Apple: "Windows 7 is still Windows, complex and expensive"

Apple has come out swinging, or at least Brian Croll, Vice President of Apple's Mac OS X worldwide product marketing has when it comes to the new offerings from Microsoft.

Croll states that "Windows users are really tired of all the headaches that they've been getting over the years, starting all the way back from Windows Me to NT to Vista and now Windows 7," he said. "As a result, I think people are looking for something different, and the Mac offers real ease of use, stability and security."

In his defense, Apple did just release their quarterly earnings which do backup some of his statements. In Q3 (July to the end of September) Apple had its best quarter ever for Mac sales; this would indicate that more users are switching to OS X than keeping Windows.

Croll did not stop there; he went on to say that "Windows 7 is still just Windows. It doesn't change a lot. It's still complex, it's still really expensive when you look at the cost of the upgrade, and there's still security concerns," he said.

"It also still requires a lot of assembly. It turns out when you get Windows 7 it doesn't even have some of the basic applications like mail or chat, or programs to manage your photos. You actually have to go and find them and download them."

The irony, in his second statement, is that if Microsoft were to include such applications they would come under fire for anti-competitive practices. The latest issues over including IE 8 as the default web browser can attest to Microsoft's lack of inclusion of such programs.

There is more mud slinging over at telegraph.co.uk but can you blame Apple for being a bit nervous? When Vista launched it had a negative public perception that Apple was able to use to its advantage. Apple recently announced some product refreshes and a new mouse two days before the Windows 7 launch. Shortly after the Windows 7 launch, Apple released three new "I'm a Mac" adverts targeted at Windows 7. Now that Windows 7 has launched and is receiving public praise, what will Apple's new strategy be?