DISQUS

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Ballmer: I'm completely out of ideas

  • Matt · 1 year ago
    Why does everyone think Google is just a better search engine. Personally, I think google succeeds for two reasons.

    1. People have muscle memory in their fingers to type g o o g l e . c o m
    2. There are no distractions on the home search page.

    That's it. If somehow microsoft and google changed domain names and initial look, Microsoft would win.
  • hob · 1 year ago
    Maybe Ballmer hasn't forgotten his idea of driving companies together to beat them.

    The Register is now reporting that Yahoo is asking Google for help !

    This means that Ballmer knows that noone wants Mahoosoft, but if he drives Google and Yahoo together, there will be mass rejoicing for a whilst, followed by mass confusion within their two companies for months whilst they work out the logistics. Meanwhile, he can unleash phase 2! (whatever that might be)
  • Fake Steve Case · 1 year ago
    Steve Ballmer is the Terry Semel of our age.
  • Pierpont Morgan · 1 year ago
    and the Pointey-Haired Boss from Dilbert.
  • JohnMuir · 1 year ago
    All time classic piece in my opinion, FSJ. It's this kind of big vision stuff I come back for. You nailed the image just as sweetly as MS and Y! are about to find they do each other…

    Liked the RDM-style opening too.
  • JJ · 1 year ago
    Too true. FSJ, you are starting to master Daniel's way of typing.
  • sentownbrothertojailforcoke · 1 year ago
    When you can't innovate; litigate.
  • Elite Martian · 1 year ago
    What A Historic Piece of Article,

    Now, lesser mass, knee down and kiss the feet of the Dear Leader
  • dropout · 1 year ago
    Finally, classic FSJ is back! This is the type of entry that made me love this blog enough to buy the book. Please let there be more of these in the future.
  • deathbychichi · 1 year ago
    billg's out of ideas, too, else he wouldn't be leaving.
  • intenselygreen · 1 year ago
    fookin brilliant FSJ, there is no one else even close to you, no one in you class.

    the circus elephants? the Redmond photocopiers? Wow.

    I'm going to go out and buy ANOTHER copy of your book just to show my appreciation.
  • Simon · 1 year ago
    But FSJ, I think that Microsoft don't intend Yahoo to even remotely remain the same - I doubt that they're not going to try and merge parts of Yahoo - they're going to dismember it.

    I don't think that they want the tech, they just want the audience and the content people - which admittedly, will be hard to merge but not impossible.

    I agree though - when MS decides to buy a company after trying for 10 years to play in that space - and not even worrying about breaking even - it doesn't bode well.
  • Slartibartfas · 1 year ago
    yet again an instant classic. Brilliant analysis. Thanks FSJ
  • knut · 1 year ago
    Again with the pro microsoft bias!!!11
  • dktrfz · 1 year ago
    ... and the first Pulitzer for Blogging goes to...
  • HikerCA · 1 year ago
    Back on track and loving every word of it FSJ! Spasiba tovarych, Danylo Mykhailovych!
  • fakestevejobs · 1 year ago
    Nichivo, drug moi.
  • apple-fan · 1 year ago
    Make the phonecall to Williams, he will buy Apple for more or lesser than one Dollar, sell Apple to him and then make hollydays.
  • Alexis de Tocqueville · 1 year ago
    Everything you just said about Balmer and MSFT in this post also applies to America during this election. It is the same. Most of the politicians have run out of ideas. The country is in the shitter, but still the richest on the planet.

    Like MSFT; to hell with making great products, let's just sell advertising.

    "If you shake your ass they notice fast..." G. Michael
  • uhhmerikkka · 1 year ago
    ..If by richest, you mean, most in debt.. then yeah.. I guess.
  • skorry · 1 year ago
    The analogy with the elephants is hilarious imagery. Microsoft and Yahoo are also-rans because they make all the same mistakes. For example, they charge to POP their "free" email accounts. Google does not and provides IMAP to boot. Otherwise, would gmail really have gained so many users after coming to the race so late? That's just one small example. Anyway, good work, FSJ.
  • Hawkman · 1 year ago
    I'm sure I saw that elephant thing somewhere...
  • John M · 1 year ago
    I do agree this is amazing analysis. Written in style, and more or less in character. This is why people like me (non-tech-industry Brit living in Sweden) lap up FSJ: it saves us reading years worth of tech industry history/analysis.
  • SteelBlades · 1 year ago
    One of your best FSJ.
  • T.J. · 1 year ago
    This post is nails it. :)
  • Fake Apple Employee · 1 year ago
    Look, we all know that both Google and Microhoo BOTH have their sights set on the most valuable piece of real estate in the Bay Area - Moffett Field.

    Google to the north, and infiltrating through H211 LLC. Yahoo to the south, held in place by the Lockheed Martin bulwark. But let's not pretend - so far, Microsoft has yet to get south of Shoreline Blvd. and Yahoo is their ticket to ride when it comes to getting their hands on Moffett Field.
  • MarkJ · 1 year ago
    I see some real genius in your writing FSJ, but I can't say that here. I'd be afraid that everyone would see right through me, and I just don't want anyone to know that I've fallen for you. :)
    Brilliant post, as always.
  • apple-fan · 1 year ago
    Never heard from Microscrap?!?
  • Janus · 1 year ago
    I really don't know what I love more...mocking the Borg or the Clintstones.

    <3
  • oldmock · 1 year ago
    just try to mocking something weird.
  • davemc500hats · 1 year ago
    fucking brilliant. and hilarious :)

    elephants mating on skateboards... damn my ribs hurt.
  • Chris G · 1 year ago
    It's posts like this that make me hope for another book :)
  • oldmock · 1 year ago
    LOL. This devilwriter is able to drive a bestseller!
  • keith · 1 year ago
    the worst part in all of this is that Yahoo!, its employees, and its users get totally screwed since i imagine there will be nothing left of Y! after all this is through.
  • Woz · 1 year ago
    I don't understand any of this. Who wants to go play Segway polo??

    PS: RE: Sue Decker: I'd hit it.
  • yellowdoggranny · 1 year ago
    and we don't want him to fail....why?
  • deathbychichi · 1 year ago
    I think they looked at their market share, saw that despite following their playbook they weren't getting traction, and buying Yahoo was the only way to get into a solid second place. They'll fail, however, for all the reasons FSJ said.
  • David S. · 1 year ago
    Given the similarity between this and the HP/Compaq fiasco of recent memory Ballmer might like to hire Carly Fiorina to manage the "transition" (and take the bullet when it goes titsup of course).
  • technocitizen · 1 year ago
    All time classic stuff here
  • lastangelman · 1 year ago
    Exactly.
  • technocitizen · 1 year ago
    Google and the borg have started exchanging statements. it smells like war. read more here

    http://tecnocitizen.blogspot.com/
  • paul_allen · 1 year ago
    I'd be crying right now if I wasn't on the floor giggling my rear end off. I'm not cleaning up this mess.
  • beanieville · 1 year ago
    Microsoft acquiring yahoo will hurt google, let's face it:

    I've been thinking about the YHOO and MSFT merger and if it goes thru, it can be really bad for GOOG. The only reason microsoft wants to acquire yahoo is an attempt to destroy google. By lowering costs to advertisers and giving a bigger chunk of the ad profits to webmasters, the combined entity can hurt Google. Yahoo by itself cannot afford to do this (nor do they want to mess with google this way) with only 2 billion dollars in the bank. But Microsoft is no stranger to these kinds of tactics, and microsoft is more loaded than google.

    http://beanieville.blogspot.com
  • DavidDennis · 1 year ago
    Unfortunately, from what I gather, Microsoft won't have much in the bank after this merger.

    If undercutting Google was their strategy, they should do it using their own already existing portal.

    I really doubt that many people in Yahooland want to work for Microsoft. Most technical employees, especially, are likely to be heading out the exits, and it would surprise me if Google doesn't have the welcome mat out for them.

    I don't think this merger is going to have much negative impact on Google; indeed, it might be good for them.

    In the short run, it will virtually halt all development at Yahoo and that's probably going to cause people to switch to the Google's product, which will be updated more and have snazzier features.

    In the long term, I know Microsoft is not going to let Google continue using Unix; it's too much of a blow for them. So everything will either be thrown away or rewritten under Windows, something few self-respecting Yahoo engineers will want to do.

    If I were Ballmer, I'd think of this US$45 billion as a huge waste of money. What I hate is that it will almost certainly destroy Yahoo, and I shed a tear for an Internet pioneer that deserves better.

    D
  • beanieville · 1 year ago
    Do you guys underestimate the significance of this merger!! Don't you!

    Why do you suppose google is calling msft violating anti-trust laws.
  • TennesseeTuxedo · 1 year ago
    "They'll talk a lot about synergy. You know, like when you hook together a bunch of data centers that run on completely different technology stacks."

    *gasp* - Thank you, FSJ. My brain is suddenly free of marketeer mindfuck drivel.

    This is a Greatest Hit.
  • minimalist · 1 year ago
    Quality post, mate.
  • sentownbrothertojailforcoke · 1 year ago
    Apple


    The most vicious thing in the world is a toothless tiger trying to hold on to its' old territory.

    This makes me think it is over for the whole generation: MSFT, APPL, INTC, AMD, DELL join the likes of Novell, Ashton Tate, WordPerfect, Lotus (yes that IBM Lotus). Software is ephemeral; hardware is obsolete in 18 months.

    So too, shall ye pass, ye temporary and undefeated market leaders.

    It's only a perfect season if you win the Super Bowl.

    I pray for the kids in American garages. They are are last hope before India and China make Apple and Microsoft completely irrelevant. Watch how the EePC has taken off around the world for a clue as to what comes next. Quanta and ASUS don’t need masters anymore than the old colonies need the British these days…
  • david · 1 year ago
    So I swapped MSFT with AAPL in your link and just thought: I'm so glad I own Apple stock.
  • thejester · 1 year ago
    It's been a while since I've enjoyed a post as much as this one. My thirst is yet again quenched! Jesterpaul
  • Pierpont Morgan · 1 year ago
    Maybe Yahoo and Microsoft can make a Bob Browser.
  • playitcool · 1 year ago
    Mac buys Adobe, Microsoft buys MacAffee, and eventually, in the year 2096, Microsoft acquires Mac through corporate espionate, bribery, and lack of popular support for Mac OS.

    It's the year 6221, the universe's computer systems, including interstellar navigation, goes into a frenzy because Mac-dobe-Affee-Microsoft-ahoo! Corporation says 128-bit only counts so many seconds from Jan 1, 1970.
  • zahadum · 1 year ago
    word for the day: "FACTARD"

    1) newsflash @ playitcool: "jane, you ignorant slut!" as they used to say on SNL 1.0 ... if your grade school math skills are any indicator, then you wont worry about graduating from harvard - you couldnt even get in to harvard!

    any future 128bit O/S will not "run out" of time (pace Y2K) because 128bits of seconds is (16 million trillion times) longer than the physical existence of the universe itself!

    the year 6221 is only ~100B seconds from now (4K years x 24Msecs/Y), which barely exceeds the capacity of 32bit address space (2^32 vs 2^36) .... in fact 64bits will be entirely adequate for keeping time (at 1000B years) even if this spawn-of-satan super O/S will measure the 'wall clock' in milliseconds (however, for scientific calculations that can't use the 'wall clock', the 80bit double-precision that is already available in this millennium does the job).

    2) playitcool's counting problems seem to extend beyond the calendar: basic marketshare data also seems to elude him ...

    At current run-rate growth, the mac's (us retail) marketshare for consumers is already heading towards 20% and its business presence is pointing towards 10% over the next couple of years.

    I apologize for a nit-picky post - i realize this reality-based approach violates the whole ethos of FSJ's blog! ...

    but what are we supposed to do with 'FACTARDS' like playitcool?! ... just let them go on living in their delusional bubble? ... dont we have an obligation to help them from hurting themselves (or worse, innocent by-standers) with sharp pointy things like facts?!
  • playitcool · 1 year ago
    Word for the day for you my friend: Correctard.

    Dude, relax and let the enema do its job.
  • Catfish · 1 year ago
    I just blogged about this today. Without further innovation and less focus on bottom line accounting, MSN / Yahoo (Mahoo) will never catch Google..
  • bratling · 1 year ago
    Fake Steveie is back and bigger and badder than ever! This is why I read this blog, Steve. Not that photo caption and Ellison crap. (Well, okay, maybe a little of that Ellison crap.)
  • faddah · 1 year ago
    can you say, aol-time-warner?" you know, that big ass merger that was s'posed to challenge microsquish dominance and help netscape come back and win the browser wars? we all see how well that worked out, eh? they're now talking about spinning off aol as its own business, and aol was the purchaser in the original merger. tall about taking it in the shorts. thus deal, if it does go through? expect it to go much the same way.

    sheeeeeeeee-zus. it's like no one even remembers fairly recent history, even, anymore. I guess you're right fsj - no one reads anymore. except maybe rv guide, on-line. the more things change, the more the stay the same, an' all that ...
  • J.R. "Bob" Dobbs · 1 year ago
    Ballmer looks (and behaves) exactly like the MONSTER from Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein".
  • Bharath K · 1 year ago
    Great one FSJ. This is just the sort of article that compels me to read your blog daily. Keep it up!
  • upshaw · 1 year ago
    You are an anti-semite (ballmer is a jew).
  • glinko · 1 year ago
    I am an ex-msft-ee from the earlier days. You are right pretty much all the way around. However, the main issue is not that Microsoft engineers CAN'T make a great search engine or advertising platform. It's that the corporate culture at Microsoft is Jurassic Park-like; a tech park gone wild, so that good ideas are lost in bloody battles among clans, and it's "every man for himself." Despite what wall street thinks, Yahoo! is creating good stuff and getting it out there on a regular basis. It's News and Finance sites are #1 on the entire Internet. And that's with bad management. Imagine what it could do with good management. Microsoft will kill Yahoo! like Time Warner did to AOL. Ballmer only wants the advertising platform, the rest can be tossed aside because, well, they already have msn.com (yikes!). Oddly enough, I'm a MSFT and YHOO shareholder and I'm rooting for Yahoo! Earth to Yang: Don't assimilate!!!
  • hypermark · 1 year ago
    This deal is the icing on the cake moment when the "market maker" baton is irrevocably passed from Microsoft to Google.

    While the Microsoft economy remains huge, and will do so far into the future (as was the case with IBM before it), there can be little doubt that Microsoft is now chasing the tail of the big dog.

    Some quickie analysis in 'The Market Maker & The Information Economy: http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/02/the-...
  • common sense · 1 year ago
    developers, developers, developers!
  • theoxygenthief · 1 year ago
    Nice Touch linking to Yahoo finance info :-)
  • joby866 · 1 year ago
    Lmao! Who's asking who for help?
  • pope · 1 year ago
    superboring LSD buddhism driven shit:
    "I love beautiful objects. I love creating them. Negative people upset me. " go and get a flat with steve seagal and sting
  • Partners in Grime · 1 year ago
    Looks like you're right again, Fake Steve.
  • lastangelman · 1 year ago
    There's one reason, and one reason only why Microsoft should buy Facebook - Sheryl "Fangs-a-lot" Sandberg. Or hire her away from Facebook as Steve Ballmer's replacement.
  • girish · 1 year ago
    wow!
  • Mervyn Glass · 5 months ago
    Steve, you're a master!!!!! What thoughts have you got with regard to the soon to be released Windows 7 and it's "impact" on Mac os Snow Leopard????
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  • woz · 1 year ago
    Wow.

    An amazingly accurate analysis.

    I'm wondering if the RSJ wrote this one - it's truly *that* good.
  • TomMassey · 1 year ago
    Agreed, amazing analysis.

    I also have to say FSJ use of metaphors and analogies also truly amazing. It is what makes this Blog enjoyable to read. I have this vision looping in my brain of trying to keep two mating elephants on a skateboard. This is how to make the craft of analysis come alive and be read -- dare I say enjoyed.
  • Guru Panguji · 1 year ago
    Not to sound demeaning, however, this particular blog post really sounded like one from Scott Adams!!
  • fake alex trebek · 1 year ago
    We've had a couple of guys play jeopardy like that. Sad. They would get the buzzer confused with this third leg.
  • GatesLiedStoleCPMandF*ckedIBM · 1 year ago
    Maybe MSFT could donate the code for Word and Excel to the Open Office foundation, since they now want to abandon products and become an advertising sales company.

    No one will want the code for Vista (maybe Atari or Commodore), and the next MSFT OS is largely Linux with a pretty face (not unlike OSX which at least uses real UNIX).

    What happened to the "smartest people on the planet."

    Is it JKG's "Affluent Society" at work - just too rich and too lazy now to do anything meaningful?

    Name one MSFT innovation. One?
  • fake alex trebek · 1 year ago
    MSFT for billions

    the answer is:

    anything but love

    The question what money can buy
  • FAT · 1 year ago
    APPLE 4 fans

    The answer is share with love

    The question is what can be done for a dollar.
  • Pagrovian · 1 year ago
    MicroWho?
  • Janus · 1 year ago
    Embrace, Extend, Extinguish?
  • Rich · 1 year ago
    BEST. POST. EVER.
  • Pierre M · 1 year ago
    I didn't know you could summarize the last 10 and the next few years of IT business in a blog post. Outstanding. You really have a vision FSJ. I agee with most above. One of your best post ever.
  • rawhead · 1 year ago
    Wow. Your alter ego notwithstanding, you really do care for Microsoft a whole lot more than you do Apple, don't you? It really shows in this piece. It's a great analysis, though.
  • abhiram_nayan · 1 year ago
    yeah rightly stated! and a great analysis! truly helpful for the newbies about the merger! and i totally agree with you in saying..." When they haven't been able to do it on their own, they can never do it together ". Yeah it is now so clear that MS has started showing the signs of failure! They have absolutely nothing to boast about!
  • steveballmer · 1 year ago
    If I ever had any doubts at all about this merger/purchase thing with Yahoo, they were all dispelled today by none other than the GuTards over at Google themselves! They issued statements like:

    "Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo could undermine the open competition on the Internet! ....

    "Microsoft which has been targeted by antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe, frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets!"

    "Microsoft could now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC!"

    I answered quickly: "The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising. (The #2 I was refering to is Google!)
    The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet."

    THE TRUTH!
    The Gutards are a lot smarter than I thought, they finally have realised who they have pissed off here! They haven't seen anything yet! I have already beefed up the legal team budget by 80%! We are going to gut the Gutards, go to court, then in a few years pay a negotiated fine! That's how the law works!

    In any case in a few years we will no longer have to worry about Gaggle!
    lol
  • steveballmer · 1 year ago
    Hey, DAN! Don't call me Monkey-boy! That whole thing is a conspiracy against me! None of those videos ever happened, I prove it on my blog!
  • lastangelman · 1 year ago
    Listen o-balding fat ape, your time is over, taps is playing, time to step aside. Now howzabouta soft shoe exit stage left?
  • beanieville · 1 year ago
    Do you guys underestimate the significance of this merger!! Don't you!

    Why do you suppose google is calling msft violating anti-trust laws.
  • beanieville · 1 year ago
    Do you guys underestimate the significance of this merger!! Don't you!

    Why do you suppose google is calling msft violating anti-trust laws.
  • Steve · 1 year ago
    Simple - because they can - and would be stupid not to keep the whole circus spinning for as long as possible.

    Every day that MicroWho? get stalled on this is two days gained for big G. The longer it takes for this mess to be revealed for what it is, the happier (and richer) they'll be. (FSJ, great post - almost forgot!)
  • DougS · 1 year ago
    In the immortal words of Admiral Akhbar: "It's a trap!"

    The louder Google howls about the deal, the harder Microsoft will push to get it done. Not only will the delays hurt two of its biggest rivals, once the deal is consummated, it will further distract said rivals as they puzzle over how they're actually going to make this ill-conceived marriage work.

    The fact that Microsoft admits that it will have to go into debt to acquire Yahoo! is that stuns me. The dragon's hoard of cash has always been a sign of strength for them, as well as for Apple. The fact that they're willing to piss it all away on one deal is a sign of desperation, not strength. It makes them look very weak, and it will hurt their balance sheet in both the near- and medium-term.
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  • richardmnixon · 1 year ago
    Google may have nothing to worry about, but that doesn't mean Apple doesn't. Why isn't anyone saying that Apple should embrace cloud computing, compete in search, and make ad revenue? Because Apple's strategy is so 1978, it wouldn't stand a chance. (I guess .Mac is its effort to compete in this market.)

    Apple is using software to sell overpriced hardware, which is the dumbest strategy since Westmoreland decided to drop leaflets on North Vietnam instead of nukes. Now that the economy is in the dumper, ordinary people are suddenly going to notice the customary mark-up on these effete Apple boxes. You have the best software in the world, and it's trapped inside lovely but so-so hardware that most people can't afford. Even Jerry Yang wouldn't be dumb enough to put a brushed aluminum ceiling on his own market share.
  • Danny · 1 year ago
    Except Apple is making money hand over foot. The iPod and iPhone have massive market share and are a license to print money. OSX has evolved rapidly to be the best consumer OS available and all the rest of the industry can hardly keep up. Incidentally, Mac is your best vet if you want to run XP or Vista without issues or OEM crapware. It's your attitude that's stuck in the past.
  • richardmnixon · 1 year ago
    In the 1980 election, Carter had a higher market share than the Mac does right now -- about 10% of the electoral vote. This was not a point of pride for that poor bastard, and it allowed that airhead Reagan to screw up everything I'd achieved.

    When Apple is as profitable as the Borg -- in absolute numbers and margins -- you let me know. That Mac market share is stuck in single digits even in the face of the Vista catastrophe and Microsoft's perennial medicrity, is due to one thing: Apple's boutique premium-priced, software-selling-hardware business model. The MacBook Airhead is the latest example: that product is poised to take over the entire market...of effete limousine liberals who don't need a real computer. All twelve of them.

    The Mac would win at least 60% of the vote, if only Apple would abandon communism.
  • freebeerforall · 1 year ago
    When will you stop assuming that the Delltard or Borg view of market share is what matters. There's share of volume, share of revenue, or share of profits. Apple's share of pc industry profits? A hell of a lot higher than 10 percent.

    Also, a gentle reminder. Apple is in the HARDWARE business. The Borg is in the SOFTWARE business.
  • apple-fan · 1 year ago
    as i can it respect the dell is a microscrap derivate, but i don't know exactly if dell was grown by selling the eventually motoroil-motorola chips before to "exclusive apple".
    Nothing against dell-computers, but i'm asking why they had tried sometimes sniffing arround on my device. can be that they are to deep marriaged with the microscrap-company.
  • richardmnixon · 1 year ago
    If you want to be McGovern and be happy with 7%, that's just fine with me. Market share sure matters to the 93% of the world that has to suffer the scourge of Windows. It's always funny to watch Mac monks defend MacOS's small share.

    Apple sells both software and hardware, and even with Apple's mark-ups, the software business has much higher margins. Compare AAPL's stats to MSFTs. Google makes money just giving its software away, and history has shown that only chumps try to make money selling iron.

    Fake Jobs, back me up here. You've said your entire strategy is to sell only to the beautiful people who can afford boutique products, and that you're ascared to compete with Microsoft head-on, because it'd make you feel dirty.

    Apple is not in the hardware business. Apple is in the pretty objects business, as the MacBook Err demonstrates. There are gaping holes in the Mac product line, and yet Jobs is busy filling out tiny gaps in the high end. Amazing.
  • dansucks · 1 year ago
    Guess you don't understand software nor do you have the long view. And remember Fake Steve is not real Steve. Fake Steve knows nothing about what's under the hood of OS X, whose Unix foundations make it both more flexible and easier to debug than the bloated Windows kernel. Real Steve knew this when he started next and he stuck with the idea through some hard years.

    Why should Apple overextend itself? Their record over the last 18 months has been astounding, and all they have to do is wait for the Windows giant to complete its fall.
  • sentownbrothertojailforcoke · 1 year ago
    Apple

    Dansu,
    You are on to something here.
    Microsoft has given up on software for advertising and subscriptions. I don't want to subscribe to anything (except Forbes), and I tune out advertising, even for products I might buy. Have you gone to a card dealer or BestBuy lately? You know more than the salesman about the products because of your web research.
    Google is good, and we all use it, but as it begins to really favor it's advertisers in stacking results, we begin to look elsewhere.

    Advertising is a dying model, and it is getting ugly in its old age.

    BMW has horrible ads, but great cars.
    It is all about product. Even Apple's advertising has been sub-par, but great products which people want to buy make them look successful.

    Magic Johnson extended Kareem's career by a few years, but in the end, time marches on.

    "Life is the best teacher; unfortunately it kills all of its' students." _Hector
  • Aaron · 1 year ago
    Yeah, Dick, Apple's strategy is just ridiculous: http://is.gd/14g
  • richardmnixon · 1 year ago
    The question is: how much more profitable could Apple be? The best OS out there should dominate the market, but the MacOS isn't even close and isn't on trend to get there in your lifetime. Jobs here should learn from history before he's condemned to study it.

    Sun and a company whose name I forget -- oh, yeah, Silicon Graphics -- used to make a tidy profit selling high-priced proprietary hardware to run proprietary software. I wonder how that worked out.
  • apple-fan · 1 year ago
    my own simple prognose is that apple's software will be soon in some via-products.
    probably this will also be the best solution.
  • dansucks · 1 year ago
    Why should the best OS dominate the market? Do Mercedes and Lexus dominate the car market? Biggest is not best, Americano.
  • JimBo · 1 year ago
    A large overlooked Mac market that is always hot is the eBay/Reseller market. With Apple's solid reliability, this is a BIG overlooked segment of sales.

    My question would be, is the Mac resale(PowerBooks, iBooks, iMac G3, G4's, G5's) taken into Apple's sales, OS and Hardware user base? Or do sales numbers for user base only reflect new retail/online sales?
    I have not purchased "one' new retail Mac, but 7 used resold Macs online. I see very few PC's reselling in strong numbers on eBay.

    Those that can not afford a NEW Mac, are buying through eBay, or other resellers-MacPro Systems, LA Computer Co, etc, PowerMax

    What are the REAL mac user base numbers,new, used, not online, etc. Using OS 9, 10.0-10.5?
  • apple-fan · 1 year ago
    just think each pc is a mac.
  • Fred · 1 year ago
    Oh please.

    Think about. Somewhere, locked in a vault in (real) Steve Jobs office, is a version of OS X.

    It probably is marked "for use on HP PCs only" or maybe "for use on Dell PCs only".

    If Apple was to really slow down, they just unlock this vault, deal with a PC vendor, and soon have 20-30% of the consumer OS market with very little additional cost.

    The vault probably has a glass cover marked "only to be opened in case of emergency".

    :)

    Fred
  • rob · 1 year ago
    Good Point Fred- A lot of the Mac Fanboys conveniently forget that when El Jobso unveiled the Intel Processors for Apple he also announced that every version of OS X had been secretly duplicated for Intel Chips. For three years, Apple advertising claimed that the G4/G5 chips were miles ahead of Intel. Yeah, whatever you say Steve-O. When Apple releases OS X for Dell, HP, and Sony, he will probably let the truth be known on that too; that he's had them ready for years.
  • nichevo · 1 year ago
    I wasn't aware that was not true, at the time. The problem was, there was apparently no G6, G7, G8, G9, G10...and so on, in the works, that could be relied upon. The time to sell out is at the top of the market. Flog the Moto chip line till it ends and then move over before the Law of Diminishing Returns hits.

    MSFT might like to learn that lesson. Their code base is circling the drain. At least, its heart has skipped a beat, a big fat multibillion-dollar beat. Vista = FAIL. That was not the plan. I should think it was not an option. But people are derating, decrementing, degrading from Vista to XP, even if they have to pay more.


    I think it's kind of like that old joke: Rendered below in haiku format:

    Yeah, sure, I am fat

    But you are ugly (/stupid)

    And I can diet.
  • richardmnixon · 1 year ago
    If Apple was to really slow down, they just unlock this vault, deal with a PC vendor

    Uh huh. McGovern was talking to Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") during the '72 campaign and was apparently ready to blow me out of the water. Why didn't he do it? He didn't have the guts. And Jobs is a douchebag who doesn't have the guts to take on the Borg.
  • dansucks · 1 year ago
    Haven't you read the Art of War? Let your enemy exhaust himself before making your move.
  • Mike · 1 year ago
    You must not have noticed the iTunes store. Just because it doesn't look like a browser doesn't mean there is no cloud involved.