I wouldn't consider myself an Apple fanboy in any way, but one thing is for sure, they know how to make things simple for their customers. One thing that's always irked me about Microsoft's Windows line... Why all the different versions? Why do I (the consumer) need to choose between Windows 7 Starter, Basic, Home Basic, Pro Basic, Pro, Home Extended, Premium Pro Home, Home, Premium, and Premium Ultimate Home Pro Edition with Sprinkles?
Ok... ok.. so I'm being a little ridiculous here... But even still.. I think I could work with two versions, three is pushing it.. but five?? Why do we need to choose from five different versions of the same product? When you buy Leopard 10.5 for the mac, you buy Leopard 10.5. There isn't a pro, basic, starter, or business edition. Its just Leopard. All of these different versions cause a bit of a headache with Windows XP, and somewhat of a migraine with Vista. What do you want to do with your computer? Take a look at this handy table full of terms consumers don't understand and some terms that only exist in our marketing textbooks!! No, Microsoft! This shit has to stop. People want to use their computers. People don't want to choose between 2, or 3, or 4, or hell.. 5 different versions of the exact same codebase. Its fucking stupid.
I've got an idea.. a brilliant idea. No tech company has ever, Ever done this before. Make a solid product (You've got me there, 7 is a fucking rock), make it shiny (7's got this one down too), then make it stupid easy to buy. How do you go about doing this? Put one version out, put it on every shelf. Don't even put out Upgrade packs and Full install packs. Throw it on one disk, put it on shelves, in schools, in the hands of celebrities (You can skip Seinfeld safely.. don't worry), and make people want it. You'll be the talk of the town! You'll be unique! You'll be pretty and everyone will love you! Oh wait... Apple did that already.
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Not everyone needs the same thing. Some people require their software to be specific for their purpose. Why would someone who is doing only surfing the web want a bunch of crap programs and features they wont use? People are stupid they will buy anything put in front of them. Welcome to America.
The Windows 7 Dev team did state that they are "un-bundling" programs from Windows. When you buy Windows 7, all you're getting is Windows 7. So why would anyone need to pay extra for what amounts to a couple registry hacks and extra wallpapers?
I concur Thomas. It's only a marketing strat to extract more money for a couple more mediocre features. Honestly, how is Ultimate worth the extra $100 over Home Premium? It's not, you get some new sound packs and video desktop backgrounds. Which, by the way, can all be done with freeware if you know what you're doing.
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