Apple is taking back personal computing crown from pretender Microsoft

“Pundits are declaring mobile the new PC. The number of mobile phones far outstrips the number of desktops. Mobile phones are available to people in the developing world who never had an opportunity to buy or even use a PC. With phones becoming smarter, there will be even less need for people to own PCs. Microsoft has dominated the PC-based world ever since it drove Apple close to extinction in the mid ’90s,” Saad Fazil writes for VentureBeat. “But with Apple’s strong footing in mobile, its recent release of a larger, tablet form factor, iPad, also based on its mobile iPhone OS, and more form factors likely on the way to challenge the traditional PC, we may be in for a rematch.”

MacDailyNews Take: Welcome, Saad. (There’s a reason why Bill Gates took his marbles and went home when he did; even he could see it coming.)

Fazil continues, “Several companies realize that the future lies in mobile. Google, with its obsession about mobile advertising and its foray into the mobile OS space with Android, is a good example. And Microsoft is certainly rethinking its strategy with Windows Phone. But while these and other players develop their mobile strategies, Apple has already built a huge lead, not only with its powerful iPhone operating system, but with the vast number and variety of applications available on that OS. The jury’s still out on whether Apple’s iPad will be the huge success many expect it to be. But even so, the app development community has so much faith in Apple’s ecosystem that we’ve seen startups and bigger companies racing to join a gold rush of app development for the platform. There are more than 150,000 apps available on iPhone and a lot more to come on iPad.”

MacDailyNews Note: There are currently 185,531 apps in Apple’s App Store as of publication. Oops, make that 185,532. Uh, 185,533… You get the idea. Note also that Fazil has underreported the number of apps in Apple’s App Store by approximately the total number of apps available for distant runner up: Google Android (although his “more than” serves as an out of sorts).

Fazil continues, “Now that Apple’s gained a solid foothold in the mobile market, there’s nothing to stop it from expanding its mobile OS and mobile devices — from smartphones and tablets to other, more computing-intensive devices — until it’s once again in a face-to-face fight with Microsoft for dominance of the computing market. And if it does, this time I believe it’ll win.”

MacDailyNews Take: BINGO!

Fazil explains “how Apple could use its lead in the mobile market to redefine the PC industry, and unlike Microsoft, which has gone mobile by stripping down its Windows operating system to create Windows Mobile, will move up the market, from smartphone to PC-like device, by growing its iPhone OS to support new kinds of functionality and devices” in the full article – highly recommended despite our assorted wiseassery above – here.