Michael Lee's Train of Thought

I think this article has an interesting argument about why the new Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” ads do more for Apple.

I'm not sure -- I think they're more effective than that article argues. I think they do point out one of the downsides of the Apple campaign -- everyone knows that PC is the real star of those advertisements. He's the more sympathetic character, and John Hodgman is the person that I look at positively.

But I think the computer age is radically changing -- especially now that we're in the network era. I'm a strong software-as-a-service believer, and from games like World of Warcraft to the business software platform set up by Salesforce.com, you've got an environment where the very nature of what is provided changes.

Really, most of the kinds of things that people use computers for -- financial management, simple document management, e-mail, web searching, and so on -- can be increasingly done in the cloud. Because you want your calendar to be accessible at home, at work, and on your mobile phone. And so many of those, the PC operating system isn't relevant?

So what are the things where it is? Connecting to your music and video library, especially synchronizing your music player... which, most of the time, was designed at Apple.

And then, you've got the things that cloud computing isn't good for -- and that's the artistic things, like graphic design, or music, or movies. And well, we know what computers have always been more popular amongst the "creative types"...

I mean, Windows isn't going anywhere -- the business world has a heavy investment in it. And it's really still "the default choice" for an OS platform...

But I think the new ad shows that while the Mac is still the minority platform -- and may continue to be -- the computing world is going to be very, very different in five years.