Coop's thoughts on why Bootcamp is a gimmick hit the mark.
It's a pretty smart gimmick though for another sector of the market - the SME user in a Windows world. MS Office for the Mac - especially .ppt - isn't as compatible with the Windows world as either vendor makes out. So, not having to own and maintain two machines makes it worth suffering through the dual boot idea. As much as I love my Mac, it's a nightmare sitting with a customer and watching a .ppt presentation not work across the platforms. And, there are some Apps I like and use - like MS Money - that aren't available for the Mac. And dare I say it, Internet Explorer is just better for accessing Outlook via the web.
So, for me it's less of a gimmick and more of a practical work-around to a real issue that those of us that love and use the Mac have had to suffer through for a long time - incompatability and application availability. And yes, I have looked at Virtual Office - it turned an already tripped-out Powerbook (which is comparatively shockingly slow alongside my Dell desktop) into a slug.
Another minor point. While Apple's marketshare might only be 2.3 percent, it's value in terms of loyalty is tremendous - and this is where Apple's announcement is interesting - it reinforces what a great decision it was to buy a Mac and extends my commitment to Apple. Moreover, Dell and others won't tolerate loosing even a half point of share. So this move shouldn't be dismissed in terms of the likely marketshare impact. I'm certain dual boot is going to push users sitting on the fence into Apple's camp. And Vista delays should only give them an incentive to make the leap.
And Coop is right - once you own and use an Apple - it's very hard to even look at anything else.