A world ruled by Apple

TalkBack 1 of 55:

Next »

• Thread View
• Flat View

Good post

I am perfectly willing to praise Apple or Linux when I feel they are doing something right, and do so on a regular basis in this blog. That?s why I have a hard time understanding the need to believe that Gates did nothing right, in spite of abundant evidence to the contrary.

I've noticed this theme in practically all the readings I've ever done. MS centric publications (and MS's own website) leave the reader with a very positive impression of Apple as a company. I'm currently reading a Windows Mobile centric magazine and there is tons of praise for the iPhone. They don't harp too much about the many things wrong with the iPhone and instead concentrate on how WM can improve based on what the iPhone did right.

Contrast that with Mac websites and Apple's own website and you see paragraph after paragraph of the most vitriolic anti-MS (oops, pardon me, anti-M$) text I've ever seen. This leads me to believe that Apple (and its users), as a whole (exceptions exist of course) are very insecure about their platform of choice while people who choose to use MS products where they make sense, on the whole, do so from a position of confidence. The proof is in the writing.

I cited the failure of Apple to license its operating system to third parties as one of the many events over which Gates lacked any kind of control, but from which he benefited immensely

This is one thing that irks me, a guy who believes strongly in fairness, about the whole anti-trust trial. What does a company like Microsoft do when the competition won't compete? MS wasn't found guilty of having an OS monopoly, they were found guilty of having a monopoly on x86 compatible OSs that are sold to 3rd party computer resellers. First, the distinction that the OS must be available for x86 is as ludicrous as saying the XBox 360 doesn't compete with the PS3 because they use different hardware architecture. Second, Apple did sell their OS to 3rd party computer resellers and then decided they could make more money by not even trying to compete. Note that it wasn't MS strongarming the computer resellers to stop selling Apple clones, this was 100% a decision made by Apple to maximize their profits at the expense of an open market. Note that I'm not blaming Apple for maximizing their profits, only suggesting that it is ludicrous to punish MS for profit-maximizing decisions made by other companies.

So while MS has benefited greatly from decisions made by others, they have also been punished, not for their success, but for the success of others like Apple.

Imagine, for a moment, what the world would have been like had Apple?s approach achieved a 95% market share. What would that world look like?

Now that is a scary thought! Not only would there only be 1 OS, there would only be 1 computer manufacturer and only 3 models of computers! We would live in a world where the ability to install programs on a device you own is a gift from the maker (see iPhone 2.0) instead of something one simply expects. We would live in a world where hacking your device means the destruction of your device. We would live in a world where features are bad and the only products we can buy have been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, just like the MP3 player market.

I really and truly hope that Linux can step it up on the consumer desktop front because for all the bluster, I see little to no improvements in marketshare. I'm worried that we may not be far from a world that is ruled by Apple since the EU has publicly stated that their goal is not to improve the competition but to handicap MS until its marketshare plummets. If MS were to fail, it is vitally important that someone other than Apple is there to pick up the slack. I don't think we are out of the woods yet when talking about a world ruled by Apple. Shudder.

Posted by: NonZealot   Posted on: 06/30/08  (Edited: 06/30/2008 @ 11:10) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now