Windows Vista: The Diet Coke of OS's

Well, Vista is out... if your response to that was or is "Yeah, and?" then your reaction lines up with the masses and the numbers too (sales compared to when XP launched are at about 50%). Steve Balmer blames "pirates" (as in software pirates, but it just sounds more subtly insulting to put in quotes like that -anyone remember him running around stage at the stock holders meeting like a lunatic?) but I agree with the following TomsHardware.com article (and, for that matter, Cnet.com's "warmed over" review). I don't think Vista is utterly useless I just think many are left wondering two things; 1. Why, again, am I doing this? and 2. Doesn't the Mac already have this? -JK

75% Of Windows Vista Reviews Refer To Mac OS X
by Aaron McKenna (full story here; credit TomsHardware.com)

The good chaps at Infinite Loop over on Ars have gone and taken a sample of Windows Vista reviews only to find that, to the shock and horror of people everywhere, that 75% of these reviews make mention of Mac OS X; even going so far as to blaspheme and compare it to Vista.

Perhaps the slow sales of Windows Vista are not due to rampant piracy, but a more reasonable "It's crap"?

As Tech Review said in their review, "Ironically, playing around with Vista for more than a month has done what years of experience and exhortations from Mac-loving friends could not: it has converted me into a Mac fan."

This is serious fry for Microsoft, now that previously Windows-addled professionals can get a Mac and, if worst comes to worst, run a copy of Windows XP on boot camp. No need to go near Vista for another year or four. Plus we've got the next Mac OS coming down the tubes.

Digital Content Continued: My Broken Record

This topic has been cropping up more, lately, between me, friends and other pundits concerning the current and ongoing digital music/video revolution. I am still faced and perplexed by the near complete lack of realization by the content providers at large with regard to a consumer model for downloading, transfer and ownership of said, purchased content. Why?

It's all too difficult and expensive.

In no sense of entirety can I just buy a digital track, own it, transfer it to portable devices (plural) or burn it (plural), etc. There's all kinds of bullshit involved in the form of annoying limits and overpricing; I mean, come on, $15 for a Talladega Nights DVD? And I dare someone to ask me about my recent first (and last) experience with the bastard child of Steve Jobs, iTunes (so you're saying that I can't keep it on my PC if it's not on the iPod? Ass.) ...ok, let me slow the rant here to get to the point:

Consumers are not satisfied on multiple fundamental fronts of their own simple economic psychology; the desire for deliverables to arrive in the form closest to fast, free and now.

How is this a fact? Simple. People still download unlicensed music and videos. They wouldn't do this (in any manner of significance) if the product was anywhere close to those three ideas of which the most critically missed component is "now".

People don't steal what is cheap and readily available.

Yes, .99 cents a track is relatively cheap but the products in question are not readily available; and readily available doesn't just mean "stock" it means unencumbered after the fact of purchase. When I buy a gallon of milk, it's mine. When I want some milk I go the fridge and pour some into a glass. If I wanted to I could pour it in bowl or a cup or, hell, I could pour it on the floor if I so please. However at $15 a gallon I'm not too happy about buying anymore milk (and no I'm no going to Kroger to steal some milk, idiot, because cheaper and more readily available products exist to counter such an asinine markup). I refer to a Cnet.com article about software pricing to illustrate my point (and the truth):

"[Digital River CEO Joel Ronning] went on to explain that [the] high price of software is why piracy runs rampant in countries such as China. People there can't afford to pay U.S.-level prices, so there's a strong economic incentive for sellers to create pirated versions and for users to buy them." (credit Rafe Needleman, cnet.com; full article here)

So, a "strong economic incentive" for people to engage in the exchange of unlicensed goods. But why? Due to what? Simple, a lack of equilibrium in what the consumer market will bear from the entities delivering the product to that very market.

Wake up, fellas. Fast, free and now is the only way to go. Make it simple and make it easy and you'll make the consumer believe that it's worth it to pony up. Stop with the DRM, broadcast flags and petty reasons why and give people what they want -in return they will give you their dollars. -JK