Apple's Phil Schiller: 'Win 7 upgrade hassle - why not just buy a Mac?'

9 to 5 Mac posted this story: Apple's Phil Schiller: 'Win 7 upgrade hassle - why not just buy a Mac?' and I couldn't help but comment. First of all, I'm coming to realize that I'm an Apple Fanboy (the first step is admitting it) but I think I'm also a realist. First of all, a couple of points that I'm sure people have already made about the article:

• The steps listed for a Windows upgrade are pretty much exactly the same for a Mac upgrade. The only caveat is that you can only upgrade from certain versions of Windows to certain versions of Windows 7, whereas there is only one OS/X version so you don't have to deal with "can I upgrade from Home Premium to Business or from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium". However, either OS if you're doing a fresh upgrade (re-installing the OS on a freshly formatted hard drive) you still have to back up, format, reinstall, and restore your personal data.
  
• The people who upgrade their computers from XP/Vista to Windows 7 aren't "average". The average person will get Windows 7 when they get a new PC. These are probably the more common case than Apple users who upgrade from Tiger/Leopard by buying a new Mac.
  
• "... those friendly staff at the Apple Store will swap all your personal files across for you.". Technically this is probably true, however when you have to schedule time a week in advance to have someone look at a broken iPhone headphone jack, I can only imagine the waiting period for someone who is bringing in a full PC setup and a Mac setup to move files across. I know I wouldn't have the patience :)
  

That all said, my first point about only one version of Mac vs 5 or 7 versions of Vista/Win7 is the reason that people (I believe) are more likely to upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard vs Vista to Windows 7. If there was only one Windows version, I think the numbers would be much different.

Posted by Arcterex at October 15, 2009 11:30 AM