Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7
Last week’s big news was that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) pushed up its Snow Leopard release by a month to provide a 60-day buffer between it and Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) biggest launch of the decade. Apple can’t match either Microsoft’s resources or price, but the feat of snagging an unchallenged 60 days during the back-to-school and early holiday shopping season points to Apple’s greatest advantage: Its marketing leader is also its CEO. Microsoft is fielding its best marketing team ever for the Windows 7 launch, led by Kathleen Hall, who was hired out of a leading advertising agency — but she isn’t the CEO.
This pits what is arguably a part of the most powerful technology company in the world against the most marketing-driven — thanks to Steve Jobs — company in the world, which coincidentally is the most profitable hardware-centric company in the world as well. Apple is the standing example of how important it is to properly staff and fund marketing. Right now, Apple is winning this fight.
I’ll close with my product of the week: an InterView monitor that is unique in the market because it has two screens — one for you and one for the person sitting across from you.
This is like looking at a boxing match between two champions. Steve Jobs, who is clearly the sitting title holder, is the first CEO I’ve ever followed who fundamentally understands that perception is actually more important than reality, and he uses this understanding more for marketing than to do illicit things. His other — and as yet unmatched — advantage is that he drives development. “Product managers” at Apple know that they only carry the title; Steve Jobs actually owns the products.
Apple PCs (and, yes, Macs are “PCs”; look up the term and consider the fact that Apple got you to think Macs weren’t PCs — that’s marketing) have gained a lot of market share recently, largely from two things: the perception that Vista sucks; and Apple’s ability to manipulate the perceptions of both Microsoft’s and its own offerings. However, Windows 7 is getting a lot of good buzz. In fact, among the influencers I follow, many who had gone to Leopard have now moved back to Windows 7 since getting access to the Windows 7 RC (release candidate) or RTM (release to manufacturers). On top of that, Jobs and Apple know, thanks to seeing Microsoft’s current advertising campaign, that Microsoft is capable of executing at Apple’s level now. The launch has more Apple-targeted products — all-in-ones and premium notebooks — than have ever existed in the market.
As good as Hall and her team are, they don’t run Microsoft, and they don’t even run Windows. And Microsoft, as a company, doesn’t really understand marketing.
Snow Leopard, if you think about it, is what Microsoft would call a “service pack” (no major changes, just minor tweaks) and at Microsoft, service packs are free.
Microsoft made a critical mistake, for while it actually had its product ready before Apple did, Microsoft delayed its release until late October — two months later than the ideal launch date for a perfect holiday season.
Apple is doing some of the best work it has ever done — this new ad is classic; even the use of a “Seinfeld” actor Patrick Warburton is top art — and that’s saying a lot. Microsoft has fielded the best marketing team, product, and vendor-coordinated launch it has had since Brad Silverberg and Brad Chase launched Windows 95 and nearly snuffed out Apple. But Apple didn’t have Steve Jobs back then.
I love geeky gadgets, and EVGA’s InterView 1700 two-way monitor falls solidly into that class.
It has two 17″ screens so you can spread your desktop, but the cool part is you can flip one of the screens over and share what you are working on with someone sitting across from you. EVGA calls this an “interview display” because both of you see the same image — the included software flips it right side up when you flip the screen — while sitting across from each other. [TechNewsWorld]
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