It is possible that one of the things that I was most excited about when it came time to resume a regular news desk shift at TMO is the opportunity to notice (and therefor write about) more of Rob Enderleis absurd opinions. I think Mr. Enderle is the same sort of gift to a pundit like me as Sarah Palin has been to the writing rooms of SNL and The Daily Show. Heis the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaking of politics, today we have Mr. Enderle comparing Appleis attack ads against Microsoft with the "Iim a Mac" commercials to negative campaigning and attack ads of Senator John McCain against Senator Barack Obama.
In a grand moment of rhetorical flourish, Mr. Enderle posits that Appleis negative campaigning will eventually come back to haunt the company in the same way that Mr. McCainis negative campaigning has apparently hurt his own standing in the polls.
The secret ingredient to Mr. Enderleis Unifying Theory of Negative Campaigning? Appleis attacks have awakened the sleeping beast that is Microsoft, and now Big Redmond is going to make Windows 7 be so kick ass that Apple is going to be left behind in the dust, crying at the injustice of a world that could treat it so unfairly!
"In the U.S. election, the negative campaigning probably has done more to motivate the Democratic base and get moderate Republicans to switch sides than anything the Democrats could have done alone," Mr. Enderle wrote at MacNewsWorld.com. "Appleis campaign has truly pissed off Microsoft, and Windows 7 is that companyis way of saying, iSteve Jobs can kiss my a**,i [his asterisks] or more simply, ienoughi."
For instance, Windows Live Essentials, "has components that bracket and match the photo and movie capabilities in iLife and is architected to be a cloud-based application."
Thereis more of that sort of thing, and this is one Mr. Enderleis stock tools: He often declares things from the Windows world to be as good as something from the Mac world, and then reaches a conclusion based on that assertion.
Hereis my assertion: The only good software to come out of Microsoft is made by the Mac guys at the MacBU. Microsoftis entire approach to developing Windows software and operating systems is mired in its own myopic confusion that what advances Microsoftis business is what customers want (Windows Assured licensing, Windows Activation, embedding everything from IE to MSN LIVEWHATEVER in the operating system -- the list goes on.)
This, coupled with Appleis attack ads, the companyis fleet of Apple Stores, the Genius Bar, and the goodness that is a computing system where one company controls the hardware and the software, is why Apple has been gaining so much market share in the last few years. Microsoftis Windows platform sucks, and itis going to keep on sucking.
Windows Live Essentials -- or anything else Microsoft tries to develop to counter iLife -- will remain safely far behind Appleis offering for the foreseeable future. Big Redmond can become as focused as it wants on beating Apple, but it wonit make their crappy Windows offerings suddenly become better than Appleis Mac platform.
It just wonit.
Microsoftis ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates in which Mr. Seinfeld explained to Mr. Gates that they (as Microsoft surrogates) were out of touch with real people was spot on, and itis a lesson that Microsoft should have embraced instead of hastily burying in the face of reactionary negative reviews from Internet dweebs.
Mr. Enderle hasnit gotten anything right when it comes to Apple in the past, and heis wrong again on this one.
One final note about Mr. Enderleis column: Supporters of Democratic nominee Barack Obama will, perhaps, be devastated by the fact that Mr. Enderle has predicted him to be the winner of Tuesdayis election. Looking at Mr. Enderleis track record for predictions, Mr. Obama may as well start that concession speech now.
Follow me on Twitter @TMOBryan.