Australian IT: Windows Desktop Stranglehold Slipping

by , 2:30 PM EDT, October 5th, 2004

David Frith has penned an editorial for Australian IT that rounds up all the recent trends away from Windows and towards the Mac. From those trends, he concludes that Windows security issues and the strength of Apple's iPod has put a chink in the armor of the Windows dominance of the computing world. From the article:

THERE are a few straws blowing in an increasingly strong wind for Apple Computer.

Straw 1: When the White House's former top cyber-security and anti-terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, visited Australia and new Zealand recently, he carried an Apple Macintosh, not a Windows machine.

Clarke, who served under four presidents but is no friend of the Bush administration, says he chooses a Mac because it protects his data from more than 99 per cent of all known viruses, worms, network attacks and spyware -- issues that plague the Windows operating system daily.

Straw 2: Daryl Forrest is a US-based developer of software for Microsoft Windows. Here's what he recently told USA Today newspaper: "I have moved all non-work-related computing to a new Apple Power Mac G5. I like Windows XP, but the risks are too high these days. It's sad that it has come to this."

You can find the full article at Australian IT's Web site. He also has a segment for his "Macintosh Hero of the Month."

The Mac Observer Spin:

Don't uncork the champagne just yet. We agree with Mr. Frith's assessment that Apple has momentum, and indeed have been saying that for weeks. There are a lot of things that still have to come together, however, before the Mac platform even vaguely threatens the Wintel Hegemony. We think that an increase in market share by a few percentage points would be a major victory for Apple, and that would definitely leave Windows dominance firmly entrenched, even while bringing the Mac platform to new, healthy heights.

Australian IT Article