Vista is Here to Stay

You've all seen the ads where Apple showcases the differences between the MacOS and Microsoft's Vista operating system, as personified by two men: one nerdy and lacking self confidence who represents the Bill Gates side of the equation, and one cool and trendy representing the Steve Jobs self image. The effectiveness and popularity of these ads underscore many things, not least the popular conception of the two companies and their leaders, which of course affects brand.

Despite all of this effective marketing, however, the envisioned breakthrough of Mac is not yet here. Earlier this year, Mac hit a high of 8% of the market share of personal computers . In any other sector, this would be considered marginal, but in computing, where Microsoft has long been dominant, this is considered an earthquake. Apple has, however, a problem in moving beyond this. Concerned about its brand, and unwilling to take on the demands of the corporate user, Apple is still ceding the business portion of the computer market to Microsoft. Despite many overtures to embrace the corporate community, this has yet to happen. Apple's latest strategy appears to be to sell the iPhone to corporate users and in so doing perhaps find leverage to bring Macs into the environment. It is not a bad strategy and might work if Microsoft were in fact standing still.

In the meantime, the frustration that initially accompanied upgrades from Windows XP to Windows Vista have begun to decline. More and more third party vendors have created drivers for Vista, some of the initial complains about security on the new platform have been addressed, and OEM PC makers have gradually stopped shipping PCs with Windows XP loaded in favor of offering only Vista. Dell is an example of one vendor who has been, behind the scenes, very vocal about how Vista could have been handled differently and these concerns are being addressed by Microsoft now, and will be as preparations are made for the post Vista OS.

In the meantime, there is considerable business buzz being developed around MS Office 2007 and SharePoint a collaboration tool. Although Office 2007 does not require Vista to work, an increasing number of IT shops are considering moving to the new OS as part of the upgrade to the new version of Office. Unlike the move to Office 2003 which offers some change, Office 2007 represents a whole new set of tools and features, as well as much anticipated xml support. Touted as a worthy upgrade by critics from the start Office 2007 is now reaching critical mass in corporate America. As the new file types become commonplace, corporate users will begin to drive for the adoption of Office 2007 as the new standard, and there is some evidence this is already happening.

Just as Apple hopes to move to the corporate desktop by leveraging the iPhone, Microsoft hopes to use continued dominance of the Office productivity suite as a driver to keeping users on their operating system. Who will dominate may not be clear at this point, but one has to consider that the main office suite used by Apple fans on their own Macs and Powerbooks is of course Microsoft Office,

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