ComputerWorld: Apple Is Here to Stay
ComputerWorld: Apple Is Here to Stay
by , 3:40 PM EST, March 7th, 2005
Apple is here to stay, according to an editorial by the editor-in-chief of ComputerWorld published Monday. Inspired by recent looks into IT's future that see Microsoft's decline without mentioning Apple as a part of that decline, Don Tennant wrote that it would be a mistake not to realize Apple's growing role in IT.
Mr. Tennant's piece harkened back to an interview he conducted with Microsoft founder Bill Gates when Big Redmond shipped Windows 95. In that interview, he asked Mr. Gates if it was a conscious decision to make Windows 95 look and feel more like the Mac OS (then Mac OS 7.5.x).
While Mr. Gates denied in direct attempts to copy the Mac ("We don't even think of Macintosh as a competitor," Mr. Gates told him), Mr. Tennant said that the reality is that Microsoft has often been perceived as a technological follower of Apple.
Why then is Apple today not seen as a threat to Windows? Most IT prognostication centers around Linux and Google as the big threat, but Mr. Tennant said that Mac OS X's Unix foundations mean that Apple is here to stay.
"The best technology may not always win," he wrote. "But it's not going to go away, either."
There is much more on the subject in the full article at ComputerWorld, and we recommend it as an interesting read, especially considering Mr. Tennant's role of IT-oriented ComputerWorld.
Observer Comments
"Mr. Tennant said that the reality is that Microsoft has often been perceived as a technological follower of Apple."
Well, that's certainly the "Duh!" heard 'round the world. 
Seriously, does anyone outside of delusional Windrone zealots doubt anymore that MS' whole modus operandi is to be the second guy into any market, after an innovator has already stepped in and created said market?
QuoteGuest wrote:
Seriously, does anyone outside of delusional Windrone zealots doubt anymore that MS' whole modus operandi is to be the second guy into any market, after an innovator has already stepped in and created said market?
I'll agree with that. But it's also not a bad business model. Dell has adopted this business model, and made a tidy profit out of it. So have thousands of other companies in any industry you can think of.
The truth is, there are few innovative companies, and fewer still profitable innovative companies (see the book, The Innovator's Dilemma). We hear about Apple because they are the rare exception that is both innovative and profitable.
Yes, but Microsoft doesn't simply copy a product, it makes extraordinarily poor knock-offs. Copying an innovator is only a good business model if your copies are cheaper, better known, or more available than the real thing. Microsoft's beginning to lose all three of those advantages, and without at least one of them, that business model leads to ruin.
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