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Wow-factor, Availability and Price
When a new OS lands on the market, the makers are obviously interested in getting the old ones ”out of the way”. That gives them less problems with regards to maintenance now that more users employ the new system. As such, it is interesting to see which of the two is best at enticing their current users to upgrade.
When it comes to “wow-factor”, Apple has already beaten Microsoft. There is no doubt that Snow Leopard just sounds much cooler to own than Windows 7, especially because the number 7 underlines how many tries they have used up to make the perfect OS. Far from everybody pays much attention to the naming scheme, but the people behind Microsoft could still have used more than 10 minutes to come up with a name, not in the least because Apple excels at making people love the names of their products (in line with iPod, iTunes and the whole “I” culture).
Snow Leopard was released in September, and users who already had Leopard only had to pay 29 dollars to upgrade to the new system. Via their website, you could get a DVD sent by post on which the new OS was ready for installation. In other words, it costs no more than a standard impulse buy to get a brand new OS.
Judging by a quick search, Windows 7 costs between $200 and $320. The latter is for Windows 7 Ultimate, which introduces one of Microsoft’s problems. As a consumer, you have to pick which version of Windows 7 you want, which basically means deciding which features to go without. That can be very tricky for most people. It is much better to go without the confusion, so in this respect Microsoft could have been smarter.
However, their OS is easily accessible and users should have no trouble getting their hands on the upgrade.
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in Hardware & Accessories by nyk001, 08-05-10 12:46