

It's Official: Apple is the New Microsoft - nreece
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136949-c,companynews/article.html

======
axod
"Can I reformat my iPod and install something else?"

Erm yes, of course you can. There's a thriving open source community for iPods
replacement O/S and software.

~~~
lupin_sansei
Does anyone actually do it? Aside from doing it just because you can.

~~~
axod
Of course. Using the 'standard' firmware on anything is just downright boring.
Most firmware uses like 50% of the hardwares capabilities.

------
thomasptacek
Gotta admit: "Apple is an abusive monopolist because the iPod doesn't have an
FM receiver" is an awesome argument. Way to go, PC World!

~~~
AF
You are right, it would've been a poor argument if that's all they said. I'm
not sure I agree with the entire article, but your comment had led me to
believe that was the basis of their argument, and it isn't.

 _People love iPods (including me; my family of four has purchased 12 iPods in
the past few years). But iPods come bundled with iTunes. Want to buy music
from Apple? Guess what? You must install iTunes. Want an Apple cell phone from
AT &T? Yep! ITunes is required even if you want only to make phone calls. Want
to buy ringtones for your Apple phone? ITunes.

Apple not only "bundles" iTunes with multiple products, it forces you to use
it. At least with Internet Explorer, you could always just download a
competitor and ignore IE.

Not fair, you might say. Any hardware device that syncs data with a PC as part
of its core functionality has software to facilitate that syncing. True
enough. But operating systems have browsers as part of core functionality,
too. Doesn't Mac OS X come with Safari? Doesn't the iPhone?

And "bundling" works. Steve Jobs bragged this week that Apple has distributed
600 million copies of iTunes to date. The overwhelming majority of those
copies were iTunes for Windows. And iTunes for Windows' popularity isn't
driven by software product quality. ITunes is the slowest, clunkiest, most
nonintuitive application on my system. But I need it because I love my iPods.

At least with Windows, you could reformat your PC and install Linux or any
number of other PC-compatible operating systems. Can I reformat my iPod and
install something else? Can I uninstall iTunes but keep using the iTunes store
and my iPods? Apple strongly discourages all that, claiming that the iPod, the
iPod software and iTunes are three components of the same product. But that's
what Microsoft said about Windows and IE._

~~~
stoptypingnow
And bundling IE was always the weak argument why Microsoft is a monopolist.
Microsoft is a monopolist because they have a serious majority of the market,
used completely undocumented features of their OS in their Apps, and
particpated in extremely unfair trade practices.

Apple is busting an entrenched industry. This is good. Its possible that Apple
will become the new Microsoft indeed. But they are so laughably far from this
status the PC world article remains equally ridiculous.

------
myoung8
Another example of journalistic sensationalism at its best.

"It's Official?" Says who?

~~~
wyday
The author, of course. We're each kings of our own ego-islands.

~~~
adamdoupe
I can't hear your petty little comment from way up here on my throne.

------
nirs
Crap article from crap site of crap magazine.

------
donna
Come on, Google is the new Microsoft. How can you compare Apple to Microsoft
-- one's hardware, one's software.

~~~
yamada
Well, you'd be surprised at all the features they're constantly sneaking into
iTunes for example that is sort of making it like a new operating system.
Which works best with their own products (iPod). See the pattern? We get
people to get our stuff, then we make sure our stuff works best with our stuff
and slightly less so with the competition's stuff ...

------
gwenhwyfaer
> At least with Windows, you could reformat your PC and install Linux or any
> number of other PC-compatible operating systems. Can I reformat my iPod and
> install something else?

Yes: <http://www.rockbox.org/>

------
jimbokun
Interesting conclusion.

He seems to be arguing that Microsoft was brought to heel by the marketplace,
and that the court proceedings against it were redundant and counter
productive. And now the same is true for Apple. You can't beat them with
lawsuits, only by making better products.

I'm not so sure, though, that the lawsuits MSFT faced had no effect on the
marketplace outcomes we're now seeing. Would PC vendors be so quick to put
Linux on PCs if MSFT wasn't being monitored by the US DOJ and probed non-stop
by the EU?

------
Readmore
I'll agree with the iTunes rant but the rest is pretty shallow. You can't call
Apple the 'copycat' when their products are superior. And trying to compare MS
tabletop UI to the iPhone is like amateur hour. We all know MS stole that UI
from the Grad Student who's been showing off his touch interface on YouTube
for 3 years. People hate MS because they are successful for making poor
products. People hate Apple because they are successful for making great
products and they aren't shy about flaunting it.

~~~
aston
On a semi-related aside, Microsoft has had that multitouch interface in the
works for more than three years. I saw (touched) a productized version of it
two years ago.

~~~
Readmore
That's interesting, I didn't realize that. I really like the tech, I would
just rather have it on my coffee table than in a bar. I need to charge my
friends for eating and drinking at my place ;)

------
danw
There is a good point in there. How does Apple get away with bundling Safari,
Mail, iChat, iLife, etc with Mac OS X when that is what Microsoft ran into
trouble with in the EU?

The only difference I can see is market share. Not that I'm complaining. I
like some of those desktop apps.

~~~
yamada
Because the C?I?A? and N?S?A used to use pre-OSX mac computers extensively at
the time that M-Soft got sued by the DOJ because there were a lot less OS8 / 9
hackers than their were window hackers. Then by some funny coincidence, OSX
gets based on UNIX so now any government hacker anywhere can hack into your
Mac with the greatest of ease. Why would you want to rock that boat if you
were the government? You wouldn't. You'd say, "As long as you keep making it
easier for us to spy on people, you can bundle anything you'd like."

------
henning
Makes a valid point, but it doesn't mean that Microsoft is no longer a pain in
the ass. My boss's experiment in upgrading a few machines in our office to
Vista has been the bane of my existence recently. Jesus christ.

~~~
gibsonf1
My condolences.

------
thomasswift
I hope this is official because Microsoft is awesome!

------
projectileboy
Smells like a Microsoft PR plant.

------
lst
All humans have a right to have their 5 seconds (sorry, minutes) of fame.

*) If I meant the author or the subject, is left as an exercise to the reader.

