazenly bragging about Apple’s legal department’s request that one of Microsoft’s ads be pulled last week, Redmond has quietly made changes to the ad in question to make sure that it accurately reflects reality, which is what Apple wanted in the first place. Kind of puts a damper on Microsoft COO Kevin Turner’s [...]
Allow me to set the scene. It’s January 2007. The iPhone has just been announced and the tech world is going crazy. CNBC interviews Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
CNBC: “Let me ask you about the iPhone [...] What was your first reaction when you saw that?”
Ballmer (laughs): “Five hundred dollars?!! Fully subsidized?!! With a plan?!! [...]
Microsoft is counting on a turncoat to help jump-start its recently-announced efforts to compete with Apple on the retail store front. Former VP of Apple’s Real Estate department, George Blankenship, has been confirmed as a consultant attached to Microsoft’s retail efforts, which should bear fruit beginning this fall.
Blankenship is responsible for shaping the way Apple [...]
In my article Macs in the Enterprise: A Firsthand Tale, I mentioned the hardship I was having dealing with editing documents directly from a SharePoint site.
As a result, I can only perform the most basic of tasks. I can upload and approve documents, but I can’t edit a document directly on the server as I [...]
Speed, stability, compatibility — that’s the mantra from the Mac Business Unit for SP2, which will be released today at 10:00 a.m. PDT.
Besides bug fixes, general improvements include faster launching of applications, as well as better performance within, like scrolling in Word and calculation speed in Excel. PowerPoint users will now be able to create [...]
Sometimes I feel like Microsoft keeps the Mac BU around just so it can mock and ridicule it. The unit never seems to get to join in the fun when it comes time to release a new iteration of Office. Not, at least, until well after its PC counterparts. The official line is that the [...]
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