Hey MAC - It’s time to grow up

Ever notice how most Mac users are skinny? It's because of all the calories they burn because they can't stop talking about how great their Macs are. OK that is probably not accurate but I did find it comical when I read it. But you know the people I am referring to, the really smart guys that cannot get enough MAC speak, My favorite line that they often throw out is that Mac’s just work, well in reality, one would beg to differ, otherwise why would you have macfixitforums.com (on the net for over 10 years and is now part of CNET).

OK enough picking on the guys who are going to take over the world, we will need them someday soon the way things are going. But I digress; my real topic today is that it is high time that Apple grow up. If you look back at the old days, Apple created a unique buzz about being your own person, that their technology, although ubiquitous, could be used by the buyer to be as individualistic as they were. One of my favorite commercial sequences was the ongoing debate between the corporate pitchman from Microsoft and the really hip Apple pitchman. These commercials tried to show how Apple was the hip up and coming product offering that would create disruption in the business world and Microsoft was the old stagnant way to do business, just throw money at it and raise prices. I am sure plenty will debate that Apple did in fact accomplish a disruption in the market place, especially if you ask your company IT administrator.

In fact the debate continues to this very day. Tim Cook pointed out at the Worldwide Developers Conference this week that OS X Mavericks, which he said accounted for 51% of all Macs in use "Is the fastest adoption ever of any PC operating system in history. Now, you may wonder how that compares to Windows. I knew somebody was going to ask, so I made a chart."

According to Computerworld  the pie chart showed that Windows 8, which Microsoft launched in October 2012, owned a small sliver of Windows overall. "It's at 14%. Need I say more?" Cook continued, to applause and laughter from the very pro-Apple crowd.

Needless to say, it was not mentioned that the overall numbers of Mac users still dwarf PC users and the fact that OS X Mavericks was free, unlike Windows 8. However Windows 8.1 release which also was provided at no charge was trending the same as OS X Mavericks.

In the end though does any of this really matter? People should be tired of the gimmicks, Microsoft and Apple should be focusing on building technology that improves the life of its users and integrates with different technologies. One should not have to be forced to use a PC or Mac to gain ubiquitous access to the overall suite of services. What made these companies great is that they changed the way we viewed how technology could improve our lives, it seems that it has moved towards who can drive the bigger profit and maintain the greatest market share through marketing and empty promises. It is time that both Apple and Microsoft get back to the basics and improve their software and delvier the next breakthrough in computer performance.