
Apple is repeating Microsoft’s Mistakes - graiz
https://medium.com/@graiz/apple-is-repeating-microsoft-s-mistakes-201039e33e5a#.vivom3nz2
======
melling
This guy is completely wrong. Why is he being upvoted? First he claims
Microsoft spread itself too thin. Then he claims it's important for Apple to
be cross-platform with its apps.

Microsoft's desktop market share was around 95% in the late 90s. It about 90%
today. The owned the business app suite with Office then and they own it
today. They did get arrogant with IE and stopped innovating once they
destroyed the competition but, depending on whose numbers you use, they still
have half the market.

The consumer world changed with mobile and Microsoft didn't innovate quickly
enough. Google is the one who took their place with 80% global market share.

Apple still has relatively few products for being the world's biggest company.
They do need a few more products.

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jacques_chester
Microsoft's "mistakes" are part of what made it the unstoppable juggernaut it
was through the 90s and into the 2000s. They are the same "mistakes" that have
helped Apple to acquire the largest single stockpile of cash since Crassus.

People keep writing obituaries for Microsoft. Would that I could die in such a
fashion. I would _love_ to be the kind of failure that's netted tens of
billions of dollars of profits per year for _decades_.

~~~
tetraverse
'Microsoft's "mistakes" are part of what made it the unstoppable juggernaut'

Microsoft's first mistake was when IBM signed a non-exclusive contract to
supply the Operating System for the first IBM Personal computer. should have
read the small print :)

"Microsoft Litigation"

[http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=2005010107...](http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=2005010107100653)

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varelse
I'm pretty offended that my 2 year-old IPad Air is gradually being effectively
bricked by Apple. I'm staying with IOS 7.0.3 on the thing because first I
heard that IOS 8.x.x more or less bricked performance, and now one can't even
install 8.x.x. As a result, no more app updates, and both Safari and Chrome
crash left and right when confronted with the latest script kiddy HTML because
no more app updates without an OS update.

In contrast, one of my PCs from 2011 still runs Windows 7 just fine modulo the
occasional kvetching to embrace the wonders of Windows 10. By all means be
like Microsoft here.

Ditto for my other PCs running Ubuntu 12.x

And I'd be less risk averse if I could go back to 7.0.3 if indeed the thing
got bricked, much like installing a late build of Android 4.x cyanogenmod
rescued my Nexus 5 phone from bricking, but there's no way back if I go
forward so the real answer for me is to extract all the data and switch to a
Cyanogenmod friendly tablet minus the mostly useless Google services
(increasingly by design i.e. since when did Google Maps need social push
notifications? Yesterday, apparently when I got one).

Apple? Never again. The IPad Air is the first and last IOS device I ever own.

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randall
Apple music is on Android FWIW.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.andr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.android.music&hl=en)

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Hydraulix989
At extreme risk of getting modded, how is this cute analysis (with a click
bait headline) front page material?

~~~
Bud
I felt it was reductive and silly, and flagged it. So I agree.

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SimeVidas
You're missing the point that people primarily buy Apple's products because
their great looks, performance, and the status they bring them. Even if
Apple's apps are all crap, people are not going to switch to Samsung or Nexus.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
One source gave Apple phones 41% vs Samsung 27%. So its not a sure thing.
Samsung could cross that gap with good marketing.

~~~
digi_owl
Samsung is already hammering the marketing, thats why they are as high as they
are.

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jorgecastillo
>You won’t find Apple Music on Windows.

Must be dreaming then, just last week I was using my Apple Music subscription
on iTunes for Windows!

------
obblekk
This doesn't work.

If all apps (except Apple apps that no one likes apparently) are available
everywhere then why switch ever?

Also learning new apps is part of the switching cost. Rebuying paid apps and
in app purchases is another.

This is an argument people have made since the T-Mobile droid and it hasn't
worked so far.

~~~
jdavis703
If for example you use all Google apps, then it's better integrated in a
different platform. So it's a slight advantage to then switch so things like
OK Google will update Google Calendar instead of Siri updating Apple Calendar
even though you mainly use Google Calendar on your iPhone.

------
sdegutis
> The problem was that each attack was fought on the Microsoft playing field.
> Each product kept users within the Microsoft hardware ecosystem. The
> competition didn’t have that limitation. Firefox, Facebook, Chrome and the
> iPod emerged as dominant solutions because they served users across devices:
> Mac’s, PC’s, and sometimes Linux systems.

That's just not true. Firefox stole IE users because it was actually
_innovative_. (IE never had tabs, Firefox 2 brought that to us.) Then Chrome
stole Firefox 3 and IE users, because it had all the same innovations, but it
_wasn 't bloated_, it felt faster and smoother. It had practically _nothing_
to do with Linux or Mac.

~~~
majewsky
Actually, Opera was the one to invent tabs. Does someone remember why Firefox
took off while Opera never managed to come out of its niches?

~~~
atopal
Have a look at the main UI, should be self explanatory:
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/Opera_7.02.pn...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/Opera_7.02.png)

~~~
Mithaldu
Except it looked like this when it came out with tabs:
[http://i.imgur.com/ms0RsfB.png](http://i.imgur.com/ms0RsfB.png)

And on top of that it was skinnable and customizable to a degree no other
browser has matched since.

~~~
digi_owl
Until they dropped it with the transition to a Chromium base, the "tabs" in
Opera was full blown MDI.

~~~
Mithaldu
Yep, and it is awesome.

Need to research and compare a bunch of sites at once? Throw the tabs into a
window of their own and tell the window to tile the tabs.

One of the reasons i still stick with Opera 12.

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majewsky
When I saw the title, I think it was going to be about how they deal with
security.

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pmarreck
Says someone who clearly doesn't have much money invested in iOS apps

