We owe Apple a lot. They manage (together with Linux) to remind both users and Microsoft that yes there are alternatives in the market and they offer as much or more to both casual and professional users. Since the smart move of switching to the Intel platform, Apple computer sales have increased impressively. The iPod has been so successful that now Apple is holding the music industry by the neck, in similar fashion to Microsoft in operating systems… The share price has soared, the last few years are indeed success, success, success…
So where does Apple stand in small markets like for example the greek one? Well, up to the start of the decade its operating systems have offered incomplete support for greek characters. The market might not be India but yes people here happen to use a non-latin alphabet. The result? The Apple computer platform has been abandoned in the late 90s and the start of the current decade like a sinking ship, following bad reviews by the local press and users struggling with language support problems. Notably, the local as well as most greek universities switched completely to Microsoft more than five years ago, and these are all well educated people that happily go out and buy computers for their studies and even more importantly for their professional lives after finishing their degree… The only group that remained loyal was graphic designers. Read the rest of this entry »
