stefn

Microsoft vs. Apple: Monopolist vs. Innovator

@ "leaving the nest" Where have you been the last five years? Apple is succeeding the the great wide world of consumer electronics, an arena that MSFT has failed at miserably.

It's MSFT that hasn't learned to leave its monopolistic nest. It can't fly so all it's doing these days is "messing" where it lives.

Microsoft vs. Apple: Monopolist vs. Innovator

Apple succeeds because it looks at products through the correct end of the telescope. Call it the user's viewpoint. Or the marketing viewpoint. Or the designer's viewpoint. All of which viewpoints most companies, including MSFT, hardly seem to know exist.

Of the four (Aristotelian) causes for every object, most companies recognize the material cause (what the object make of) and the efficient cause (how is it make) but not the formal cause (design) or final cause (what's its purpose and place in society). Additionally telling the story of why users as individuals might want or need its products (marketing) is Apple's forte.

Microsoft's Mobile Misfortune

Not only can Apple harvest money off its hardware/software symbosis, it can attack the netbook market using its professional Mac OS or its consumer iPhone OS. Yes, I know they are versions of OS X; it's the user interface that distinguishes the market sectors. Or Apple can deploy (don't think for a moment it isn't already developed) an intermediate version of OS X, making the most of both their OSes.

Game over: Jobs 2; Balmer 0.