"the PR burden has now shifted to Microsoft to demonstrate that they actually can offer functionality that's not already available on a Mac."
This doesn't seem compelling. What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users?
Consider American retreads of Britcoms (a longstanding tradition, I recall watching "Three's Company" religiously). The value proposition is simple: All the laughs of "Robin's Nest," with an accent you can understand.
So why must MSFT "innovate"? What is wrong with going to their user base and saying "All the nice features of OS X, with backwards compatibility and rewritten to be familiar to you"?
This may not be sexy to me personally, but it seems like a legitimate business strategy and like something many Windows owners would want.
"What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users?"
I didn't say MSFT is doing something immoral by copying Apple. My point is that Apple has shifted perception such that MSFT, and specifically Vista, is now the butt of a joke. They have had external help, for sure, but Apple's relentless advertising campaign has certainly also contributed to making it so.
So my argument is that, empirically, in the minds of many consumers the burden has shifted to Microsoft to prove they do not deserve ridicule. Whether or not that is "fair" is a separate matter.
This doesn't seem compelling. What is wrong with MSFT simply copying Apple while maintaining compatibility and familiarity for its users?
Consider American retreads of Britcoms (a longstanding tradition, I recall watching "Three's Company" religiously). The value proposition is simple: All the laughs of "Robin's Nest," with an accent you can understand.
So why must MSFT "innovate"? What is wrong with going to their user base and saying "All the nice features of OS X, with backwards compatibility and rewritten to be familiar to you"?
This may not be sexy to me personally, but it seems like a legitimate business strategy and like something many Windows owners would want.