So Microsoft promises to do its best to work with its PC maker partners and somehow give Windows users more of a taste of the Mac experience. Once again, the Redmond giant isn’t so much interested in bettering Apple with its products. It’s only too happy to come a little closer, if it can.

That assumes, of course, that its concept of just good enough is really an improvement. After all, haven’t they been trying to do that for over 20 years? It’s not as if they succeeded by developing superior products. But a promise and a little bait and switch has served them well and afforded them long-term dominance over an entire industry.

Now with Macs ascendant after being counted out as a tiny niche player for so many years, you have to wonder what’s being done to combat those popular Mac versus PC ads. Will Microsoft deliver a counterpunch, or just make another unfulfilled promise?

This is not to say that third parties aren’t helping Microsoft, even if their methods aren’t so overt. But they might at times seem far more calculated, and sometimes they are, well, inadvertent.

Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter.

This article was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 PM and is filed under News and tagged with: Adam Engst, advertising, Apple, Computer, Consumer Reports, Consumers Union, CR, Iphone, LCD, Live Radio, Mac Os, Mac Os X, Mac Os X Security, Macs, Malware, manufacturer, Mid 1990s, MobileMe, Night Owl, plasma, PowerPoint, Profit Margins, protection, review, Windows.