Will be interesting to see what the rtm brings.
@Cokie, think about this one.
Whatever else you think of Apple:
When Apple release a product - they always get it right ( well, almost always). It sells enormously and dominates it's target segment.
When MS release a product - they sometimes get it sort of right - often they get it wrong - sometimes badly wrong.
Why?
I have to respond with this, apple followers are nothing more than cult followers. Literally, the new 19 pin port of the iphone made the news across several sites. Seriously. People follow apple like it's the second coming of Jesus Christ Himself.
Also, apple tends to get it right when they release a "new" product (Antennagate, quick draining batteries, exploding batteries, Siri). They believe that THEY know what the consumer wants, not the other way around. So, yeah, you could say they don't take risks. But after a while, it gets absurd to buy a "new" apple product as it's a tidbit better than the previous. Like for example, the new iphone 5. Some leaked images of it basically render it as a taller iphone 4 (notice I didn't use iphone 4S as the 4S is just the iphone 4 with Siri and a bit better camera). There have been a few articles that actually speculate that there might be a waning in the following of apple as they don't innovate anymore. I was expecting an actual new iphone that changes the game as it's been six years since the first iphone that changed the game, but it's simply the same as before, as the last one was, as the last one was, as the last one was. I think you get my meaning here. Same goes for the mac lineup. Their "new" macbooks with the retina display (stupid name for a high resolution screen), apple makes it out as a revolution, but their macs are nothing new since their "new" ones are just thinner than the last one, thinner than the one before, and thinner than the one before but with a better screen and trackpad. They may know what the consumer wants, if the what the consumer wants is design stagnation and being told what they want because it's apple, you don't say no to apple. To me, I would go ape poop and postal if I couldn't change the color scheme to red.
But when Microsoft releases a new product, there are the usual complaints that they're trying to jack you of your money only to have you with a slow puter (user stupidity I believe). After a few months, adoption of the new Microsoft product happens and people exclaim that it's better than the cat's meow. vista is the exception, no one wanted vista, not even Microsoft themselves. Take for example, the Windows Phone 7. They could had just killed the Windows Mobile line altogether and just left that arena. But as a software company they didn't. So they made a HUGE risk in rebuilding the platform I believe from scratch basically because they had two options: continue developing a dead in the water OS, or rebuild it into something new and at least say you tried to do something better. They chose the latter. What resulted is a phone OS that the users of it just love using. It's genuinely hard to find a user of it that doesn't like using it. It's generally more positive than anything. Now, the Windows Phone 7 isn't something what people per se wanted, they never asked for it. Microsoft didn't have it fully feature complete until the 7.5 update. But they got it right, and got it even more right with Windows Phone 8. They adapt to changes in the market to have an offering to consumers to CHOOSE from the others. Actually, a reason to have a Windows Phone or Windows 8 is simply because it doesn't act or look like the others, it's not a rip off of apple products, it's not something that it shouldn't be.
Or, if they release a new product to compete with the others and it fails, like the Zune, it's primarily because of an abhorrent lack of marketing. Tell me, how many ipod commercials you've seen versus Zune commercials? Or for that matter, Windows Phone over iphone adverts?
