Microsoft's Chief of Vista Declares War on 'Apple Tax'!

Brad Brooks, Vice President of Windows Consumer Product Marketing at Microsoft, is on the offensive against Vista bashers, Apple and Linux. He personally drew a line in the sand and began the battle for Windows Vista.

At the Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in July Brooks told the attendees that from that day onwards they would do things differently, they would tell their story, the real Windows Vista story. Currently Brooks has attacked Apple, talking about an "Apple tax" 20 times in an interview on CNET. He said that Mac buyers are confronted with hidden costs when they attempt to add Windows to their Mac. Brooks suspected four different taxes:
Brooks talked about choice tax, highlighting the users limited choice range of configurations and colors when buying a Mac computer in comparison to the PC market. If users choose Apple computers, they have to pay taxes. Brooks added that if users choose Apple computers, they have to pay application taxes which means that when users want a similar type of application experience, Mac vs Microsoft, they will have to buy a lot of software. Even so, they will still not get Microsoft Outlook, games, etc. Also, there's a technology tax, Apple still doesn't have HDMI, doesn't have Blue-ray offerings and it doesn't have e-SATA external disk drives that work at twice the speed of FireWire. The final type of tax, Upgrade tax, this includes the upgrading of systems from one computer to another and the absense of official upgrades available.

He also said that people really don't understand the Apple tax because it's never been explained to them. We have not taken it on, and Apple will certainly not explain their own tax to their customers, he added.

Brooks agreed that this new attack on Apple is analogous to a 2004 campaign Microsoft carried on "Different audience, but very much the same approach. He said they're not afraid of the truth; they just didn't feel like the truth was being told. Brooks also supported Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who recently depicted Microsoft Office for Mac as not a full version of Office.

Brooks asserted that if you specify 'different' as meaning lacking a few features and alternatives that are available in the new version of Office, then yes, it is different. He said that in the new version of Office 2007 there are many features, usability advancements and developments that users generally prefer. These advancements really differentiate the product as the next generation of productivity suites. Sadly these are features that just don't get along with the Mac versions.

Resources:
Microsoft: War with Apple
Microsoft alleges the concept of "Apple tax"
PCs vs Macs: Microsoft fighting with "Apple tax"