Gal Pikar

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    • Apple Envy Seizes Microsoft [view article]
      Great article – very entertaining. I’d like to disagree with you on a few points though:

      Apple – unlike the phoenix, Apple will fall again. The reason Apple crashed in the 90’s was directly attributed to the fallout caused by Mr. Job’s arrogance. At last look, Steve has not tempered his ego any and is conducting himself in the exact same manner he always had. He’s a brilliant innovator and a terrible relationship builder. The Ipod is one mass music label migration away from abandonment, and Steve is just the sort of personality to cause that.

      Microsoft - I don't disagree with you regarding many of your points, but I do disagree with the conclusions. You are discounting Microsoft's proven ability to adapt. Slowly, but they do adapt. The Xbox was sucky, the 360 is a success. Microsoft Keyboards and mice are respectable. Early versions of Explorer were terrible, now look at the market share. The Zune, although a market failure, was actually quite a bit better than other initial releases as well as most other competitor’s offerings. As with all things Microsoft, you have to wait a version or three and then decide.

      You’re also discounting the profound effect of Microsoft’s domination of the corporate world. I’m in the refurbished computer industry and the ratio of Apples coming off lease as opposed to Wintel units would be extremely generous at 1:100. Vista will get adopted by most major businesses within the next 5 years. That’s a silly number of guaranteed sales and they trickle down to people’s homes.

      Finally, there’s the pile of cash. The pile of cash can fix all sorts of problems. They can simply buy other innovators, hire talent away, make all sorts of mistakes, sell hardware at a loss and they can always resort to plain old bribery. Lets say the day comes when the option to choose an OS becomes common when buying a PC. How many non MS OS’s do you think will get sold when the sales reps get a $50 spiff when selling a copy of Vista?

      Bill is a terrible pitchman, Microsoft is big, old and bloated, Apple is basking in a temporary moment in the sun and everyone likes to root for the underdog, but if I had to bet my RRSP’s on whether Microsoft will be a happy, extravagantly rich company in 2015, I would be that they would be.       Feb 06 05:55 PM
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