T im Beyers of Motley Fool is written about another facet of Appleis success, the fact that Microsoft is following hot on its heels. He points to the fact that Microsoftis newfound strategy of making Windows the center of your digital life, a paraphrase, is exactly what Apple said two years ago with its own Digital Hub concept. The problem, according to Mr. Beyers, isnit that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but rather that Microsoft tends to crush those whose ideas it takes. From the article:
Yet, if anything, Microsoftis move should scare the heck out of Apple investors. I mean, weive been here before, right? Microsoft was way behind Netscape in Web browsers and went on to nearly drive the company out of business and into the waiting arms of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) unit AOL, which acquired it on the cheap. And everyone knows the story of the Mac OS X and Windows.
Microsoft clearly wants to be better than Apple at, well, being Apple. Whatis scary is that Mr. Softy has the resources to do it. Microsoftis 2004 research and development budget was $7.7 billion. Appleis was $489 million. Yeesh.
There is more in the full article, which we recommend as an interesting read. Mr. Beyers recently took the pro Apple side in a Fool vs. Fool debate over Apple as an investment that TMO covered last week.