
Has Microsoft Leapfrogged Apple? - aespinoza
http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/06/05/has-microsoft-leapfrogged-apple/
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mindstab
This isn't an article, it's a PR narrative of how they'd like things to look
now and how they'd like it to go. It's an ad.

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ChuckMcM
I think that the answer is 'No' although the author doesn't put it out there
expressly. I find it hugely amusing that Microsoft threatened people [1]
trying to hack the Kinect and now treat it as some gift to the world [2].

And one of the things that people don't seem to point out is how much money
Microsoft has invested in things like Xbox that has never been recouped.

In my definition for company A to leapfrog company B they have to both create
a new industry leading product and two they have to successfully exploit that
market for business gain. Microsoft 'leapfrogged' Xerox PARC because they made
a successful product out of a windows + mouse based environment. But they
haven't 'leapfrogged' Apple or Nintendo or Sony with respect to telephony or
video games.

[1] <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20021836-52.html>

[2]
[http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2011/06/16/official-...](http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive/2011/06/16/official-
kinect-developer-kit-now-available-for-download.aspx)

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onedev
I think this applies here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines>

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mikeash
It applies to every question headline! I can't remember ever seeing such a
headline where the answer was "yes".

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jpxxx
This is pointless linkbait amounting to "Microsoft has products". The
profitable and growing products, unfortunately, are not customer facing. So
the Apple comparison is pretty unnecessary.

Edit: 'consumer facing', rather. Their only happy story there is Office, for
the twentieth year in a row.

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jakobe
As a smart person once said, every headline ending in a question mark can be
answered with "No."

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bluedanieru
Windows 8 is fucking disaster. So no.

Also:
[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/06/05/a-de...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/06/05/a-design-
with-all-caps.aspx)

This headline makes more sense if the Apple they're leap-frogging over is the
Apple of 20 years ago, and they're leap-frogging over them right into a pit of
bullshit products.

