Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Apple's agility is owed to its smaller installed base and more technical end-users. It is notoriously difficult to obsolete something upon which many users are dependent. A large part of Windows sales comes from the ability to run old, often proprietary or unmaintained, software. People would be mad if things stopped working and they'd investigate other techniques -- as Windows's featureset is much smaller than its competitors', drawing attention to alternatives like OS X or Ubuntu is the last thing Microsoft wants to do.

tl;dr backward compatibility keeps customers, no backward compatibility makes them flee, for Windows.




"[...] and more technical end-users."

What Apple products are we talking about here? Are you implying that people who own mass market consumer electronic devices like iPod and iPhone are more technically inclined? I think that is an inaccurate statement: it is nearly impossible to hold the kind of market share in that space and somehow do it with only (or even mostly) "technical" users... there just aren't enough of them. Not to mention that it flies in the face of Apple's "it just works" marketing mantra.

In the world of PCs, you might have an argument. But I would say, once again, that your assumption goes against everything Apple marketing has been saying for 10 years. If the marketing has been working, then they've been attracting non-technical users into their user-base for years.

"[...] as Windows's featureset is much smaller than its competitors' [...]"

In what way?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: