“The trend line is definitely up for Apple and mildly down for Microsoft. It took 13 years to do it, but Apple is well positioned now to take Microsoft’s crown. I mean it… But that doesn’t mean that Apple’s success is guaranteed any more than is Microsoft’s failure,” Cringely writes. “If Apple is going to maintain its momentum it will have to take on bigger and bigger competitors, which Steve Jobs seems eager to do. Not just Microsoft, in this case we’re talking about the publishing, broadcasting, and movie industries, as Apple moves to dominate those media the way it already does music. Microsoft is nowhere to be seen in any of these venues.”
Cringely writes, “Microsoft, on the other hand, is still a mighty company earning $1 billion per month and determined to remain a factor in American life. But is it the social and cultural force Apple has become? No, nor was it ever. Will both companies still be huge in five years? Sure. In 10 years? That’s an interesting question.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bob C.” for the heads up.]
Remember: Without Steve Jobs and Apple there would never be a Microsoft
i hope microsoft disappears for good.
The youth of today are the business leaders of tomorrow… Guess what, they’re all Mac, iPhone & iPad users who will probably never join forces with Microflop…
Ouch, the truth hurts donnit…
Ashes to Ashes…
M$ will disappear in the Appleanche®
What I’ve been saying for years is “all in good time”. The time is NOW. MS is dying and they don’t even know it. Apple is thriving and the pundits are finally taking notice. The iPad was the final nail in the coffin – MS with their Tablet PC was a joke and a half. Why are iPads flying off store shelves? Because its the epitome of COOL. And it does so much more than most of us can even imagine. Medical applications. Education. Research. You name it – if there isn’t an app for it yet, there will be.
Buh-bye, Monkey Boy. Don’t drown in your sweaty armpits.
I’ve long thought that in 2020, Microsoft will be as relevant as IBM is today. That is, it will be around, it will be important in certain segments of the industry, but most folks do not think of them or realize they use their products on a daily basis. Microsoft will become the maker of some behind the scenes products.
@ breeze
Microsoft incorporated in December, 1975. Apple incorporated April 1, 1976. So I would say your statement is false.
@Pk9
The only thing IMHO that attracts teens to a windows PC is gaming. Until Mac gaming closes the gap w/ the PC world (note I said Mac not iPad or iPod touch) windows will still be popular the younger crowd.
If M$ ever loses that advantage they’ll loose the next generation.
Pray for Ballmer to keep the leadership role. He’s doing a great job, and needs to stay in that position until he retires. I like his strategy, I like it a lot.
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@breeze
alternatively, without apple we would now be in a world of hideous drm-infested and totally controlled, crippled media with no choice other than WMA and WMV.
It’s not like MS didn’t have a plan, they did. They failed. Time alone will tell if the dream of the parasites will yet become reality.
“If Apple is going to maintain its momentum it will have to take on bigger and bigger competitors…” Isn’t that exactly what it’s been doing in recent years? It took on Microsoft in the 1990s (Windows Media vs. QuickTime); it took on the record companies, then the movie industry and now the publishing industry.
Apple doesn’t need to defeat them, or take them over; rather it only needs to set the rules and partnerships so all benefit – they, Apple, and the consumers. So far it seems to be working.
@Stephen
Your assumption is that gaming on a personal computer will remain relevant. I believe it will not. I think that by 2020 most games will not be offered on a computer. Mobile gaming is taking off and there will always be playstation, xbox, nintendo, and whatever apple decides to do in the living room. I think it’s old school to think that gaming will stay on PCs the way it has to date.
…”Your assumption is that gaming on a personal computer will remain relevant. “
Actually, not only that; the assumption is that the gaming on a personal computer IS relevant now. It is not. Much like porn, gaming is an inconsequential factor that influences practically nothing.
Even in the demographics where gaming is significant (teens, young male adults), overwhelming majority use consoles and not desktop computers. The vast majority of most popular desktop games are available on both major desktop platforms anyway. So, essentially, the only area where Windows desktop would have an edge is the second-tier PC games, along with very few top-tier ones that aren’t available on Mac. This is a very, very small market segment.
I think even five years is an interesting question. This is happening much faster than I’d ever thought possible.
@Predrag – Other than the Wii’s uniqueness, console gaming is terrible. Modern Warfare II “helps” you aim b/c it’s so hard with an analog joystick. I don’t know how they’d ever get Starcraft II onto a console – it may be possible, but it would be limited compared to PC/Mac. Finally, how do I upgrade my PS3’s graphics card? PC gaming is better all around.
I’m glad Steam is coming to the Mac; that’s a big deal.
@qka,
I think breeze was correct. Just because MS incorporated first does not disprove his point. I don’t think he was saying that MS was created because of Apple. But it did take off because of Apple.
Remember, Word and Excel were first Mac apps. Also, do you think Windows would exist if it weren’t for the Mac?
MS owes its existence to SJ and Apple.
@Stephen
You are right about the gamers. I know many gamers who would love to move to a mac, but they stay with windows because that is where the games are. That is changing though. Blizzard is one of the most popular game makers out there, and all their new games are fantastic on the mac. Steam is coming to the mac within a month, and that will bring Counter Strike (and many other popular games) to OS X. 2010 definitely seems to be the year of Apple. The game manufacturers are seeing the same headlines we’re seeing. Apple is crushing it and they don’t want to miss the party.
More and more games will be available on the mac in the near future, and the gamers will be coming too.
Sent from my iPad
Microsoft is a dinosaur facing extinction…..
Ballmer is the last of the neandertals…
Take a look at him while you can.
@qka
So Microsoft was incorporated five months before Apple and yet lags behind Apple. Do you think Windows today would be the same had Apple not desired Xerox PARC GUI interface that even the Xerox executives thought was a waste of time? What about the Zune, the direction of Windows Mobile… What hardware did we get from Microsoft? A mouse, Keyboard maybe? X-Box, just copying Nintendo and Sony Playstation… A $10,000.00 “Surface” table? All behind the times. All behind Apple.
Heck, even in 2010 Bill Gates still thinks a tablet is not a tablet unless it has a physical keyboard with some I/O and a stylus and this from the man who envisioned tablet computing almost 10 years ago but had no foresight when it came to the appropriate time, form factor, what to include and what not to include and a new dedicated OS for the tablet and not some hacked OS taken down a notch that you got from desktop computers that had a league of their own with regards to specs.
But MS will have HP Slate and who knows maybe someday they will release the “Courier” tablet they are working on.
But in the end, it wasn’t who came into being first but rather who was first in knowing when to take a chance on upcoming technologies, not invented or developed by Apple necessarily, but deployed by Apple who was willing to take a bold chance, at the right time and in some cases, such as the MS tablet attempt in the early 2000’s or netbooks of the past few years, when not to attempt to deploy!
I think, IMO, that’s what @Breeze was trying to convey. If not, it’s what I interpreted!
Hmm? MDN magiw word “figures’… go figure!
@There’s First and then There’s First…
For Microsoft, new technologies are thought of only as new delivery systems for Windows and Office.
Why do you think that everything MS touches fails?
MS rethinks NOTHING.
MS invents NOTHING.
MS chances NOTHING.
MS is all about sameness and status quo.
MS is an empty shell that vacuums in money.
Next iPad will have GPS, compass, 3G. Garmin is a dead man walking.
@MadMac
“MS owes its existence to SJ and Apple.”
ACTUALLY, MS owes it’s existence today to John Sculley, who essentially GAVE Microsoft rights to the classic Macintosh System GUI.
Without that gift, MS today would be selling DOS 13 Home DeeLuxe and Enterprise Editions. Who knows, maybe they’d even have shown some real initiative and have stolen Ubuntu by now.
@ Mr. Reeee
That and how they got IBM to be stupid shows the only innovation MS has is BS!
Tee hee… he said “the social…” LOL!