Once upon a time, Steve Jobs and Apple had a sweet computer set up, but their operating system software only ran on their machines. Microsoft came along with Windows (which was – ahem – remarkably similar in look and feel), but it could run on a variety of machines made by different hardware manufacturers. This increased its market appeal. The once friendly competitors became fierce rivals and patent lawsuits flew.
Eventually, in the short-term, Microsoft won the battle. With their OS on a wide array of machines, they dominated the market. Apple was stumbling, and after settling the lawsuit issues, in 1997 Microsoft bought $150 million in non-voting Macintosh stock to get the company back to fighting speed. This was all around the time that Steve Jobs came back as Apple CEO.
Well, the company hasn't looked back since. But has built steadily, brick by brick. And now, thirteen years later, let's have a peek at how that stock thing turned out.
Via 9To5Mac, we see that with a stock price of $244.05 on May 26th, Apple's price dwarfs that of Microsoft who closed the day at $25.01. That in itself is pretty huge, but if you look further into the numbers, you'll see that Apple is blowing Microsoft out of the water when it comes to their market cap. Yesterday saw Cupertino close out with a valuation of $3 Billion more than Microsoft. That's "Billion" with a B.
With the iPod, the iPhone, and now the iPad, Apple is moving in spheres that Microsoft would love to emulate but so far has only fallen flat. The Zune has proved mostly an embarassment, Windows Mobile is an even bigger embarrassment (have you ever seen a phone with Windows on it? We haven't), and Microsoft scrapped their slate plans once the iPad hit the scene. With the future of computing moving to the mobile sphere, unless Redmond can come up with some dynamic entrance into this market, maybe Apple will some day come riding to their rescue.
dave421
May 27, 2010 at 12:34pm
Regarding the Slate, the BRIGHT RED line that says " the company has “no plans to build such a device at this time.” didn't mean anything to you? It was never to be sold. The ONLY people that said it was was that NYT article and the people that latched onto that NYT article. MS ALWAYS said that it was not going to be made.
Regarding Windows Mobile, it appears you didn't read the articles at all. The first one shows a 4% drop with it firmly in 3rd place in Market Share with double (at the time) the share of Android & 3x that of Palm. The 2nd article said pretty much the same thing with them GAINING marketshare at the end of October. The 3rd article says nothing other than iPhone moved in front of WinMo with no numbers about WinMo market share. Finally, the last article restates that WinMo is in 3rd place and still well ahead of Android.
In the article you state that "we" haven't seen a phone running WinMo. Now you say that everyone "you" know doesn't have one. You do realize that any HTC WinMo phone looks just like an HTC Android phone, right? Like I said, I hate WinMo but the statement was just plain ignorant. You may not have known that you saw one but with more marketshare than iPhone (until 6 months ago), Android, Palm, etc. that's just pretty unlikely. There's a huge difference between a struggle that causes a 4% loss in marketshare and "never seen one". I just expect more from a magazine like MacLife. Who knows though, maybe I shouldn't.
J Keirn-Swanson
May 27, 2010 at 11:37am
everyone I know has android phones, iPhones, Blackberries, or dumbphones. I really have never seen a Windows Mobile based phone in my life and I've seen a lot of phones. I did research the issue, and you can see posts like this about Windows' struggle in the mobile market:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/197338.asp
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10417825-37.html
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/windows-mobile-falls-behind-iphone-in-latest-mobile-market-numbers/1163
http://www.itpro.co.uk/621388/android-eating-into-windows-mobiles-market-share
Then you can read articles like this:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/microsoft_scraps_courier_tablet_project
about Microsoft ditching their slate project.
It's not like I'm sitting around making this stuff up out of wishes and cotton candy.
dave421
May 27, 2010 at 11:24am
Really? This is what passes for an article? Don't get me wrong, I much prefer my Macs to my Windows PCs and WinMobile is crap but this is pretty much a horrible article.
"have you ever seen a phone with Windows on it? We haven't"
Wow, so you've never stepped out of the house or your office? iPhone finally passed Windows Mobile in Market share about 6 months ago. It has a crap interface but is loved by companies since it supports pretty much everything. WinPhone7 stands a chance of maybe being a decent OS but that's beside the point. The statement above was just plain stupid.
"and Microsoft scrapped their slate plans once the iPad hit the scene"
MS never had any plans for producing the Slate and they said as much anytime they were asked about it. MS "makes" a ton of stuff that will never see the light of day because they are a software company instead of a product company like Apple.
This article should have been cut before the last paragraph. It went from informative & slightly boastful to looking like something written by a rabid fanboy that doesn't let small things like facts get in his way when writing. I seriously hope this article doesn't make it into the next issue. If so, I'm going to have to seriously reconsider keeping my subscription.
