Apple consistently convinces users to upgrade OS X

“Unlike rival Microsoft, Apple has consistently been able to get a significant portion of its Mac customers to quickly upgrade to the newest version of OS X, data from a Web measurement company showed,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.

“The last three versions of Apple’s desktop operating system have been adopted at a rate almost three times that of the best-performing edition of Windows, 2009′s Windows 7,” Keizer reports. “Five months after its 2009 launch, Snow Leopard powered 32% of all Macs, while Lion and Mountain Lion, which debuted in 2011 and 2012, each accounted for 29% of all Mac machines by the end of their fifth month.”

Keizer reports, “That’s in contrast to Microsoft Windows, which has had varied success in the same time span: At the end of its fifth month, Windows 7 accounted for 11% of all Windows PCs, more than twice the 5% share of Vista two years earlier. Windows 8, which shipped in late October 2012, looks to be on the same usage uptake trajectory as Vista…”

Read more in the full article here.

Microsoft to mimic Apple yet again, move to once-per-year Windows upgrades, source say

“Microsoft Corp. plans to overhaul how it develops the flagship Windows operating system in a strategic shift aimed at keeping pace with nimbler rivals Apple Inc. and Google Inc., people familiar with the matter said,” Dina Bass reports for Bloomberg.

“Microsoft aims to upgrade the software more frequently, about once a year, rather than every two or three years as it's done in the past, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the product plans are private,” Bass reports. “The company plans to unveil the first of these updates in 2013, one of the people said.”

Bass reports, “Microsoft hasn't yet figured out whether the upgrades will be offered for free, or for a low price to current customers, said one of the people.”

Read more in the full article here.

“The Verge has learned from several sources familiar with Microsoft's plans that the company is planning to standardize on an approach, codenamed Blue, across Windows and Windows Phone in an effort to provide more regular updates to consumers,” Tom Warren reports for The Verge. “Originally unveiled by ZDNet, the update on the Windows side, due in mid-2013, will include UI changes and alterations to the entire platform and pricing.”

MacDailyNews Take: Codenamed Blue. That’s short for...

“Sources tell us that Microsoft will likely keep the Windows 8 name for the foreseeable future, despite the Windows Blue update,” Warren reports. “A big part of Windows Blue is the push towards yearly updates for Microsoft's OS. Microsoft will kick off an annual upgrade cycle for Windows that is designed to make it more competitive against rival platforms from Apple and Google.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: So, Windows 8 is the public beta for which Microsoft nonetheless charges money? Okay got it. As if anybody needed it, yet another reason not to buy Windows 8.

8 reasons why Apple’s iPad mini launch should have failed

“A new survey by Cowen and Co. reveals that the iPad mini isn’t cannibalizing sales of iPad but is instead doing exactly what Tim Cook had in mind… taking market share from PC’s,” Jason Schwarz writes for Seeking Alpha.

Schwarz writes, “The process in which Apple’s lineup of iPad’s becomes a PC substitute is happening before our eyes. This holiday quarter is set to be a tipping point in this evolution as it represents the first time Apple has offered a $329 entry point. The iPad mini and iPad 4 sold 3 million units on opening weekend despite the following eight reasons why this particular launch had every reason to fail.”

1. Price/Competition
2. The mini launched only six months after the iPad 3 release
3. The mini launched only weeks after the iPhone 5 release
4. The mini launch missed back to school shopping season
5. The mini launch occurred before the holiday buying season
6. The mini screen relies on old technology, there is no retina display
7. The mini sales numbers represented WiFi-only models
8. Most Apple fans already own an iPad or two

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Arline M." for the heads up.]

Mossberg reviews Parallels Desktop 8: Works well; superior to VMWare Fusion

“I've been testing [Parallels 8] for about a week,” Walt Mossberg writes for AllThingsD. “It can run older versions of Windows, such as Windows 7, which worked well for me. Because running Windows 8 is a key feature of Parallels, I spent a lot of my testing time using a pre-release version of the new Microsoft operating system via Parallels.”

“Parallels 8 does a fine job of running Windows on a Mac, especially Windows 8. It doesn't emulate every feature, like those taking advantage of a touch screen-which the Mac lacks. But it makes Windows 8 work on a Mac pretty much like it works on a standard Windows PC that you'd upgrade to Windows 8,” Mossberg writes. “And it integrates Windows 8 with some new features of Mountain Lion, like centralized notifications and text dictation... VMware Fusion - a main Parallels competitor from VMware, a large publicly held Silicon Valley firm - also has a new version, Fusion 5, that is designed especially to handle Windows 8... I also installed and tested Fusion 5.”

Mossberg writes, “In my reviews of the last couple of editions of Parallels and Fusion, I've found Parallels, which claims about 70% of the Windows-on-Mac market, superior. I'm sticking with that conclusion. I found Parallels faster at every common task, like starting and restarting Windows, and resuming Windows from a suspended state... I can recommend Parallels 8 as a good solution for running Windows on a Mac simultaneously with Mac programs, and especially for Mac users who want to also use Windows 8 later this fall, or experiment with the pre-release version.”

Read more in the full article here.