How will Apple respond to Windows 7?

Microsoft, it seems, is on a roll these days with respect to attacking Apple. First came the Laptop hunting ads targetting Apple’s price point which seemed to have hit a nerve with customers. Second, there is the imminent release of Windows 7, which has come a long way from being accused of being too much OS X like by bloggers like Mary-Jo Foley, Paul Thurrot, and others to be a recipient of gushing reviews which has even led to Gizmodo saying Windows 7 task bar is better than the Dock. Though, the images do look cool (Google Image Search), I have not used Windows 7 personally to experience them first hand. But, it does seem like Microsoft is doing a good job, if this video (a walkthrough by Microsoft is here) is any evidence. Third, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner makes a tall claim that Vista is now the most secure OS on the planet better than even Linux and Leopard and said that Windows 7 will leverage on this.

It’s clear, Microsoft is holding back no punches when it comes to targeting Apple. Maybe SteveB believes that without the charismatic SteveJ at the top, Apple will not be able to effectively target them this time around. SteveJ was very instrumental in beating the ‘Vista sucks’ drumbeat. SteveB seems so confident now about taking Apple to task, that Microsoft is releasing Zune HD this fall to compete directly with the iPod Touch.

But, to be fair to Microsoft, it seems to have learnt its lessons well and has done a fair bit of work on Windows 7, issues that plagues Vista, do not seem to plague Windows 7. Maybe, its the improved maturity of the hardware, with some windows laptops coming in around 3-4 gigs as standard. Also, don’t forget that Windows 7 is based on Vista, so Vista was a building block for Windows 7 and Microsoft took a lot of flak about Vista, but other developers caught quickly to Vista, once they knew it will work on Windows 7 as well. This is what has led to a lot of good reviews about Windows 7, I think another major contributor to that was the fact the UAC (User Account Control) which was poorly implemented on Vista, infact Microsoft said it was designed to annoy users, in Windows 7 it has been rehashed and seems to be more sensible and less intrusive. But, does that mean, Windows 7 will be more secure, Peter Bright at arstechnica disagrees.

Still, there have been gushing reviews all over about how Windows 7 is excellent and even speculation that Windows 7 may finally deal a severe blow to Apple’s rising shares amongst switchers and stem the flow of people moving away from the Windows bandwagon, especially students who have jumped on the Apple bandwagon in huge numbers since 2003, not surprising given my recent experience.

Many of the pain areas for a PC user using Vista has now been addressed by Microsoft in Windows 7. This makes Apple’s job tougher. Vista created a lot of pain for customers and really pissed off a lot of people, who ended up switching, after Apple’s targeted ads at Vista, as we all are familiar with. And that really helped in many people switching to the Mac.

Further, it remains to be seen is whether Apple will have any new features in Snow Leopard that will be ’sexy’, something that will raise the bar and force Microsoft to play catch up. Apple has already stated that Snow Leopard will be more about stabilizing and not about new features, is Microsoft counting on this to ensure that Windows 7 does not get beaten by OS X, since they both are estimated to be releasing around October of this year, maybe for the first time they both will be going head to head in the same month/quarter,  Leopard got released post Vista (Vista released in January whereas Leopard came in October) and won rave reviews whereas Vista was bunked by all, despite having a 9 month lead over Leopard.

Will there be a repeat of last time or have the tables turned and Microsoft is catching up. The question, then is, how, not when will Apple respond? We may have the answers on June 8th or will we?

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