Apple OS X up, Windows longhorn down

Apple is receiving rave reviews about its new Mac OS X Tiger (released of Friday) while Microsoft was showing an early version of longhorn that did not really excite even the most hard-core Windows backers. OS X Tiger costs $129 and is the latest of a string of Mac OS X upgrade.

Apple launches upgrades on a regular time-frame that are good enough to entice customers to upgrade, paying about $130 each time. That’s a very smart strategy that allow Apple to provide incremental upgrades that targets desired enhancements along with some cash, that will in turn fuel development of the next cycle.

Microsoft on the other hand, is mostly releasing patches for its existing Windows XP operating system while building its next architecture, codenamed Longhorn, that promises to address many security issues and also show a new user interface. At his point, the release of Tiger is a kick in the teeth for Microsoft -at least in the media-, but I guess that this will not change any plans at Microsoft. Longhorn should be out in 2006: by that time I expect Apple will do at least another Mac OX release.

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