Having also used both platforms, I would agree that the MAC was easier to use until Windows 3.0, even though I personally prefered the PC Platform, even under DOS. After Windows 3.0, in my opinion, the MAC was no longer easier to use, but it remained FAR easier to install, set up and configure, and it was probably more stable.
It is my opinion that because installation and management of Windows was FAR beyond beyond the capabilities of the typical user, the "aura" of being easier to USE persisted, although I believe that in actuality the MACs superiority was confined to this one aspect since 1990. In this regard, the MAC may still be superior: it is one of the major benefits of the totally homogenous single-vendor nature of the platform.
There is, however, a very dark side to the force, in fact several. First, talk about monopolies, Apple's monopoly over the platform keeps prices high. Secondly, with far fewer sources of hardware, and in many cases only one or even none (tried to use a Snappy on a MAC ?), there are far fewer things that the MAC can do, period. And finally, with the smaller installed base resulting from the higher pricing, there is less motivation and less profit to be made by software developers from supporting the platform, hence the software situation mirrors the hardware situation: fewer choices, higher cost.
Finally, because of the reduced volume, Motorola, which was near parity with Intel at one time, cannot justify the hardware design efforts required to keep up with Intel. Thus the platform using Power-PC's is likely to become fundamentally inferior to the Wintel platform, as the software platform has probably become as Windows 95 eclipsed the MAC, whose software platform has not been significantly refreshed in far to long.
My prognosis, only my opinion, nothing more: In 1998, Rhapsody comes out supporting both platforms, and Apple announces a switch to Intel based processors -- Deschutes or possibly even Merced -- for all future hardware (if they wait for Merced, it could be 1999). But it's too late, and Apple has no value add when making Intel platform hardware. It's slow and lingering, but in the end my guess is that Apple will either be acquired or will simply die within the next five to eight years. |
