Editorial - Gateway's One: Desperate and Nowhere to Go

by , 2:00 PM EDT, September 27th, 2007

On Thursday, Gateway announced a new computer, the One. It looks like a cross between a black MacBook and the new iMac, and a lot of people are talking about it being an iMac killer. Rubbish.

Back in 1998 when Apple was trying to hold things together, they came out with a revolutionary computer, the Bondi blue iMac. It didn't have a great OS, but Apple knew that Mac OS X was coming. In order to hold the fort while Mac OS X was being developed, Apple made bold moves in the design of the computer.

Apple also realized that the Mac OS 8 was weak compared to Windows NT, and so they touted the iMac as easy to get on the Internet. They struck a deal with Earthlink and made getting on the Internet, an onerous proposition back then, as simple as connecting to the phone and power plugs and double clicking a pre-loaded icon on the desktop. Remember the ads narrated by Jeff Goldblum? "There is no step three!"

The Gateway One is nothing so radical, and it's not likely to ever challenge the Mac because it has one fatal flaw, no matter how good it looks: Vista Home Premium.

So, for all those people out there who want to buy a computer with Vista, great. They'll have a cool looking computer that creates just as much frustration and anxiety as Windows ever has.

It's American marketing. Beauty is only skin deep. And it will do precisely nothing to slow down Apple Mac sales, not by any stretch of the imagination. However, it might save Acer/Gateway from extinction while everyone else swoons about mythical iMac killers.

If only Gateway had something better than Vista coming down the road to save the good looking hardware.