Microsoft explains why Macs are bad for you

Ok, so I’m going to say this time and time again, competition between manufacturers is almost always good for consumers. The more manufacturers there are producing a certain product, the more effort and time they put in to developing something better than the competition in order to attract customers. This translates into innovation and evolution and sometimes lower prices for all of us. Of course, sometimes competition gets a little heavy between companies and some of them have their own specific way of convincing potential customers that they’re better through various adds or tactical strategies.

The Microsoft vs Apple wars are definitely not new. Compared to other segments of the market, when it comes to operating system they’re the only two companies competing (I’m not mentioning Linux because it’s free and it attracts a completely different type of user). Still, there doesn’t seem to be enough room for the two companies on the market as they keep promoting their own products and criticizing the competitor’s ones. Microsoft has recently released a PC versus Mac page explaining why people should buy a PC and obviously their own Windows operating system. The new section can be found on the Windows 7 website and informs users on the advantages of a Windows 7 computer versus a Mac one.

Microsoft goes on to explain that Macs could spoil your fun, don’t work as well at work or school and don’t like to share. While the Redmond company makes some pretty good points, it’s interesting how recently analysts have revealed that a considerably larger percentage of students in the US prefer Mac computers and laptops. One clear area in which Windows PCs will always be the best choice is gaming. There’s no way around it, if you’re a gamer, you’ll most likely own a computer running Windows. Of course, Microsoft completely avoids saying anything good about Macs and just underlines the advantages of Windows vs the disadvantages of Mac. All of you may remember Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ campaign. Well, it ended just a couple of months ago. In the meantime Microsoft came up with their own ‘I’m a PC’ and ‘I’m A PC and Windows 7 was my idea’ campaigns which proved to be very popular amongst consumers as well as fun. Seeing as the Apple-Microsoft wars have been going on for years, it’s no surprise that Microsoft would try to include a page promoting Windows 7 and putting down Mac computers.

The company claims that computers should allow you to have fun, work hard or share and should provide simplicity of use, compatibility and choice. Microsoft also gives good arguments for each point. For instance, the company explains that you won’t be getting a Blue-ray player, TV tuner, Memory stick reader or built in 3G wireless with a Mac. There are some things you simply can’t do out of the box with a Mac like watch, pause, rewind, and record TV like a DVR. Which, guess what, you can do easily with a Windows 7 powered computer.

As mentioned before gaming is also considerably better on a Windows PC. Most of the games aren’t available for Macs. All in all, these are the 6 top reasons because of which Microsoft thinks you shouldn’t buy a Mac:

* Macs might spoil your fun

* Macs can take time to learn

* Macs don’t work as well at work or at school

* Macs don’t like to share

* Macs might not like your PC stuff

* Macs don’t let you choose

It’s quite true that the user is very limited when it comes to buying a new Mac. The first reason is that Macs are only available through Apple, and there are only a couple of models currently for sale. As much as people might say that Apple’s products are hip and well designed (which is completely true), the few products that you can buy, you’ll see all over the place. PCs give a lot more choice in terms of price, looks or color. As a general conclusion Macs do offer a lot of limitations to its users, just like other Apple products like the iPhone, iPad, AppStore and so on.

Furthermore, PC users who are switching to Mac will have a hard time learning the new operating system and will have troubles using some of their favorite software on their new computer. With PCs outselling Macs 10 to 1, the reality is that most computer software is developed to run on PCs.

So, yes, let’s face it, this for the time being is a Microsoft and Windows world when it comes to computers and Apple might just have to accept that at the moment. The same can be said about Linux, but with the twist. Apart from being considerably more complex and more difficult to use (if not impossible) for some users, Linux also offers poor compatibility with most applications. In the end most of us are buying a computer for the stuff we can run on it or connect to it. We also want to do all this as easy as possible and this is why Windows still shines and is the top choice in the world as an operating system. In the meantime, let Apple have the mobile and tablet arena where they seem to be doing quite well with their iPhone and iPad products running the infamous iOS 4. You can find ‘what you need to know’ when deciding between a PC and a MAC right here.