Switched On: Windows 7, Non-Starter Edition
posted April 30th 2009 6:01PM
Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Microsoft is making many well-received improvements in Windows 7, but may be in for a black eye on its Starter Edition because of growing misconceptions that it has optimized and recommended the limited Starter Edition for netbooks. For instance, the ad copy for the Apple commercial jabbing Starter Edition almost writes itself.
"Hello, I'm a Mac."
"And I'm a PC."
PC is trying to juggle.
"Hey, PC. What's with the juggling act?"
"It's my new operating system. See, it only lets me run three programs at a time so I need to stop doing one thing when I want to do another. Really keeps me on my toes thinking about which three programs I should use. Of course, I could upgrade to a more expensive version that gives me the capabilities I should have had from the beginning."
PC drops the balls.
"Hmm, really? Every Mac lets you run as many programs as you want out of the box."
"Well, that would be nice. I'd sure like to send someone an e-mail about that."
"That's a good idea, PC. Why don't you?"
"Because I had to quit my e-mail program to say that."
PC starts trying to juggle again. Cut to iMac with "Mac" desktop
One of the earliest demonstrations of Windows 7 had it running on a netbook, a hardware phenomenon that caught Microsoft squarely off-guard with the hardware requirements of Windows Vista. PC makers and consumers reacted by running to the familiar embrace of the tried, true and relatively lightweight Windows XP. That was a problem for Microsoft on a number of fronts, including reduced revenue and an inability to bring new strategic initiatives into the marketplace.
However, the alternative would have been even worse for Windows -- have PC manufacturers ship a laptop without Windows at all, and push them further down the road of creating their own front-ends for Linux. Asus started that phenomenon with the original Eee PC, and the practice has created mindshare for the (dubious for now) idea of Android on a netbook.
"There seems to be a growing misconception that Starter Edition is the the operating system Microsoft recommends for netbooks and that consumers must live with the limitations." |
Windows 7 Starter Edition aims to address both the price and performance issues that caused Windows Vista to stumble when compared with its predecessor. The software's three-application limit clearly implies a sacrifice. It is not one that many netbook users may in fact encounter on a regular basis, particularly with more time increasingly being spent in the browser. Nonetheless, it's all but designed to be a limitation that sticks in the craw of customers.
Starter Edition will also improve performance compared to Windows Vista, with many tests on the unoptimized public beta showing that it meets or beats Windows XP at most tasks. (Performance tests on the first release candidate should be coming soon and should be even more promising.) However, there seems to be a growing misconception that Starter Edition is the operating system Microsoft recommends for netbooks (and nettops) and that consumers must live with the limitations to see the performance gains. Indeed, arriving at the conclusion that a cheap operating system would be tuned for cheap PCs is a reasonable jump.
However, this isn't so, according to Microsoft, which maintains that the core Windows 7 performance increases have been implemented at the kernel level and is recommending that manufacturers include Windows 7 Home Premium on netbooks. For U.S. consumers, much of this will likely be a moot point as there probably will be few netbooks shipped with this curtailed version of Windows 7. Retailers will be as loath to ship Windows 7 Starter Edition as they have been to ship Linux-based notebooks for fear of returns when consumers discover that it imposes artificial limitations, and most major manufacturers will act on the same answer.
With all that going for it, one wonders why Microsoft is even bothering. Is it much better to have a customer looking for a full Windows experience dissatisfied with Starter Edition than Linux? The answer is yes in at least narrow financial terms as Microsoft still collects payment for the weakened OS flavor and has the opportunity to upself the customer in the field. That upside, though, will bring with it high potential for misperception, frustration and ridicule for its willingness to sacrifice the customer experience.
Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
The Starter Edition is for developing countries. As far as I know Apple does not have solution for netbook category just right now. So telling that the OSX is better in that category than W7 SE is a plain lie.
The fun part is that now Macs are so popular that they have totally lost the unique appeal. You go to a coffee shop and every single person has the same Mac. Same design same look.Mac drones all over. Then you see someone with a nice PC it is refreshing. Thing is Mac have not evolved design wise PCs have.
Just Wondering : is the CRAPHEAD at Microsoft who had the idea of the 3-applications-limitation on the starter edition an infiltrated Apple employee ?
This is the stupidest thing pull out since DRM !
How to ruin totally one's own reputation. total commercial suicide.
It's like saying :
"Ok our OS's real value is $10 (the price of the starter edition) but we wanted to make you believe that it is normal to pay $100 for the exact same thing with a different name (premium). So we decied to create an artificial limitation on the starter edition, with the 3-application-limitation, so that you actually have a reason to pay $100 for premium.
BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANOTHER SINGLE DIFFERENCE
We are Microsoft and we love to screw our costumer (like Apple) but we prefer when they are aware of it (because we can)."
It's not my opinion of Microsoft, it's just the way I here it when they talk about the "starter edition".
Lamest marketing idea ever...
Obviously the error here is to retain the name windows7 for the described product, name it 7starter or something MS, don't you have anybody working in marketing with a firing neuron?
I think we all need to meet up and beat the shit out of each other until the other party changes their hardware/OS preference.
This is more about MS releasing something that isn't windows7, because it's so reduced in functionality, but still calling it windows7, rather than a mac/PC fight.
Also I think you can have the mac/PC fanboys beat eachother in a coma and they'd be still dreaming witting comments how their platform is better, I don't think violence is going to do anything, maybe drugs or women might work though.
Holy shit. Apple doesn't do anything but distort the truth and trick consumers into purchasing their worthless garbage.
I think most of you missed the point where Windows 7 started edition is not the OS Windows wants on netbooks. If you want 7 on your netbook, you'd most likely not have this limit on you, unless you don't want to pay for the full OS. You want to be cheap, use a free Linux distro, then if you need windows for something, duel-boot Windows 7 starter.
It's designed for emerging markets, where people can't afford a nice machine and hardly know how to even use a computer. The only application those people would probably be running regularly would be an internet browser. Just looking at the average teenage or young adult consumer, they usually have about 3-4 programs open at once anyways.
It's all about being able to release the OS at a very small price point, for people who can't afford a full featured one, and being able to reach that market instead of them turning to Linux.
Of course I'd like Windows to release their normal OS's at a slightly smaller price point, cause Apple seems to be able to do it. (with more included features might I add) Or at least have discounted family licensing so I don't have to buy multiple licenses for the different computers at the house, but that has little to do with this.
What a load of crap! I'm sitting on my TABLET right now running Corel Painter, Thunderbird and Firefox along with half a dozen things sitting on my tray. 9.9 On my most work intensive days I'm running Photoshop, Firefox, Thunderbird, IRC, Onenote, Office outlook and multiple file folder windows and maybe even an image viewer. 9.9
Oh yeah, I use Vista. And there two other machines in this apartment that run Vista and I think together, all three have crashed a total of 3 times in the last TWO+ years. The other two are even more work intensive and one's a gaming computer that's regularly abused with multiple windows. One machine has Business, two have Home.