Takahashi: Apple Keeps Moving Forward, Microsoft Backward

by , 4:55 PM EST, February 18th, 2008

The new MacBook Air emphasizes the important fact that Apple keeps moving forward. However, Microsoft took a step backward with Vista, according to Dean Takahashi at the Mercury News on Monday.

Mr. Takahashi hasn't been a consistent Mac user. He's a game player, and that required him to use PCs for decades. Neither has he been "smitten by Steve Jobs' famous reality distortion field."

However, looking at the MacBook Air made the author realize something. "Slowly Apple has been chipping away at Microsoft's advantages," Mr. Takahashi wrote. "Apple's success with the iPod and the iPhone have turned the world's attention to the fact that Apple's products have superior design and more cachet than anything in the PC world. Check out the MacBook Air, a two-pound laptop that is three-quarters of an inch thick, and you'll see what I mean. [He meant to say "three" pounds.]

In addition, there are hidden costs to Windows. "You won't get built-in Webcams on the cheapest PCs. The iLife '08 photo and editing software comes free with an iMac and it is far more intuitive than Vista's built-in photo gallery. If you buy a fully loaded Windows Vista Ultimate operating system, it costs at least $200, while the Mac OS is $125," the author wrote.

Pointing out that Microsoft took more than five years to ship Vista, and contrasting Vista to Apple's faster innovation with Mac OS X, he warned, "Before Microsoft turns all of its attention to Yahoo, it had better make sure its bread-and-butter business is up to snuff. Otherwise, a lot more people will be shifting to Macs."