Microsoft mindshare is plummeting. Has been heading south for a number of years now. They've shown they're unable to cope with new market realities that were initiated by Apple and MS competitors in 2007 and then in 2010.
You don't see MS being promoted by Hollywood. It's all Macs and iDevice in movies. You don't see MS and PeeCees in the hands of the social elite - the very class of the retail spectrum that builds your brand.
It's all about Apple. It's a great situation for Apple, and very, very bad for their competitors. MS and Apple's competitors simply aren't crowd-pleasers. They can't fill the seats. They have no star-power.
Windows/Office isn't the power it used to be, and it's under heavy threat. Fortune 500s are planning (or have already implemented) iPad rollouts. MS has all but handed the future of personal computing to Apple on a silver platter, mostly due to far-reaching denial and hubris. Once again, Ballmer. But historically, they've *always* been the "un-cool" and comparatively flat-footed brand next to Apple. Most of the innovations in "computers" over the years came from what Apple was doing with tech. The original Macintosh, the GUI, you name it. It took Apple to show the industry how it's done. And then everyone else ran away with it via lucrative licensing deals.
Fast-forward to today, and things don't look any better for their ill-conceived Nokia marriage, either. And it's been well over a year.
http://www.neowin.net/news/nokia-ceo-sales-of-lumia-phones-have-been-mixed
So naturally, you'll see MS *try* to do what it never thought it had to years ago: convince consumers they don't suck anymore.
It doesn't seem to be working out too well.
DISCLAIMER: I have a couple of Apples, a Dual 1.8G5, a brand new intel iMac, a iMac G3, and an ipad. So I don't hate apples at all, I love mine. I love my Windows/Linux PCs here as well. But here's reality.
No offense man, but " mindshare " is a far cay from market-share, at the moment in the personal computer market, Microsoft enjoys over 90% of the marketshare, for a couple of simple reasons. In the home user market, they make an operating system ( windows 7 ), that is easy to use, super compatible, stable, secure, and can be had in very cheap computers. You can get something simple like a mid range dell for 600 dollars, that will have tons of ram, a good video card, come with a decent display. Warrenty and all that stuff. Thats what the majority of the customers who buy home computers want, PC vendors offer all of that, which is why they will continue for a long time to dominate the market, unless Microsoft Pulls an ME again. They're gonna stay the king.
Apple on the other hand with the personal computer market....sure, you can buy an awesome computer, with an awesome operating system, OSX is awesome. Tho I'd put 7 and OSX on par with each other, I perfer OSX myself. Tho I use my 7 machines a lot as well. Anyway. They just don't make cheap apples, the cheapest apple you can buy is a Mac Mini, starts at 600 dollars, doesn't even come with a monitor. By the time you buy an Apple monitor ( assuming you want one, awesome monitor ). Your looking at almost 1000 dollars. And let me tell you what, for 1000 dollars. I could build a PC that will blow that Mac Mini out of the water. The problem with Apple is that they are just to expensive for most peoples tastes, at least for a typical user. Would a typical user blow 1100 dollars on an iMac, or 700 on a comparable PC? Its gonna be the PC. And Microsofts 90+% marketshare shows that.
Enterprise market? Apple will NEVER gain a massive foothold in that area. Sure, some business will buy some computers and iPads, but for a company that has to buy 1000+ computers? ( Hell I've WORKED for a company that once bought 4,300 computers in one purchase ), For business and engineering uses? Are they REALLY gonna blow 2-3K on a decently speced out Mac? Or blow 800-1K on a PC that will do everything they need it to do? Not hard to figure this one out.
I love Apple, the iPad is awesome. Best tablet on the Market ( besides the dual screen Iconia ), I love my iphone 4S, and I love my PPC Macs and I love my new iMac.
And I like Microsoft as well. And heres the facts, until Apple does A: Offer their OSX to vendors like Dell or Gateway. or B: Starts to offer budget models. Microsoft is going to dominate the Home Computer market. Simple.
Apple does great in the mobile/tablet market. As they should. THey make AWESOME tablets and phones, they make awesome computers as well, just to expensive.
Problem is, a Tablet isn't 1/8th of a computer for productivity.
