When Apple released a version of iTunes for Windows their ad campaign was “Hell Just Froze Over.” Well I am here to tell you that today is the actual day that hades went sub-zero. Today, Apple released a beta application called Boot Camp. Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP on your Intel Mac and then start your computer up into either Mac OS X or Windows XP. My thoughts are as follows.
First much applause to Apple, they are seizing the moment. Understand that Apple has traditionally been a hardware company, though they are improving on their software products - this move opens up a lot of possibilities for their main sales efforts - hardware. This little move alone will seriously make revenues for the next couple years way over and above what an OS X only offering could do. Large school contracts should become easier as school boards can feel safe knowing their new Macs can run both Windows and OS X. Businesses will like being able to buy computers that can be dual purpose, so if Joe Blow in accounting loses his job they can still make use of his computer by moving to someone in the marketing department that needs to run Mac apps. Bottom line expect market share to jump a fair amount before the end of the year and a ton in 2007.
Second point is that this is a beta. Weird. Apple almost never does beta programs. I think they have been eyeing this for a while, maybe with a wait and see approach and now they are feeling the need to jump. Why? There is a lot of movement right now with other companies working on the same solution. Apple wants first mover advantage. Also I think they see the opportunity right now for switchers from the PC camp if they could just offer something, well they have. This is why they are willing to brave a beta software program.
Finally, this is not the finished product. Here me on this, it is neat that you can dual boot to two different OSes, but the key will be when Apple adds virtualization into the mix. That is when you can have Windows running while OS X is running and you can just do a fast OS switch much like you can do fast user switching right now. Even better would be (crossing fingers) the ability to run Windows apps in a window of OS X like virtual PC and thus allow drag and drop between the two OSes.
A friend asked me a good question “why the heck is anyone going to want to develop for OSX in the future? If all Macs eventually will run Windows, why not just develop software for that platform?” Will Mac users suddenly leave OS X for the Windows environment just because the XP/Vista will now run on their iMac or MacBook Pro? The Mac experience has always been 95% software, that is OS X. It is the OS you interact with, praise or curse. The lure I think is that Windows users will have a good reason to buy a box that they can feel safe with Windows on but experiment with OS X on - in the end, if they spend any time at all on OS X I believe they will gradually make it their main OS because it is just better. The final note is that Apple is the only company that can offer a machine that does these two OSes. No other computer maker, Dell, HP, Gateway will be able to sell a machine that can run Windows and OS X. Commercially those are the two OSes with the biggest commercial appeal to the average consumer and that is a huge selling point for Apple.