For three decades Apple has sizzled while Microsoft has nearly always come up short

“Several years ago a Microsoft honcho fired off a 2,000-word e-mail to let me know I was a blockhead,” Charles Cooper reports for CNET News. “In my column I had suggested that Microsoft owed its amazing success more to persistence than to technical prowess. That really got under my interlocutor’s skin. I wasn’t looking to hurt anyone’s feelings, but the history of flubs and duds was there in black and white. Over the years, Microsoft proved that it eventually gets it right by incorporating customer feedback and repairing mistakes. But how many times has it simply dazzled users the first time out with a new product? The best that one could say was that the company succeeded despite the mediocrity of its products.”

“Had I opted to pursue the debate, I would have drawn the obvious comparison with Apple Computer. Founded within a year each other, Microsoft and Apple are forever going to be twinned–the Bird and Magic of the tech industry. But in terms of sizzle, it’s a comparison in which Microsoft has nearly always come up short,” Cooper reports. “Apple… has had sizzle for most of its three-decades-long history. To be sure, there were dry spells, but under Steve Jobs there were many more good times than bad. Though a company is undeniably bigger than any single individual, Apple’s product pipeline has flowed best when its co-founder was in control.”

Read the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Macintosh. Because life’s too short.

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25 Comments

  1. Some of my favorites:
    Apple Computer. Going out of business for thirty years and counting.
    Microsoft. Dink Thifferent. (always a bad copy)
    Open Source. You can’t get fresh air without opening Windows.
    Macintosh. Working with a computer and not wanting to put a bullet through your brain.

  2. Was surfing through the cable channels last night, and saw iPods for sale on the Shop AT Home.

    Is that channel owned by Disney/ABC?
    Is this one of many perks having SJ on the Disney board? I see there is a grand plan. Will macbooks finally show up on the home shopping networks? I’m sure they will.

    Kind cool.

  3. I was thinking the other day that I hadn’t seen anyone comment on the fact that Apple now seem to be more actively advertising the Mac, they’ve now started doing flash ads which show an iMac with a Dock and not only that they show stuff on the screen. It’s a start.

  4. “Apple might be the best but MS won the game. They make more money in a quarter than Apple makes in a year.

    Apple might gain a little market share but MS will always be the big money maker.” – BoB

    And this is good for consumers how?

    What a tool!

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