Judging from the all-around mood of jubilance and the excited chatter of fanboys and industry execs, Apple had done it again. Like previous groundbreakers, iWindows lived up to the hype. Rumors spread like wildfire, ranging from Windows being bundled with Safari instead of Internet Explorer, to the inclusion of Garage Band and iMovie as default programs. But in the end, Apple stuck to what it did best: it defied convention and shattered expectations.
There were audible gasps in the auditorium when Steve Jobs revealed that the start menu icon was no longer the Windows logo, but instead the beloved classic multi-colored apple. They gasped even louder when they were given a tour of ‘My Documents’—except it was no longer called My Documents—it was now ‘Your Documents’.
“Just that they had the ingenuity to try that, to really shake up the industry like that, to refer to the user in the second person. Before it was always as if the human was in complete control, but now iWindows has been elevated to human-like status. It talks to the user. It says ‘These documents are yours. Use them wisely.’” These were the marvelings of Computerworld Magazine blogger Seth Winkowski, initially an iWindows skeptic. He now praises among other things the innovative aesthetic value that the iWindows Macbooks are offering. “They’re just so sleek and clean-looking, slate-gray, with that Apple logo on the lid, so radically different from the ho-hum laptops of what will soon become a bygone era.”
Analysts expect iWindows to hit retail stores in two months. Its initial price is set to be $239.99, roughly double that of Windows 7 Home Edition.
