Apple to iTunes fans: Nix Vista for Now!

Whoever said Apple didn’t know how to use PR and massage the news? Hell, we may have said many things about Apple, hut never that!

"Consider the Apple "advisory" that went out late last week. The company is telling consumers that use its iTunes software that they should hold off on buying a new Windows Vista computer because the iTunes software might not be compatible with Vista computers.

"Might not be compatible? Hold off on the purchase for a few weeks? Riiiight... It sounded suspiciously like a suggestion to hold off and decide to buy a Mac instead.

"Apple's advisory went out a couple of days after Vista's consumer launch, and just before the weekend. A clever move, because Internet news feeds, such as Yahoo and Google, need headlines for that e-mail update that goes to their subscribers every day. By issuing that news on Friday afternoon, people will see it all weekend. It even can make the news on Monday morning. (The WSJ had the advisory in this morning's paper.)

"I use plenty of Apple products, as does my family. I'm sort of intrigued enough by the pending iPhone that I'd consider switching to AT&T just to get my hands on one.

"But this "advisory" just seemed shady to me. After all, we've known for months (years, really) that Vista was being released. Reviewers have had it in hand for weeks so they could give it the proper thumbs-up or thumbs-down. And developers have had access to the code for some time, as well, so their programs would work on Vista. Of course, it's never an easy road when the OS is new. There's bound to be bugs.

"Yet, it strikes us as beaucoup convenient that Apple would issue an advisory for something like this. How about jumping into the lab and fixing whatever ails the Windows Vista version of iTunes? Nah….."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2007/02/attention_weekend_editors.html?nav=rss_blog