“The recent joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at D5 highlighted for me what makes Apple a great company, and why Microsoft continues to struggle on all fronts except Windows and Office,” Danny Gorog writes for APC Magazine.
“Both leaders are visionaries, that is for sure. In fact Gates built the first software company when nobody knew what a software company was, and subsequently conquered the market. His approach to selling DOS and then Windows to anybody that would buy it made sense in the early days. But he was lucky as well. Lucky that Apple didn’t pursue the same ‘license the OS’ strategy, because if it had there’s no doubt that Apple would have a larger share of the PC market than the 5% it now enjoys,” Gorog writes.
“But like Steve said at D5, the era of the PC is largely over. Most innovation now is happening on what he calls post-PC devices, like music players and mobile phones. And that is what Apple is focusing on,” Gorog writes. “Microsoft, however, still doesn’t get it and I believe the lack of understanding comes from the top. Gates still maintains that tablet PCs are going to take over the world, that Microsoft will eventually dethrone Google to be the new leader in search, that Zune will eventually rival the iPod for market share and that Microsoft has already conquered the smart phone market. Somebody please tell the man he is dreaming.”
Full article here.