Re: Weird and pointless advert there
"Why do they not mention any reasons to buy a machine running Windows 7 as opposed to anything else - like Mac OSX, Linux or even Windows XP?"
Well, why do Apple equate "PC" with "machine running Windows" - even though "Macs" are just PCs these days?
Blame Apple for the "PC == Windows" idea. Microsoft are just cleverly spinning that round to their advantage.
And when we're considering PCs as opposed to tablets/phones/etc, I don't see why it's strange for Microsoft to promote that. Yes, they might not create the hardware themselves - but they *are* the company with 90+% market share on such products. So *of course* they're going to promote this.
You see this in all sorts of areas. It's in Nokia's interest to see phone use promoted in general, because they are the market leader, and will benefit from an increase of people using phones. It's in Apple's interest to see mp3 playing be advertised, because even if the advert doesn't explicitly mention their Ipods, Apple will still gain sales.
As for the hype about tablets - more people are still using tablets that we more usually call phones (where Nokia are the market leader, not Apple). And netbooks still outsell tablets - and any slowdown in their sales is probably more due to phones (for portability) and ultra-portable laptops (which are now cheap, and much more powerful). Not the Ipad. Apple are not the market leader in any category here, unless you handpick the category of "devices that are exactly like the Ipad".
@Anonymous Coward: "Windows 7 of today isn't really any different from the Windows 95"
You must have been using a cool version of Windows 95. The version I and everyone else saw was a joke. (Yes, they look the same in that they both have GUIs and icons, but then by that logic, no platform has changed - including anything from Apple, both for OS X and IOS).