Apple Takes It to Microsoft, Again

Yesterday, Apple took the fight to Microsoft on several fronts; ones we all know, but perhaps don’t immediately conclude.

The upcoming operating system upgrade, Snow Leopard, has almost been lost in the blur of noise around Windows 7, its many leaks, free widespread betas, and usual, hand-in-hand hype and FUD. With the announcement that upgrades for the latest revision to current will be $29 per machine, it tends to wipe out the wind from the ostensibly leaked Best Buy memo, stating that upgrades to Windows 7 could be $49 per machine, This goes into very sharp relief when the $49 dollar price point is studied; with Apple, that amount upgrades 5 computers, not just one. The difference, as always, is that when you upgrade your Apple, you also get the latest versions of the other softwares which come with Snow Leopard. Giving you iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09 is not commensurate with Microsoft giving away Office 2007 with Windows 7, but it certainly can be favorably compared to getting a copy of the latest revision of Microsoft Works gratis. (Even with the addition of Works, and the free-to-download Wave 3 revisions of Live Essentials, the Microsoft side comes up lacking.) As of today, no forthcoming word on that – this erodes much of the Microsoft (especially Ballmer) claim of an Apple tax.

It isn’t yet there, but the one thing Apple could have done to totally cripple the Windows 7 cycle would be to release Snow Leopard for non-Apple platforms – this, even with severe restrictions on a Hardware Compatibility List, would absolutely crush Microsoft’s upgrade cycle. Hardware upgrades, put off due to continuing serviceability of XP, would be made to jump to Apple-friendly boxes. Alas, it won’t happen this time.

Apple continues to make more of its OS 64-bit, and enhancing speed has been paramount -

Yesterday at the WWDC Apple has offered more details about its newest operating system, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which is scheduled to debut in September, about one month before Microsoft ships Windows 7. The Snow Leopard has full-on 64-bit support, with more of its core apps being 64-bit, is faster and more secure, is ready to take full advantage of multi-core processors, comes with OpenCL and QuickTime 10, and is said to require half the storage space of its predecessor when installed.

“We’ve built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before.”

According to Apple, those running Mac OS X 10.5 will be able to get the Snow Leopard upgrade for just $29, while a Mac Box Set including Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09 and will be available at $169.

above from Tech Connect

The Mac Box Set, by the way, is for 1 computer, with a Family Pack at $229 for 5 computers.

On another front, the release of an even more full-featured iPhone, along with a little brother iPhone at $99, means that Apple is staking out the territory that Microsoft wants to join, and making effort that very difficult.

As expected Apple has today presented to the not at all unsuspecting world a new iPhone model, the 3G S. Claimed to be “the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet,” the updated model runs the 3.0 OS, has support for 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, packs a 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus, auto white balance, auto macro and auto exposure that can shoot VGA (640 x 480) video at 30 FPS (frames per seconds). In terms of design/looks, the new smartphone is similar to its predecessor, no major changes here apparently.

Coming in 16GB and 32GB flavors, the iPhone 3G S also features a built-in digital compass (and a new Compass app), voice control for calling, operating iTunes, hardware encryption, and will provide up to 12 hours of 2G talk time (5 hours on 3G), 10 hours of video playback, 30 hours of audio delight and a maximum of 9 hours of web surfing via using WiFi.

The iPhone 3G S is set to be available on June 19 in black and white at $199 (16GB model) and $299 (32GB version) with an AT&T contract in the US. With the roll out of the 3GS, the one year old iPhone 3G will see its price tag go down to $99.

above also from Tech Connect

Also, in response to the Microsoft ads concerning buying laptops, price cuts to the lowest cost  MacBooks makes them more competitive than before. These models still cost more, but yield a better experience for the user; many would say that the cost differential is more than worth the small differential.

In a final shot over the Microsoft bow, Safari for Windows 4 is out, and though it might not beat Chrome in speed, it severely trounces Internet Exploder 8, which is Microsoft’s best effort thus far.

Apple is taking the beta label off of Safari 4 today amid a flurry of news at WWDC. A public beta of the web browser has been available for Mac and Windows since February, and in fact when you go to the Safari download page, you’re still greeted with a beta version of the browser. We’re guessing the full version will be available later this afternoon. Update: It’s available now.

Apple claims Safari 4 runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than Safari 3, 4 times faster than Firefox 3, and 8 times faster than Internet Explorer 8. The company says the browser loads HTML web pages 3 times faster than Firefox 3, although the company admits that performance can vary from system to system. I’m going to venture a guess that it may differ from web page to web page as well.

When OS X Snow Leopard is released later this year, Apple says Safari will be able to run as a 64-bit application, boosting performance by up to 50%.

Safari 4 features a Google Chrome/Opera style new tab page which provides you with thumbnail shortcuts to pages you visit frequently. The browser also features full page zoom, and a smarter URL bar with auto-complete functionality.

Safari 4 is available for Windows XP, Vista, or Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer.

above from Download Squad

What will the Microsoft response be? After a time, the public will wake up, and realize that price cuts are not a solution to everything.

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The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.- Peter Ustinov

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