So it's been a lovely week for Windows. But to quote the Bee Gees (I've always wanted to), "How deep is your love?"
In other words, would you buy a Mac if it was more affordable? The Laptop Hunter TV ads are effectively taking Macs down a notch as overpriced and trendy. But the ad could also be interpreted as consumers settling for Windows PCs because they are cheaper. What's love got to do with that?
As for the previously mentioned great news about the Windows 7 beta survey data, the always-skeptical Microsoft blogger Joe Wilcox — a damn fine analyzer of survey and revenue data — finds some holes in the survey methods.
On polling only 68 beta testers:
"The sample is too small. Thirty people [44 percent of the total who were "very satisfied"] is too small a number to call anybody really satisfied. For example, what's the mix of IT professionals to teenagers? The answer could make the finding useless. If I were a Microsoft product manager, channel partner or IT customer, I wouldn't make any Windows 7 deployment estimates based on 30 'very satisfied' beta testers."
On the larger finding that 53 percent of 2,000 respondents will "skip Vista":
"53 percent will skip Vista altogether. Sounds pretty good for Microsoft, right? Wrong. ChangeWave's question skews the data: "Will your company skip a Vista upgrade altogether to wait for Windows 7, or are you going ahead with a Vista rollout?" You've got to frakking be kidding me. You can't ask a question that way and expect good data. That's how you end up with 32 percent "other," as ChangeWave did."
What do you think? Is Windows truly in a position of dominance or will reality kick in when the netbook market matures and the economy improves? Also, if you've beta tested Windows 7, please share your thoughts below.
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