saturn return to sender

Well I have a couple of thoughts about Boot Camp. I know the blogosphere has been on the edge of its seat, in a hushed silence, waiting for me to weigh on on this.

First, yay Apple. Very good. To me this shows that Apple has confidence in its software. You can now compare Windows to OS X on the same machine, apples to apples, as it were. No need to muddy the comparison with incomparable ISAs or virtual machines or any difference in hardware whatsoever. The OS is a tool, and each OS will have its strengths and weaknesses, but I do think that overall, OS X is a better-designed, more flexible, more robust tool than Windows. It deserves a fair comparison.

Also, how cool is it to have a fully dual-boot Win/Mac machine? What a bizarre thought! (Anyone remember the Quadra DOS compatible?)

Everyone agrees that this move will not significantly increase Apple’s marketshare. You’ll get a few converts, but price is the main thing that drives buying descisions for the 95% of the world that uses Windows machines already, and that difference hasn’t changed. Technical and aesthetic superiority, as we all know, doesn’t mean much to the masses.

But here’s a scary thought: what if Apple stops supporting iTunes on Windows to entice iPod users to switch? Or even just makes it a second-class citizen? Late to the game, behind in features? You want a first-class iPod experience? the marketing logic would go. Then step up and buy a Mac. You can still run Windows on it! (Assuming Boot Camp can deal with Windows Vista booting issues.)

Dropping support for iTunes on Windows would be suicidal, but degrading support is a probability, regardless of whether it’s intentional. I dunno.

Or, going the other direction, the idea of Yellow Box for Windows* has been bouncing around again lately. Though personally I love the idea of writing to one framework that will run on multiple platforms, and I’d love to write for a Mac and port easily to Windows as an afterthought, but this would be suicidal. Apple is a hardware company. iTunes for Windows exists because of the iPod platform, not the other way around. There’s no reason for Apple to port any software if that port doesn’t motivate increased hardware sales.

In some sense this move makes it clearer than ever before that Apple hardware is a stylish copy-protection dongle for Apple software.

On the other hand, I still get comments on my 12″ Powerbook when I’m using it in public. We’re talking about a three-year old machine here. Actually, it’s often women who comment on how “cute” it is … it’s sort of the geek’s version of a puppy. A puppy with a command line. Hmm. A laptop as chick magnet? Maybe I shouldn’t downplay the brilliance of Apple’s hardware engineering after all.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 7th, 2006 at 10:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.