I hate to Acknowledge a win for Apple, but they have the advantage in the Operating System upgrade to 64 bit computing; Apple’s upgrade process is significantly simpler for the average consumer.

Microsoft overcomplicated the process by selling 6 or so different “flavors” with half of them being 32 bit and the other half being 64 bit.  The consumer has to decide on their own which one was for them.  On top of that, if they decide they want to upgrade to a x64 from a x32, they have to figure out how to back up their important files and software.

Apple’s upgrade was much more streamlined and there was only one flavor of OSX, making it a n0-brainer for consumers.  From what I understand, if a user is going from Leopard to Snow Leopard, they do not have to make the choice of going to a x64 operating system from a x32 operating system, it will chose on its own and most importantly, they do not have to back up their files.

Apple’s process was much simpler than Microsoft’s and for this they will gain a larger market share of users using x64 operating systems and will have less of a legacy to support.  This can/will attract developers who are looking to develop for more advanced/faster operating systems.  As Steve Ballmer said himself, the most important part of an operating system  ecosystem is “developers, developers, developers.”