Bill Gates doesn't sound too confident about Vista. It may be a result of what this interviewer chose to report, but it seemed like he talked much more about Apple and future updates to Windows than he did about Vista. He also couldn't give a simple answer why someone should upgrade. That doesn't sound good for Microsoft. It particularly didn't sound good to hear Gates calling Apple "liars". That is not the voice of confidence. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Here's the ad that got him riled up:
As I've written before, I am getting increasingly tempted by the Macs. I was in CompUSA last week and their Vista expert told me that there were already problems surfacing with Vista and that he had recently switched to a Mac and absolutely loved it. He saw no reason to switch back and said there are no substantive reasons right now for most users to upgrade to Vista.
Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen (author of The Innovators Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution) warned in 2001 that Microsoft had way overshot the needs of its' customers. He is now warning that Apple may mess up their market lead. Both instances (if/when it occurs with Apple) are examples of disruptive technologies overtaking an industry leader. Bad for them but good for us as consumers. It's a big part of what drives constant innovation, increased quality, and decreased prices. Schumpeter called this process "creative destruction" and it's a part of any healthy economy.
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