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Apple Devices To Outsell Windows For First Time Ever In 2013

zacharye writes "Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have long been considered the future of computing and a new projection from market research firm Gartner shows just how important the mobile market has become. According to the firm's estimates for 2013, Apple devices will outsell Windows devices for the first time this year. The estimate takes into account sales of Apple's iPhones, iPads and Mac computers as well as desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones powered by Microsoft's various Windows operating systems..."

391 comments

  1. The King is dead by beastie456 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Long live the King. Again

    1. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Does this mean the DOJ will finally pay attention to Apple and their "fair for everyone, especially the consumers, no this isn't an abuse of power or monopolistic tendencies, hey look over there, there is nothing to see here" policies?

    2. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Meh, this is just being posted to wake up the iFans and get their rabid page-clicks.

      Android has been outselling Windows for a long time now, and will pass the entire Microsoft installed base in about 18 months.

    3. Re:The King is dead by AvitarX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Probably not, their markets have healthy competition.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    4. Re:The King is dead by quenda · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not so fast! If we are going to start comparing counts of "Devices", the clear winner is neither, but Linux.
      Windows still rules the Desktop, and Apple the MP3-players, but all those millions of routers, TVs, Blu-ray players, TiVos, GPS units, Android devices and even kitchen appliances....
      Linux *Devices* clearly outsell any other comparable platform, by a huge margin.

    5. Re:The King is dead by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      In its Android incarnation alone, Linux outsells Microsoft and Apple. Then there's the cloud...

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    6. Re:The King is dead by jamesh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Does this mean the DOJ will finally pay attention to Apple and their "fair for everyone, especially the consumers, no this isn't an abuse of power or monopolistic tendencies, hey look over there, there is nothing to see here" policies?

      If Apple devices have just outsold Microsoft, then it would imply that there is a somewhat decent balance in the marketplace and the word 'monopoly' is probably misplaced here.

    7. Re:The King is dead by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably not, their markets have healthy competition.

      That's correct and they are suing them like crazy.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    8. Re:The King is dead by ackthpt · · Score: 1

      Meh, this is just being posted to wake up the iFans and get their rabid page-clicks.

      Android has been outselling Windows for a long time now, and will pass the entire Microsoft installed base in about 18 months.

      Hey, look, Microsoft got into the fickle home entertainment market with XBox. Apple stayed away and developed products which were far more addictive.

      I love Android and the alternative it provides, which forces Apple to remain on their toes, but Microsoft isn't even a player in the mobile market. Doesn't take a fanboi to figure where Microsoft's missteps have led them.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    9. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not so fast! If we are going to start comparing counts of "Devices", the clear winner is neither, but Linux.
      Windows still rules the Desktop, and Apple the MP3-players, but all those millions of routers, TVs, Blu-ray players, TiVos, GPS units, Android devices and even kitchen appliances....
      Linux *Devices* clearly outsell any other comparable platform, by a huge margin.

      "Not so fast!" Revisited: Servers and embedded devices like Kiosks are noticeably absent from that count as well. I'm pretty sure that, while Windows wouldn't beat Linux, it would certainly still beat Apple.

      Lies, Dam Lies, and Statistics....

    10. Re:The King is dead by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 2

      I really don't think the DOJ should bother. Capitalism did to Microsoft what the government could not. Even in the EU, where supposedly proper justice was being served, when given the choice, the customers chose internet explorer anyways. Microsoft was forced to sell the N version of windows that didn't include media player, but nobody bought it anyways.

      Yet when superior browsers rose up, not even the inclusion of IE as the default and unremovable browser (in the US at least) stopped customers from ultimately picking Chrome in higher numbers than IE.

      I think capitalism will do the same thing to Apple. Yeah, there are the washed masses. We should know that better than anybody. But the customers aren't going to change from that unless something better comes along. The best we can do is remove government sanctioned monopolies granted by overbearing patents, and do away with the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA.

      --
      Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
    11. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The meth addict living under the bridge sucks more penises that Natalie Portman but I wouldn't call him a clear winner.

    12. Re:The King is dead by Miamicanes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If Microsoft doesn't back down and quit trying to cripple desktop PCs into second-rate tablets, Apple just might beat Microsoft for new desktop and laptop sales in some future year, too. Especially if PC hardware continues its relentless race to the crap commodity bottom & Apple can resist the urge to do the same with its hardware.

      Don't laugh. Back in 2008. if you told a group of guys with Windows Mobile phones that it would be dead from Microsoft-induced suicide by 2010, you would have gotten laughed at. The original iPhone was a dumbed-down crippled toy by comparison, and Android was just a whispered rumor. Microsoft had a device that was largely dysfunctional for making voice calls, but one hell of a kick-ass pocket laptop with wireless internet access.Then, right around the time they finally started to look like they were learning how to make a phone... they pulled the plug.

      Three years ago, Microsoft crawled from the Vista abyss and gave us Windows 7. The skies parted, the angels sang praises not heard since the midnight release parties of Windows95... then Microsoft threw it all away two years later in the wretched name of Metro.

      Microsoft is proof-positive that corporate insanity (or alzheimer's) is real and exists. They're going to put themselves out of business, then wonder how they could have fallen so far, and so completely, in so little time. And if they don't, it'll only be due to thirdparty developers working tirelessly to give us the Windows we actually *want*.

    13. Re:The King is dead by quenda · · Score: 1

      I'm a troll?? Am typing this on a Mac, FFS. When saying "Windows rules the desktop", I never said it was better.

    14. Re:The King is dead by noh8rz10 · · Score: 0

      take it back to redmond and put it in ur pooper, trollface.

    15. Re:The King is dead by fangorious · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsoft and Google.

    16. Re:The King is dead by nzac · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Especially if PC hardware continues its relentless race to the crap commodity bottom & Apple can resist the urge to do the same with its hardware.

      The race to the bottom happens because the consumer wants and will buy cheap products. The only reason they will pay more is if the cheap product is not good enough. The problem is that Android and ChromeOS can go far lower than windows can. Future generations of ARM chromebooks are far more of a threat to Microsoft than Apple will ever be.

      The apple brand is too strong for OEMs to make significant sales at that price-point so they need to go lower. If you can go lower than everyone else while still providing an adequate product then you corner 30 to 50 percent of the market. If the race to the bottom is not happening then anti trust laws should be brought out.

    17. Re:The King is dead by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Probably not, their markets have healthy competition.

      iTunes does?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    18. Re:The King is dead by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Probably not, their markets have healthy competition.

      iTunes does?

      iPhone App store does?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    19. Re:The King is dead by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Probably not, their markets have healthy competition.

      iTunes does?

      iPhone App store does?

      Macbook has a second source? If not, why is that healthy?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    20. Re:The King is dead by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Please describe the abuse of monopoly power that you accuse Apple of doing. Now in the MS days, MS persuaded, threatened, and outright bribed OEMs not to install Netscape. If you want an Android or WP8 device, you can go down to any store and get one. Now if you have evidence that Apple threatened these stores, please present it. Outselling your competition is not abuse of monopoly power. Also having the largest marketshare is not a monopoly.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    21. Re:The King is dead by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      I had a Windows Mobile phone in 2008. Yes it could do more than the iPhone, but I hated it. It crashed all the time and barely lasted a day on standby. Everything was a PITA to do on that phone.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    22. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Because that is an apple product, you nitwit.

      Same or equivalent functionality can be achieved with other products.

    23. Re:The King is dead by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1, Insightful

      > Please describe the abuse of monopoly power that you accuse Apple of doing.

      Ask and ye shall receive.

      > Now in the MS days, MS persuaded, threatened, and outright bribed OEMs not to install Netscape.

      Apple bans non-webkit browsers in their app-store... period... end of story. That's why there's no Firefox for non-jailbroken Ipads... http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/156392/mozilla-firefox-not-coming-to-iphone-ipad-until-apple-relaxes-ios-browser-rules

      --

      I'm not repeating myself
      I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
    24. Re:The King is dead by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Apple owns their own store. It is not a third party. They can do whatever they want in their own store. If they threatened Best Buy that's another story. Apple has the right not to carry Windows in their brick and mortar stores as much as MS has the right not to sell Apple products in their stores. Please try again.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    25. Re:The King is dead by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

      The race to the bottom happens because the consumer wants and will buy cheap products.

      The race to the bottom happens because most people do not have the kind of income to throw money at expensive computer products other than a phone company subsidized iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. Let's face it, for the average person a computer at home is not a necessity it is a luxury. Phone rates are so cheap people can make cross continent calls for little more than the cost of their plan. If people really need to communicate they can do it by phone. Computers/laptops at home now-a-days are mostly used (by the masses) for looking at Facebook (or social media of choice), playing solitaire, searching Wikipedia to see what disease that twinge they just had is likely to be, surfing for porn, or wasting time on slashdot. Nothing I would call very important, and more to the point, nothing that requires huge computing power. A shite computer can handle what most people want it to do. Why would someone want to pay $1000 or more for an Apple or even an expensive Windows box to do that (except if they want to be the cool kid on the block).

      Full disclosure: I use a Mac at work (for a mobile app dev company... server side stuff) and am typing this on Windows 7 Pro at home. I don't have to pay for the Mac Pro Retina Laptop at work... if I had to pay for my work computer I'd buy a Windows box if I could choose W7. I'd choose a Mac only my only choice of Windows box was W8/Metro. The Mac UI compared to W7 is crap. Mac has the worst file manager in the world. And key commands are out of the dark ages. But it beats the shit out of Metro any day (and I admit, I like the Unix command line).

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    26. Re:The King is dead by FirstOne · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Android based products outsells Apple by a significant margin. Then throw in the sales of all sorts of NAS/set-tops Sat&Cable boxes/xDSL routers/Blu-ray players/Media players/Tivo/Smart tv's running linux.

      Makes Linux the world's Dominant Operating System.

      Unfortunately.. few people are aware of that Linux OS is behind a large portion of this technological revolution.

    27. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe not, but he's a hell of a lot more likely to get an Apple user's business.

    28. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure, there are other mobile device software stores.

      You can't define the market as "software stores for iOS devices" because Apple makes all the iOS devices, and you can't be guilty of having a monopoly of your own product.

      See inkjet printers, games consoles and razors. It's perfectly legal and non-monopolistic to tie a base product with add ons and consumables. So long as there are other viable choices of system.

    29. Re:The King is dead by Miamicanes · · Score: 2, Interesting

      To a company like HP, the real cost of Windows (Home, at least) is about $20-25... they pay ~$35 to Microsoft, but if they shipped it with Android, they'd have to pay $10 to Microsoft anyway.

      Microsoft has only three things to blame for the piss poor sales of Windows 8 (and hardware that ships with it) -- themselves, Metro, and Windows 8 itself. If they'd left well enough alone, and allowed Windows 8 users to change one or two preferences settings and have Windows 7's look and feel back, just about everyone would have upgraded to it without a second thought.

      OEMs can go with a long-term losing strategy of lower prices, or they can mount a direct assault on Apple the way Google did with the first Nexus One by raising the hardware bar to some point WAY above the level Apple is willing to allow. A shit netbook is no match for a Macbook. A notebook with 2560x1600 13.3-17" display would turn heads. A notebook with a non-chiclet keyboard that didn't utterly suck for anyone who knows how to type faster than 100wpm would get noticed. A notebook with a second display clamped onto the back of the main one for travel that's powered by a powered USB hub built into the laptop's own power brick would get a standing ovation.

      A Macbook is not God's Chosen Computer -- there are plenty of ways to leave Apple in the dust hardware-wise. If you can't make a computer that's a 2/3mm thick laminated-glass slab like Apple, the solution isn't to make one that's 5/6mm thick and try to undercut Apple by $10. The solution is to say 'fuck Apple', make it an inch thick, give it a mechanical keyboard, and pack the empty space inside with 4 pounds of Lithium Ion gel that can run an i7 at full bore for 16 hours without breaking a sweat. Let the bitchy fashion queens who think the world begins and ends with Facebook have their credit-card thickness tablets with soft keyboards, and let people who use their computers to get real things done not be crippled.

    30. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Makes Linux the world's Dominant Operating System.

      As keeps being pointed out by the bearded ones, Linux isn't an OS, it's a kernel. Especially so in the context of your list of disparate products.

      And it counts even less when the topic is "companies", not "operating systems".

    31. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Yet when superior browsers rose up, not even the inclusion of IE as the default and unremovable browser (in the US at least) stopped customers from ultimately picking Chrome in higher numbers than IE.

      Who told you Chrome was doing better than IE? It's not even close yet.
      http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=1&qpcustomb=0

      And as a point of interest, unrelated to your post, but since I'm referencing browser stats: The big player in mobile browsers is Safari. It's about 3 times as big as all the Android browsers added together. (Guess why.)
      http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=1

    32. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 0

      Ask and ye shall receive

      > Now in the MS days, MS persuaded, threatened, and outright bribed OEMs not to install Netscape.

      Apple bans non-webkit browsers in their app-store... period... end of story.

      Huh? An OEM is a third party. Apple can't be accused of "persuading, threatening and outright bribing" itself.

      There is no monopoly abuse in a store choosing by itself what products to stock.

    33. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      but all those millions of routers, TVs, Blu-ray players, TiVos, GPS units, Android devices and even kitchen appliances....

      Nobody outside of Slashdot ever bought any of those things BECAUSE they have the Linux kernel as a component. That list only goes to show the popularity of Linux with embedded device manufacturers, because it's the cheapest item on the BOM.

    34. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      iTunes is shit compared to foobar2000. Then again, all music players are.

    35. Re:The King is dead by bemymonkey · · Score: 1

      However, users rarely interact with the OS of devices such as routers. If the only thing you ever see is a web interface on the router, are you really using its OS?

      TVs or Blu-Ray players may qualify, Android devices certainly do, but kitchen appliances, GPS units, networking hardware...? Meh.

    36. Re:The King is dead by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      The race to the bottom happens because the consumer wants and will buy cheap products.

      Race to the bottom in the PC world? Are you kidding?

      The market for PCs and laptops is VAST and it would appear that from a hardware perspective, competition is healthy. As a result there is a vsat range of quality from shitbox to awesomeness. You can pick race-to-the-bottom crap if you want but people do generally know that cheapest isn't always best and this is why the market supports all sorts of differentiaton.

      You have netbooks (generally OK build, low end hardware), shitbox laptops (much faster and not much more expensive than netbooks but really bottom scraping), the heaps of junk ones like the low end Dells. You have ultra books, like the Zenbook which is pretty nice. Solid "commercial grade" laptops with upgradability and switchable parts like the business range of Dells and a god number of the thinkpads, supre high end carbon fiber case ones by Sony, dot't forget Apple, too. Oh and then you have the more specialist ones like the luggable scientific workstations, the ruggedised toughbooks, the immersion proof but hideous CF-U1 and so on and so on.

      And that's just laptops! With desktops you get everything forma £15 case with a 500 W * ([*] Actualy wattage 350W) power supply uwards into the realms of extremely expensive. Same with motherboards and pretty much all other parts, which vary smoothly from shitbox up to server grade with ILM, serial port BIOS etc. Not to mention the rafts of embedded motherboards like the entire PC(i(e))/104(+) stack which even has x86 procesors by vendors you've probably never even heard of.

      The range of price and quality hardware in the PC market is amazing and does not support your "rece to the bottom" hpothesis.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    37. Re:The King is dead by gagol · · Score: 1, Informative

      So, Linux is winning overall and everybody try to capitalize on it by suing other entities ;-) Year of Linux on the whatever!

      --
      Tomorrow is another day...
    38. Re:The King is dead by Sique · · Score: 3, Informative

      As keeps being pointed out the real bearded ones: The operating system itself is the kernel together with the drivers and kernel modules. Everything else is either shell or application. You are messing up distributions with operating systems.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    39. Re:The King is dead by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      You can't define the market as "software stores for iOS devices" because Apple makes all the iOS devices

      Don't explain that to me, explain that to the FTC. Note that the Sherman act relies to a large extent on the test of "market power". Does a corporation enjoy power over an identifiable market to the point where it can dictate prices? Bang, monopoly. Apple just better not piss off the wrong bureaucrat.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    40. Re:The King is dead by Sique · · Score: 1

      Formally spoken, you never use the OS, you are always using a shell running on the OS, may it be a GUI, a command line or a web interface.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    41. Re:The King is dead by nzac · · Score: 1

      The range of price and quality hardware in the PC market is amazing and does not support your "race to the bottom" hypothesis.

      Its not my hypothesis, its the biasing way of saying most consumers would prefer a significantly cheaper product that can still do the job, and that this hurts the options for people buying expensive computers.
      I think the evidence of the "race to the bottom" is the amazon top sellers:
      http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Laptop/zgbs/pc/565108
      No windows PCs over 600 dollar on the first page right next to Macbooks for about double the price.

      Yes the amazon results are not unbiased but just because companies are selling Ultrabooks it does mean they are being bought buy the general population and are reaching MacBook sales numbers. There are some Lenovos and ASUSs on the next page that reach 1000 but the average person appears to be happy with a 400 to 600 dollar laptop.

    42. Re:The King is dead by V!NCENT · · Score: 2

      This can only result in this:
      1. PC manufacturers, not asociated by Apple will go full Linux;
      2. Apple's security department will face security breach hell;
      3. People will return to Windows or switch to Linux.

      Mac OS X security is a joke. Not by design, but by practical reality:
      1. It's based on free software;
      2. It's not patches as fast as that free software;
      3. Since there is no security through obscurity, cracker will only need to subscribe to various free software mailing lists and acces CVS systems;
      4. Wait for holes in FreeBSD to be explained on the mailing lists;
      5. Look at the CVS fixes before and after the patched holes;
      6. Laugh their asses of while Apple's security responds team waits arrogantly for weeks to months on end to supply updates, since Apple doesn't appear to need a lot fixes, because Mac OS X is supposedly the shit;
      7. Bye bye Apple customers;
      8. Ballmer: "Missed me?";
      9. Linus: "Don't go to the Darkside, Luke."

      --
      Here be signatures
    43. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The apple brand is too strong for OEMs to make significant sales at that price-point so they need to go lower.

      I disagree. I really don't think all these people buying pricey Apple laptops do it just because of the brand.
      There is definitely some chance to compete for non-Apple manufacturers. But I'm seeing way too many laptops that are just poorly done in some aspects. On top of that they're full of stickers and crapware, which just screams 'low quality' (it's a matter of perception, but still).

    44. Re:The King is dead by nzac · · Score: 1

      A Macbook is not God's Chosen Computer -- there are plenty of ways to leave Apple in the dust hardware-wise.

      But can an OEM reliably sell them in MacBook like numbers and make significant margins. The hardware spec is the easy part.

      A notebook with 2560x1600 13.3-17" display would turn heads.

      Yes but it would be limited to the people who understand and tolerate or work around the DPI issues with windows who are willing to fork out the money to buy it when you can something that can the job for a quarter of the price.

    45. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Three years ago, Microsoft crawled from the Vista abyss and gave us Windows 7.

      Yeah, in the Vista abyss they only made 1000 hojillion dollars a year in earnings, but after Windows 7 they made more.

    46. Re:The King is dead by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      I see the black dialog of death on a mac more often than bsod on windows(2:1 ratiod despite using the machines 1:5.. ), so maybe apple is the new MS.
      the metro obsession is stupid. but this that apple is outselling them if they count all the machines is what put them to the metro craze.. friggin eediots. if they wanted to style the windows fine - but no fucking good reason to go to just a window. and by the way, windows 8 still lacks a killer app. I never use the metro side. NEVER. however I have to have a windows 8 machine for running windows phone 8 emulator(apparently there's now instructions on getting it to run in vmware, but still unsure if it can be run in virtual box - it needs hyperv...why? no idea )...

      HOWEVER IF YOU COUNT THIS WAY THEN LINUX IS THE MARKET LEADER.. this seems like another in a string of articles for propping up the apple shareholder value so someone can exit..

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    47. Re:The King is dead by nzac · · Score: 1

      It's Win (x86) vs ChromeOS and Android vs RT. ChromeOS is cheaper because ARM hardware is much cheaper than x86 and Android is cheaper because it has lower hardware requirements and no office bundling.

      MS has to do something about lowering the storage and other requirement for windows if it wants to compete at the 250 dollar point with a useable offering.

    48. Re:The King is dead by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Do you realize, most of these news articles happen when they just change how things are measured. Oh let's decide to include this and exclude that, so we can "truthfully" get the results we want.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    49. Re:The King is dead by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      They are aware. People just don't care. Just like OS X and iOS are off of Unix. It isn't about the OS but the apps, and the UI experience.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    50. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but how is that going to pump up Apple shares?

    51. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And we Nokia guys (which in Europe was pretty much *everyone*) laughed at the crashing piece of shit that Windows Phones were, and laughed even more at the ridiculously limited iPhones.

      You idiots don't even know history. We had "one hell of a pocket laptop" in freaking 2002! It could do everything you'd expect from a small PC. Hell, I ran Putty on that thing, tested web applications, chatted via IM+ (all networks), played games, listened to music, watched videos, ordered files, edited documents, and changed whatever setting I wanted... all with every hardware bell and whistle you could want back then.

      If Nokia would have kept its balls and not run after shitty Apple but aimed *higher* (which is not hard, considering Apple aims and complete morons and *only* those), and if Microsoft wouldn't have injected their mole (piece of shit and all-time enemy of half of Europe), Nokia would still kick everyone's ass today.
      Hell, even with the mole, their hardware still easily blows everything else out of the water. And Jolla will steamroll the market again, in a few years.

    52. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you stupid or what? You're comparing a whole set to a single element (data point) of that set!

      The current state of ownership or even sales is one thing. The situation on the market is another one!

      You'd watch the Microsoft racing car slow down because it crashed and is now a burning wreck, screeching over the asphalt, and the Apple car just overtaking with the help of its new and improved moron-to-money conversion engine (with the totalitarianism optimization), and you'd go "Looks like there's a decent balance between the two right now".

      How can one human *possibly* be THAT stupid?

    53. Re:The King is dead by DKlineburg · · Score: 1

      stupid question than. Why do we say it is the Android OS, yet it uses the Linux kernel? Or am I just missing the point, I'm honestly curious.

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    54. Re:The King is dead by DKlineburg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ok, so MS owns it OS, yet the EU told them they had to put in a different browser? How is this different?

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    55. Re:The King is dead by DKlineburg · · Score: 1

      How many credit card readers are on NT4? I know that back in the day the one at the store I worked at was. That was a long time ago, but if it works why change it? Maybe somebody could point out. Also was fun knowing what to push to get nt screen. I forget now though.

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    56. Re:The King is dead by gtall · · Score: 1

      In MS's defense, they had cell phone OSes, and they had tablet computers. Their problem was they have no sense of what would make a customer want something and they never have. They threw some crap out there and expected people to use it. Other companies observed what customers didn't like about MS products and produced things that would turn customers on. It had nothing to do with MS putting all their beans into XBox, which they didn't do.

    57. Re:The King is dead by DKlineburg · · Score: 1

      only reason to buy an expensive computer is gaming, and most do that on console now, unless you "WoW".

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    58. Re:The King is dead by gtall · · Score: 1

      You forget the MS ecosystem. Companies are up to their asses in MS-only software. That isn't going away anytime soon. I presume Ma and Pa Kettle aren't any different. They like familiarity. MS will sooner or later give it to them.

      And after having to manage that Windows 7 machine down the hall, I cannot figure out why anyone would want that mind-numbing interface.

    59. Re:The King is dead by gtall · · Score: 2

      No one is going to lug around a 5lb brick just so some geeks can look at it drool.

    60. Re:The King is dead by turp182 · · Score: 1

      The race to the bottom has produced some pretty nice laptops in the $400 range. Decent gaming laptops (fans always on...) can be had for about $1,000.

      I like the race to the bottom, it saves me considerable amount of money.

      --
      BlameBillCosby.com
    61. Re:The King is dead by DKlineburg · · Score: 1

      70% of statistics are made up.

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    62. Re:The King is dead by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      Its not my hypothesis, its the biasing way of saying most consumers would prefer a significantly cheaper product that can still do the job, and that this hurts the options for people buying expensive computers.

      That's not what "race to the bottom" usually means. The problem is that your average consumer (and even your above average consumer) going to a store has no way to figure out the _value_ of various computers that are offered. Of course they can check the prices. They can buy one that is cheap, then at least they know it didn't cost much. Or they can buy one that is more expensive, but since they can't judge the _value_, they don't know whether they buy a low value computer with high markup, or a better value computer. And since they don't want to be ripped off, they buy cheap.

      The manufacturers know that, so they figure out that building better goods actually doesn't sell more, so they lower the quality. And everything goes downhill.

      I don't doubt that the $1000 laptop that you mention is worth twice as much as a $500 laptop, but as long as you can't demonstrate that to the customer and can't _convince_ them of the value, they are not going to spend $1000.

    63. Re:The King is dead by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      I assume so.

      arguably spotify, but definitely amazon and google music stores.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    64. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple owns their own store. It is not a third party. They can do whatever they want in their own store. If they threatened Best Buy that's another story. Apple has the right not to carry Windows in their brick and mortar stores as much as MS has the right not to sell Apple products in their stores. Please try again.

      ok, so MS owns it OS, yet the EU told them they had to put in a different browser? How is this different?

      Because MICROSOFT WERE A MONOPOLY ON THE DESKTOP OS MARKET AND MISUSED THAT POSITION TO DESTROY COMPETITORS (most famously, Netscape). Apple is not a monopoly on the mobile OS market, if you don't like the Apple's store 'walled garden' and it's policies you can switch to developing only for Android and Windows Phone and there is zip, zilch, nix, nada that Apple can do to 'Netscape' your business. Netscape had only one market for it's browser, Windows, and when Microsoft started dumping on that market by handing IE out for free and threatened OEMs with revocation of their Windows license if they did business with Netscape, Netscape was finished as a business. If you don't understand the difference between those two situations you need help.

    65. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A Macbook is not God's Chosen Computer -- there are plenty of ways to leave Apple in the dust hardware-wise. If you can't make a computer that's a 2/3mm thick laminated-glass slab like Apple, the solution isn't to make one that's 5/6mm thick and try to undercut Apple by $10. The solution is to say 'fuck Apple', make it an inch thick, give it a mechanical keyboard, and pack the empty space inside with 4 pounds of Lithium Ion gel that can run an i7 at full bore for 16 hours without breaking a sweat. Let the bitchy fashion queens who think the world begins and ends with Facebook have their credit-card thickness tablets with soft keyboards, and let people who use their computers to get real things done not be crippled.

      Halleluhajah, brother .... Halleluhajah .... Testify! Amen! AMEN!

    66. Re:The King is dead by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      "if you told a group of guys with Windows Mobile phones that it would be dead from Microsoft-induced suicide by 2010, you would have gotten laughed at."

      NOPE.

    67. Re:The King is dead by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      Apple bans non-webkit browsers in their app-store... period... end of story. That's why there's no Firefox for non-jailbroken Ipads..

      How do I install a non Firefox browser on the FireFox OS? How do I install a non-Chrome browser on Chrome OS?

    68. Re:The King is dead by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      No, I disagree.

      If the race to the bottom had happened, then those $1000 laptops would not be available at all. They're not the most popular sellers, but neither are Mercedes, BMW, Smeg fridges or Learjet aircraft.

      The general population are buying ultrabooks in significant enough numbers that manufacturers keep making them and keep doing refreshes on product lines.

      I still maintain that the PC hardware market is healthy because there is stiff competition and a quite astonishing range of products from high volume low quality all the way to serious niche items.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    69. Re: The King is dead by JesseDegenerate · · Score: 1

      Ms, yes. Google? Not so much, the only thing they really evolved in an awesome way was maps.

    70. Re:The King is dead by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Huh? The punishment for MS for abusing their monopoly was the behavior you describe. And MS agreed to it. That's like saying it's a violation of civil rights when a convicted felon has to check in with his parole officer when they get released early from jail. Non-convicted persons don't have to do it.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    71. Re:The King is dead by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Micorosoft needs to move the hardware platform over and the application platform over. 2013 OS sales are not the objective. Things were not "well enough" they had lost huge chunks of the consumer / small business market and are going to lose more over the next 4 years. Their goal is not to the lose the whole thing but rather to establish a good chunk that is stable and start recapturing share.

    72. Re:The King is dead by jbolden · · Score: 1, Insightful

      A Macbook is not God's Chosen Computer -- there are plenty of ways to leave Apple in the dust hardware-wise. If you can't make a computer that's a 2/3mm thick laminated-glass slab like Apple, the solution isn't to make one that's 5/6mm thick and try to undercut Apple by $10. The solution is to say 'fuck Apple', make it an inch thick, give it a mechanical keyboard, and pack the empty space inside with 4 pounds of Lithium Ion gel that can run an i7 at full bore for 16 hours without breaking a sweat. Let the bitchy fashion queens who think the world begins and ends with Facebook have their credit-card thickness tablets with soft keyboards, and let people who use their computers to get real things done not be crippled.

      Those were available in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and now in 2013. People don't buy them. The fact is the people who use their computers to get things done and are willing to pay mostly buy Apple, 85-91%. The rest are very scattered in what they want and create a variety of small niche markets.

    73. Re:The King is dead by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      I also think MS thought that targeting enterprise customers was the strategy as it had been with computers. Back then the vast majority of smart phone users and tablet users were businesses. And employees had to use whatever their companies bought. Turns out the consumer market was being vastly under-served as the consumer variants of these products had very little distinction from the business ones. Apple didn't compete with the WindowsMobile and Blackberrys of the world because they went exclusively after the consumer side.

      If this were a car analogy, there's a difference between a commercial van and a min-van. MS and Blackberry ruled the commercial van markets. Apple came out with a mini-van. It couldn't hold 15 passengers or carry a lot of freight but soccer moms would rather use their mini-van as it suited their needs in both form and function.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    74. Re:The King is dead by jbolden · · Score: 1

      No. Apple has put in place tremendous security features that already exist in the OS. They just need to flip the switch and they can up the security fast.

      They have trained developers to understand that they will need to release minor upgrades for every OS version, and those come out annually. Developers like that, because they can make some of those paid updates so it can become a forced upgrade approach.

      They have trained end users to demand developers be ready with updates prior to the OS going into general release. They have trained users to not expect all their programs to "just work" but rather to possibly switch brands.

      ____

      Finally they can and do push out breaking security changes freely, as the recent java episode shows.

    75. Re:The King is dead by johnlcallaway · · Score: 2

      Which is why Apple users are switching to Android, it's a better experience. It's why I've had one several years now, it's a better experience. I have multiple choices instead of Apple's moronic 'black or white'. I can get sliders or flip phones, different sized tablets, with or without HDMI connectors, most with SD card slots for expandability. And tons of different price points. It's got apps for what I need, like being able to remote connect to my desktop at work for support, so there is no need to buy an Apple computer or phone just for software.

      My wife gave away two different iPods because she and I both agree .. iTune software sucks. She would rather use an old Creative brick MP3 player than her iPods because the music software just worked better. Now she just uses her Android phone.

      I work for a company that runs RedHat clusters on Vmware. No Apple computer in sight because they are expensive and don't provide the same bang for the buck.

      Apple may be leading windows, but that is mostly because Windows phones just suck. They always have, and they always will. But people will continue to want choices, which Apple has yet to figure out because it wants a stranglehold on it's product. Because it wants to make money and really doesn't give a crap about anything other than that.

      If it did, it would allow me to buy any PC I wanted to and put Apple software on it. It would let manufacturers build iPhone compatible hardware, and let them put Apple software on it. But they don't. Because they want to make a bunch of money by charging more for a device by controlling the supply and artificially inflating the demand.

      Apple does not play well with others, and I will never buy their products.

      --
      I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
    76. Re:The King is dead by justin12345 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      --
      Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
    77. Re: The King is dead by real+gumby · · Score: 3, Informative
    78. Re:The King is dead by Sique · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Here, it gets complicated. The main reason is Dalvik, a layer above the kernel itself. From a pure OS point of view, it's a shell, allowing the starting and stopping of applications. At the same time, it's also the only available interface to the kernel. Thus, from an application point of view, it acts like the OS itself. Often, it's called a platform, abstracting the real OS. Google could replace Linux at any time within Andoid, and for the applications, it wouldn't make any difference. That's why you can develop Android apps in the Android SDK on your computer which is neither ARM based as the Android devices the apps will later installed on nor necessarily runs Linux as its OS - Dalvik is presenting a layer against which the apps are built, and which acts the same on any OS it is running on.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    79. Re:The King is dead by Bogtha · · Score: 1

      Back in 2008. if you told a group of guys with Windows Mobile phones that it would be dead from Microsoft-induced suicide by 2010, you would have gotten laughed at. The original iPhone was a dumbed-down crippled toy by comparison, and Android was just a whispered rumor.

      That's revisionist history. Back in 2008, everybody I knew with a Windows Mobile phone hated it. The original iPhone might have had lower specs, but it made a quantum leap forward in web browsing and people liked using it. As for Android being "a whispered rumour", the G1 was already out, I owned one, and companies were very interested in writing apps for it at the time.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    80. Re:The King is dead by cusco · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Your definition of 'entire world' must be pretty unique. To be truthful, out of all the people that I know in the US, Canada, Britain, Italy, India, Russia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, and Ecuador I can't think of a single person who "sees stuff differently" because of the release of IOS. Those who have IOS devices seem to think that they're easier for media consumption, but only two or three of them actually do any work on them beyond making phone calls and reading email (which the Blackberry and Compaq Ipaq pioneered, not Apple). Even that's pretty much limited to writing service reports and doing Google searches.

      Care to explain what your fanboi-ism is about?

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    81. Re:The King is dead by cusco · · Score: 1

      That's in large part because MS doesn't build the hardware, the rely on hardware vendors for that. The Compaq Ipaq with Windows Embedded was an excellent product in 2004, superior in most respects to the first version of the iPhone, but for some reason (profit margin?) Compaq refused to push it they way they could have so we had to wait a couple more years for the smart phone market to actually take off. MS had tablet and convertible computers that ran Windows 2000 and then XP Tablet Edition, but the hardware wasn't there to support it, at least not at the commodity prices the manufacturers wanted to sell it for.

      Because of the outrageous prices that Apple has always charged they were able to spend more on the hardware, which made all the difference.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    82. Re: The King is dead by hpoul · · Score: 1

      umm.. i'm not sure, but i think they also had a pretty popular search engine..

      --
      Find me at http://herbert.poul.at
    83. Re:The King is dead by cusco · · Score: 1

      Everyone is forgetting TRON, which is on literally billions of devices. Car computers, washing machines, televisions, stereos, security cameras, access control panels (the panel itself, not the end user system), building automation panels, microwave ovens, restaurant dishwashers, elevators, you name it. If the thing has an IC and the OS isn't obvious it's probably running TRON.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    84. Re:The King is dead by cusco · · Score: 1

      The only reason they will pay more is if the cheap product is not good enough.

      Or the marketing is really good. It amazes me that crap that Madison Avenue can convince people to buy. I mean, really, Thighmasters?

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    85. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you dense or just trolling?

    86. Re:The King is dead by cusco · · Score: 1

      Probably because most people don't know the difference between an interface, an operating system and a kernel. Especially marketing drones.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    87. Re:The King is dead by cusco · · Score: 1

      The hell they won't. Any idea why the Panasonic Toughbook sells as fast as they can push them out the factory door? It's not because its users actually need a laptop that can survive being tossed out of the top of a bucket truck, and then run over by that truck (that was the sales demo that sold a local utility on buying several hundred of the things). Almost no one actually needs that level of reliability, but they're very cool. A lineman or cop with an iToy will be laughed at, but if they're using a Toughbook then that cache of indestructibility rubs off on them.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    88. Re:The King is dead by V!NCENT · · Score: 1

      Are just saying it is like that or can you realy show me that that's actualy the case?

      If you can show me, it just means your comment is just as unworthy as you cracking skills, meaning your comment is worthless.
      If you can prove yourself wrong, then you are wrong.
      If you can't even know, then your comments mean nothing.
      If you can show me proof that human mistakes are avoidable, then you are smart enough to know that Apple didn't avoid them.

      You are at the very least not right. Judging by past evidence made, very probably wrong. That makes my comment only more probable, so thanks for commenting me up.

      --
      Here be signatures
    89. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 1, Insightful

      A product isn't a market.

    90. Re:The King is dead by dishpig · · Score: 1

      Seriously? How are an OS and an online marketplace for selling additional, non-integrated software for that OS different? You really need to ask that?

      Why is a raven like a writing desk?

    91. Re: The King is dead by Rational · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can only buy a 911 from Porsche. Obviously, they are a monopoly that needs breaking up.

      --
      "Be nice, veer left, and never stop thinking" Iain Banks - Walking On Glass
    92. Re: The King is dead by Anthony+Mouse · · Score: 0

      If Porche starts selling cars with a digital lock on the gas cap that only pumps at gas stations that pay Porche a third of their revenue can unlock, you can bet there is going to be antitrust scrutiny for tying. Especially if "Porche" has close to 50% of the installed base of cars.

    93. Re:The King is dead by Anthony+Mouse · · Score: 1

      It's perfectly legal and non-monopolistic to tie a base product with add ons and consumables. So long as there are other viable choices of system.

      Are you sure about that?

    94. Re:The King is dead by Internal+Modem · · Score: 1

      I guess the author forgot about 1984-1990

    95. Re:The King is dead by nzac · · Score: 1

      The race to the bottom as complained about by tech reviewers (get the product for free), is the quality and value of the high end is reduced because the market is smaller due to people choosing a cheap option. With less competition and economy of scale in the high end there are less options with lower value.

      Hypothetically if the cheep options were removed from market and you could only buy laptops that meet the ultabook spec, you would see a lot more diversity and value of Ultabooks.

      Mercedes, BMW, Smeg fridges or Learjet aircraft.

      These are strong brands like Apple that have universal brand recognition, OEMs don't really have this. Yes, some are more reliable than others but to the general public its still a windows laptop.

      Just in case it did not come through, I think the race to the bottom is a good thing for the average consumer and me personally.

    96. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "At the same time, it's also the only available interface to the kernel."

      Except that it isn't quite that simple. Within Android proper, it's merely the only way to launch an application. Once your app is up and running, you can do all your work natively in C, with the NDK, as far as I can determine. There has to be a Dalvik app, but its one task can be to launch a purely C-written native Activity.

    97. Re:The King is dead by noh8rz10 · · Score: 1

      anybody who has used an "app" knows things are different now. it's a new world!

    98. Re:The King is dead by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Don't laugh. Back in 2008. if you told a group of guys with Windows Mobile phones that it would be dead from Microsoft-induced suicide by 2010, you would have gotten laughed at.

      Which is amusing, because everyone else was laughing at them for having Windows phones. ;-)

      Three years ago, Microsoft crawled from the Vista abyss and gave us Windows 7.

      And to counter my previous point, I must be one of the few people who has had an actual good overall experience with Vista.

      I bought a big honking machine knowing I'd be running Vista, and if you throw enough resources at it, it was actually pretty good and quite stable. It's still my main desktop in fact -- my Linux boxes have been relegated to VMs running on Vista.

      Though, I'm not getting a warm fuzzy about Window 8, so I might see if I can't still get a Win 7 machine provided I can afford something which is actually an upgrade from what I have now. :-P

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    99. Re:The King is dead by Tough+Love · · Score: 0

      Your zombie Apple brain has rotted even more than before. Just don't drool on me.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    100. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Android based products outsells Apple by a significant margin

      BMW really needs to catch up to Chevy to be relevant. That was a joke, but so is this.

      Two things; Most of those placements are the POS Chinese knockoffs of Samsung phones designed for markets with relative poverty. China, India and the like. They're Symbian replacements. China may have placed 700 million new Android smartphones in the last year, but so what? That has absolutely no impact on other markets unless the carriers start selling $60 unlocked Android phones in the U.S. too.

      Second, it's tough to say "outselling" without considering (here in the States at least), there's a lot of "buy one, get one free" - or two or three free - with Android devices. That's not a sale, it's a giveaway. It pumps up the "market share" but hasn't blunted iOS sales where it's "buy one, have a nice day". Those sales of iOS are still growing with the latest comScore data showing a decline of Android and an uptick of iOS sales since November.

      Then throw in the sales of all sorts of NAS/set-tops Sat&Cable boxes/xDSL routers/Blu-ray players/Media players/Tivo/Smart tv's running linux.

      Not dissimilar to every embedded OS of a half decade ago was Windows or some sawed off version. Every gas pump, cash register, industrial climate control system, automatic turret punch press, audio mixing console and whatnot was counted as a PC sale. None of that matters.

    101. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blah blah blah blah blah. 87 percent of existing iPhone users plan to buy a new iPhone in the next six months; and just 9 percent intend switching to Android. 22 percent of Android users plan to move to an iPhone within the next six months. That means current Android owners are 2.4 times more likely to switch to an iPhone than vice versa. Data from Computerworld.

      Keep your malware minefield. The update system sucks, consistency is a myth and not one user survey in the last five years says the iPhone is anywhere close to dead.

    102. Re:The King is dead by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Me. Me. Me. Your argument is full of data that is from your own experience. So what show me some real numbers. I live in the country so does my family, as well as everyone else I work with. So everyone must live in the country?

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    103. Re:The King is dead by Patch86 · · Score: 1

      Essentially, it's the difference between GNU/Linux ("Linux") and Dalvik/Linux ("Android"). Seeing as RMS lost the whole "GNU/Linux not Linux" debate some years ago, Linux is now synonymous with GNU/Linux. Therefore people say Dalvik/Linux (or Java/Linux?) "isn't real Linux".

    104. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Your anecdotal experience is probably coloured HEAVILY by confirmation bias.

      Most people I see with Mac hardware pay a shit-ton of money for them because they prefer them as their workhorse. Lots and lots of coders use them.

      What are you on?

    105. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DOJ is owned by Obama. Apple is a wing of the Obama political machine. Therefore, I would never expect DOJ to do anything about Apple criminal conduct. Similarly, expect Apple to increase its profits while paying less in taxes every year.

    106. Re:The King is dead by Miamicanes · · Score: 1

      And in 2008, 99.9% of Nokia's phones were GPRS paperweights in the US, because they couldn't do 1700/2100 or 850/1900 MHz UMTS, and couldn't even do EDGE, which left uselessly-slow 9.6-19.2kbps as their only working option here. Nobody sane would have bought such a phone to use here.

      Nokia's own sales reps at their Miami store admitted that the store's only purpose was to sell phones to visitors from Latin America. When their sales shift was over, and they were safely out of public view, the AT&T or T-mobile sim came out of their Nokia phone, and went back into their WinMo phone or Treo. Some used it to tether their Nokia via wi-fi, but as stand-alone American phones, Nokia phones were useless here.

      Circa 2003, Nokia made a business decision to exit the US, and they suffered *dearly* for it by becoming de-facto nonexistent to most influential magazines, blogs, and web sites with international users that were based in the US.

    107. Re:The King is dead by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      I guess that LInux now outsells Window 8

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    108. Re:The King is dead by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Anything that runs Vista without problem can run Windows 7 even better. In truth, 7 is little more than an optimized and bug-fixed Vista. There were also some UI tweaks (such as defaults for UAC), but those don't really affect performance.

    109. Re:The King is dead by jamesh · · Score: 1

      I guess that LInux now outsells Window 8

      Linux has been outselling Windows 8 for at least 20 years!

    110. Re:The King is dead by Karzz1 · · Score: 1

      Sweet!! I am going to open my own store for iOS to sell 3rd party apps.... Oh wait...

      This might be construed as monopolistic behaviour. Imagine if MS declined allowing the installation of any application that was not sold through their App store.

      --
      Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
    111. Re:The King is dead by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      I never realised that's what DOS stood for.

    112. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this branding thing must be why the only decent space in the windows PC world is the Tuner and enthusiast markets, where Alienware (dell), ROG (asus), Saegar, Falcon Northwest, and others make a good amount of money and have some real beast of PCs available. However, this market despises Win8, and many have stated the day their game of choice makes it to steam linux (or WOW if they are into that), that PC is getting a new OS fast.

    113. Re:The King is dead by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      And very few people ever bought an iDevice or Mac BECAUSE of iOS or OSX.

      Your point?

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    114. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Huh? Nearly everyone that bought an Mac or an iDevice did so because of iOS and OSX.

      You're confused.

    115. Re:The King is dead by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Your zombie Apple brain has rotted even more than before. Just don't drool on me.

      Don't let your friends drool on me either.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  2. Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Microsoft devices cost less than Apple devices, but they get less of units sold than apple which has specialized in their customer base. Not everyone wants apple, but it seems nobody wants windows now.

    I wonder how android sales go along this?

    1. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by couchslug · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Microsoft offers what it thinks you should have.

      Apple offers what attracts people.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    2. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Do you really want to walk around with a brown slab in your hand or enjoy been given the 'right' to squirt a song ?
      Pay $1K for a tablet that makes an Apple device look like a fair priced product?
      Play games on a slow 2004 computer at ~1080p in 2013?
      If you have coding skills, been told that aspect of the hardware are off limits unless your a multinational halfway into the dev cycle?

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I wonder if they counted all the droids that Microsoft is getting a cut of?

    4. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple offers you a seemingly attractive fruit as bait.

      Turns out it's poisoned.

    5. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by jedidiah · · Score: 1, Troll

      Apple has more competent marketing.

      This is a new phenomenon. Prior to Apple's advertising renaisance, it was on perpetual deathwatch for years. The idea that they would ever sell more of anything than Microsoft was laughable.

      They were marginalized just like any other would-be PC competitor.

      It's only by becoming a Sony wannabe that they managed to avoid becoming nothing more than a historical footnote. It's a stupid and invalid comparison. The new Apple is the successor of the Sony Walkman, not the IBM PC.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    6. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Do they still sell Zunes? If I walk around near the Microsoft store long enough, will I see some teens squirting?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"? Apple is the #1 perpetrator of dictating to users what they "should" want.

    8. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And Steve was right almost every time. He was radical and unapologetic, but right. Simple as that.

    9. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"?

      Yes, and he never said Apple offers what people want either.
      Otherwise we'd have an expandable desktop Mac that's smaller and cheaper than the Mac Pro. We'd have a Mac Pro that doesn't make a joke out of the "Pro" part. We'd have native blu-ray playback on Macs, and and SD card slots for user-expandable memory on iDevices as well.

      Apple simply offers them something that is attractive to them, and and Microsoft's version is not.

    10. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      Microsoft offers what it thinks you should have.

      Apple offers what attracts people.

      I'm no fan of either company, but that's just a PR quality meaningless statement. All you've said is that Apple is more successful ithan MS currently is.

      Take it to its logical conclusion - does Apple offer what it thinks you should not have? Of course not, they both do the same thing, Apple's just been better at it recently is all.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    11. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

      You said teens squirting.

      --
      Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
    12. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

      And Steve was right almost every time

      No he wasn't. I've got an x86 Samsung Win8 tablet in front of me here. It's got HDMI out, a USB port and a micro SD slot. That's what I want.

    13. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, Apple also offers what it thinks you should have. It's just a lot better at explaining why you should have it.

    14. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by sodul · · Score: 5, Interesting

      But that's not what the masses want, you're a nerd (admit it you're on slashdot) and what you want is a microscopic market niche. Steve was right.

    15. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by sodul · · Score: 1

      I don't want Blu-ray playback, if it means the OS has to conform with the required DRM hooks. Honestly I have not even used my DVD drive in over a year on my laptop.

    16. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

      No, the problem is that Windows saturates the market already, and 8 year old desktops are still fine. I know people still running P4s with XP!
      Even my company still has some P4s around, as kiosks and such, and anything with an I3 or better processor is rare...

      Apple might sell more devices, but the problem is that MS has lots of old devices around which still work.

    17. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"? Apple is the #1 perpetrator of dictating to users what they "should" want.

      It's true. Be careful not to confuse what people "want" with what people actually buy, there's a HUGE difference between the two.

      The Simpsons said it best with the Homer Car episode. Metro is very much a Homer car IMHO, it's what everyone "wanted" (unified interface), not what everyone will buy.

    18. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      It was Steve Ballmer's idea

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    19. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't want Blu-ray playback, if it means the OS has to conform with the required DRM hooks.

      If you're on a Mac the OS already does. It's more about licensing with MPEGLA and protecting the iTunes ecosystem.

    20. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Goody · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"? Apple is the #1 perpetrator of dictating to users what they "should" want.

      So was Henry Ford.

      --
      Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
    21. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think he may be right with an important and self-evident caveat:

      Ignorant people don't know what they want. And how could they? They're ignorant.

      The ignorant may be a frightfully large majority of "people" (we're using that term generously today), but by no means are they the only people.

    22. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"?

      He was right. And still is.

    23. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      That's like saying weather forecasters don't know how hot it is in your kitchen.

    24. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      That's not what "people" want. That's only what "SeaFox" wants.

    25. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Apple might sell more devices, but the problem is that MS has lots of old devices around which still work.

      How is some old PCs hanging around as kiosks and the like a problem? To anyone?

    26. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's not what "people" want. That's only what "SeaFox" wants.

      You really think people don't appreciate being able to increase the storage on their cell phone or tablet without having to buy a whole new device? And I'm sure there's no gamers out there with Macs who would like to be able to use a high-end graphics card without having to plunk down for the top-end pro tower from Apple.

      Go to any Mac forum and read from the creative professionals upset the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in any major way in three years. Or the folks with 24-27" iMacs annoyed they have that IPS screen and can't watch HD video on it unless they either rebuy their movies on iTunes or jump through hoops encoding/space-shifting their own content because they can't just pop the disc in the drive and play it like on a PC.

      If you're gonna be a troll, you could at least not make yourself look like a moron in the process.

    27. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Ottibus · · Score: 1

      But that's not what the masses want.

      The masses may not want an SD slot, but they certainly want to be able to buy a 16GB iPad for $499 and upgrade later for $20 rather than paying $599 upfront for a 32GB iPad.

    28. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple offers what it thinks you should have too. Just try to make an iThing do what *you* want to do. But people are attracted by the devices sold by Apple more than by the software sold by Microsoft.

    29. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by gnasher719 · · Score: 2

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"? Apple is the #1 perpetrator of dictating to users what they "should" want.

      Non sequitur. "People don't know what they want" doesn't mean you dictate to them what they _should_ want. It means you figure out _for them_ what they will like when they see it. You give them _exactly_ what they want, even when they don't know what they want themselves.

    30. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"? Apple is the #1 perpetrator of dictating to users what they "should" want.

      It was actually Henry Ford.....

      "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."

      Did people know they wanted a phone in the form factor of the iPhone? Did they know they wanted a tablet running a mobile OS and not one that was based on desktop OS?

    31. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      If you're on a Mac the OS already does. It's more about licensing with MPEGLA and protecting the iTunes ecosystem.

      1. To implement Blu-ray there are all sorts of secure video and audio paths you have to implement.

      2. If Apple cared that much about protecting its measly video sales from iTunes, why would they go out of their way to support Hulu and Netflix on the AppleTV?

    32. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by BasilBrush · · Score: 0

      It's the squeaky wheel that makes the noise. In the days of the internet, a handful of dissatisfied people can make lots of noise, meanwhile people who are happy just get on with enjoying what they have.

      The fact that there exists people on the internet that say a particular thing means nothing. There are more people saying they have been abducted by aliens, think the CIA did 9/11, and class themselves as of the Jedi religion. That doesn't mean that "people" are like that.

      You made a list of things that you want. I don't want any of them. Your list isn't a list of what "people" want, it's a list of what you want. Even if there are some people out there who share some of your desires.

      You really think people don't appreciate being able to increase the storage on their cell phone or tablet without having to buy a whole new device?

      I don't want it. The whole design of the iOS UI is that you don't have to think about files and where they are stored. Your memory card would spoil that, and make the UI worse, just as the Android UI is worse in part for that reason.

    33. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by doghouse41 · · Score: 1

      I absolutely agree with Steve Jobs on this one.

      Ask a group of people what they want, find what seems like a compromise that everyone likes, and you will end up with a camel. (aka Metro)

      Alternatively, you could go out, design what you think a lot of people will want once they see the final product, and you end up with an iPhone (or Linux, come to that). People see it once it's finished, and then say "I could never have imagined something that cool, I want one"

      This is where Jobs is coming from when he says "people don't know what they want". It doesn't mean that he is forcing them to take some POS that they don't really want.
      He is just stating the fairly obvious truth that the majority of us are not capable of visualising a complex product such as an iPhone in all it's detail. But if you produce something really really good then people will want it, even if they didn't know that they wanted it before they saw it. In the same way that people want Mercedes and BMW cars, or Phillipe Stark watches, or any other beautiful, well designed product. (And while opinions may vary on whether any of these products are beautiful or well designed, at least enough people think that they are to make the companies that produce them rich.)

      There's a lot to be said for the benevolent dictator for life approach. As long as they are benevolent. And right.(and called Linus ;-)

    34. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"? Apple is the #1 perpetrator of dictating to users what they "should" want.

      Not knowing the context of the quote, I interpret it differently.

      People don't know what they want - because they don't know what's possible. And then Jobs went on to think about what's possible with tomorrow's technology, starting to design it today, so that when the technology comes available they can start building it.

      There are many ways to design a laptop, a phone, and the software that runs it all. You may show some way to someone, and they go "oh, great, I want that!". But then you show another solution, one they didn't think of, maybe radically different, and they go again "oh, great, I want that!". You may very well conclude that people don't know what they want out of such a situation.

      And so Jobs went on to figure out various ways to do stuff, and to design stuff, to find the best solution. And the best solution, that's what people want, of course.

      Now whether Jobs' "best solution" is also your "best solution" is a matter of opinion, the excellent sales figures of Apple over the past decade or two do show that Jobs was doing something right there. And that what he thinks people should want, is what indeed many people want.

    35. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by sodul · · Score: 1

      Well I would 'like' that if it only took $20 to magically have more space and the very same user experience. In practice, not so much. Most likely the new memory is a lot slower and the whole device experience will show, with complaints of 'why are my photo albums so slow now'? And why can't I just upgrade from 16GB, to 32GB and then 48GB seamlessly? Half the stuff disappeared when grandma replaced the old memory thing with the new, this sucks!!! I never have to deal with helping people fix technical issues on iDevices, with other things with more 'features', that means more complexity and me having to help fix them.

      Seriously the masses treat their devices as appliances, my laundry machine has a color display and chime tunes (seriously). I don't bitch because I want new tunes on it. I don't pimp my car and, again the masses do not. There is a market for easily pimp-able cars, yet most people really do not care.

    36. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by DrEldarion · · Score: 1

      If that's the case, then why do a ridiculously large percentage of iPhone users root their devices to change them from stock?

    37. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by cusco · · Score: 1

      Apple offers what it's marketing department can convince people that they're attracted to.

      FTFY

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    38. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't want Blu-ray playback, if it means the OS has to conform with the required DRM hooks.

      If you're on a Mac the OS already does.

      I think you're talking about TPM chips, in which case you're mistaken; Apple started including them in Intel Macs from 2006 but have never made use of them and stopped including them in 2009.

    39. Re: Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Ottibus · · Score: 1

      Well I would 'like' that if it only took $20 to magically have more space and the very same user experience.

      No magic, just careful design of hardware and software, which is well within the grasp of the engineers at Apple.

    40. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Baloney. Apple has never "dictated" to users what they should want.
      They've simply offered things which it turns out people like.
      It's not the same concept.

    41. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      1. To implement Blu-ray there are all sorts of secure video and audio paths you have to implement.

      Yeah... HDCP.
      Something Apple has had to support in OSX since they started selling HD video on iTunes (otherwise the studios would have never agreed to let them carry high-def movies from them).

      2. If Apple cared that much about protecting its measly video sales from iTunes, why would they go out of their way to support Hulu and Netflix on the AppleTV?

      Feel free to post a source for the "measley" comment. Apple traditionally doesn't separate the revenue figures for individual products and the iTunes Store combined revenue was $6.3 billion for 2011.

      The reason they support them is because Netflix, and to a lesser extent Hulu, are must-have features on a streaming device. In 2011 Neflix became the largest online movie provider by passing the previous largest provider -- Apple (yes, the same year Apple made that $6.3 billion in iTunes content).

      Compare feature sets on different brands of blu-ray players, Roku, etc. Even the lowest-end devices support at least Netflix streaming even if they don't support every streaming service and DLNA sharing like the upper tier players do. Apple would have sold hardly anything without those services being present on their box, because lots of Apple die-hards are Netflix users (Apple has no subscription all-you-can-watch video service, remember?). If the Apple TV didn't have Netflix those people would have still need a second set-top box (or third if you want to count the cable converter) and that device would have likely been a BD player or Roku, the devices AppleTV is in competition with, regardless of what Apple wants to say about it just being a "hobby" for them.

    42. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by jo_ham · · Score: 0

      If that's the case, then why do a ridiculously large percentage of iPhone users root their devices to change them from stock?

      [citation needed]

      I think you are vastly, vastly overestimating the number of iPhone users who root their device, unless you have a cite for the actual percentage and can thus tell us what "ridiculously large" means. 0.5%? 1%? 10%?

    43. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      It's the squeaky wheel that makes the noise. In the days of the internet, a handful of dissatisfied people can make lots of noise, meanwhile people who are happy just get on with enjoying what they have.

      And the point here is people have an optical disc with 25-40 mbps encoded AVC video on it and can't watch it on their nice monitor they also have because Apple, with all it's billions in the bank and and army of smart people is still finding the process of supporting blu-ray drives on their computers "a bad of hurt".

      The point is people are having to pay up to $6.25 per gigabyte for flash memory if they want more then the base 16 GB in their iPhone, because Apple doesn't want to add a card slot to the device. Apple being the one who profits off this omission is a coincidence, of course.

      You made a list of things that you want. I don't want any of them. Your list isn't a list of what "people" want, it's a list of what you want. Even if there are some people out there who share some of your desires.

      This might actually be a meaningful argument, where it not for the fact I don't own an iPhone and the only Mac I have is an iBook G4. I personally don't benefit from Apple accepting blu-ray drives or expandable memory on their handhelds. My main computer is a home-built tower running Windows 8, and I use a stand-alone player for my blu-ray discs, even though it connects to the same Samsung monitor my computer does.

      You really think people don't appreciate being able to increase the storage on their cell phone or tablet without having to buy a whole new device?

      I don't want it. The whole design of the iOS UI is that you don't have to think about files and where they are stored. Your memory card would spoil that, and make the UI worse, just as the Android UI is worse in part for that reason.

      Why should you have to deal with it at all? The OS could just as easily display internal and external memory as a single set of files and manage them in the background. It could give you a simple preference to list what order you want memory caches filled. I'm not talking about a card you hot-swap. I'm just talking about there being a slot to expand the memory outside what the device ships with, something many other manufacturers don't seem to have a problem doing.

    44. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

      Because they aren't selling new licences of Windows 8 for them, either directly or to OEMs.
      When your machines barely run XP, you aren't upgrading them to even 7.

    45. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      Feel free to post a source for the "measley" comment. Apple traditionally doesn't separate the revenue figures for individual products and the iTunes Store combined revenue was $6.3 billion for 2011.Feel free to post a source for the "measley" comment. Apple traditionally doesn't separate the revenue figures for individual products and the iTunes Store combined revenue was $6.3 billion for 2011.

      And the same year they made $108.249 million in total revenue. iTunes sales were 5% of their total revenue. We also know that Apple only keeps 30% of revenue from sales on iTunes.

      Now out of that $6.8 billion, subtract music, app, book, audio book, and how much do you think is left?

      Now take into account that 60% of iTunes purchases are actually on the device and not from the computer, I can't find the reference but they said it when they discussed making the iTunes app more iCloud focused.

      Then let's see all of the places where people buy videos from iTunes -- more than 215 million iOS devices last year alone, however many Windows users who use iTunes, and then compare the relatively minuscule number of Mac users.

      And every device that can play iTunes video can also stream video from at least Netflix and Hulu.

      The increase in sales of video by not equipping Macs with Blu-ray is small.

    46. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only a tiny insignificant fraction of iPhone users root their devices.

    47. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by BasilBrush · · Score: 0

      If it's just finding a use for old commuters, then it's not a problem to anyone. And if those machines were originally bought to be kiosks, then there would never have been any intention of keeping them on the software upgrade cycle. So no lost sale. Again, no problem to anyone.

    48. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

      No, you misunderstand. Lets say we have 300 computers in a building. If we upgrade them every 3-5 years like would have happened in pre-p4 days, that's 300 licences every 3 years.
      Now, if we decide "eh, only 50 of those machines are CAD stations, so we'll upgrade those, and leave the rest for another 3 years", MS gets only 50 licenses. 3 years after that, upgrade the CAD stations again, and use the old ones to replace 50 of the others. MS gets only 50 licences, again.
      Repeat this process about 3 times, and you'll see where we're at - a few new machines, mostly handmedowns, including old P4's, most of which aren't getting upgrades to W7, let alone 8, and aren't giving MS any license fees.

      Note that by Kiosk, I mean "time and attendance" app-driven kiosk, not just "basic maching for random googling etc" - machines we *do* need in the building and would require a PC and MS license... But instead of buying a new machine with win8 to fulfil that, they're using a spare P4 with XP.

      Multiply this scenario many many times, and you can see why MS isn't getting the license fees they did in the XP/P4 days.

    49. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When Apple (and by Apple I mean Steve Jobs!) insisted that a computer should not have a fan because Jobs did not like the noise they made it was discovered that customers did not want a computer that would go on fire.

    50. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen.

  3. well that didn't take long by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    did it?

  4. Not the whole picture by pcjunky · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Mobile phones really skewed things. However if you take things like Andriod into account Apple's share is still quite small. It just that Microsoft has almost no presence in the mobile phone market. Bill would not have let this happen had he still been in charge.

    1. Re:Not the whole picture by skine · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It is interesting, though, that after all these years of /. saying that "20XX is the Year of Linux on the Desktop," Unix-Like devices actually account for more than half of computing devices.

      Granted, they aren't as FOS as we might have hoped for.

    2. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is what I was thinking. The headline should really be that Linux devices are the best selling now and will remain the best selling, considering their presence on cell phones, tablets and in enterprise and hosting situations.

    3. Re:Not the whole picture by mcrbids · · Score: 1

      .. and routers, embedded servers, firewalls, mesh networks, Rasberry Pi, and too many other strange devices that lack a commonly recognizable name.

      Linux (*nix) is *everywhere*.

      --
      I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
    4. Re:Not the whole picture by dc29A · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bill would not have let this happen had he still been in charge.

      Ah yes, Bill Gates the visionary. Almost missed TCP/IP (had to be begged to implement it) ... and the Internet. Was the SPAM problem supposed to be solved in what? 3 years in 2004? Bill let the whole tablet market slip from his fingers, at least a good 9 years before the iPad.

      He was in the right place at the right time. Nothing more. Definitely not a visionary.

    5. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bill Gates was paranoid as fuck. When Windows CE was introduced Microsoft said "We don't want someone doing to us what we did to IBM!" .... Then Gates left and they let WinCE rot, never developed a decent UI, never developed a good mobile browser, completely dismissed the iphone, etc.

      Also, you're totally wrong about TCP/IP, microsoft was pushing it for corporate networking, and Win95 was the first consumer OS to ship with an IP stack.

    6. Re: Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Completely wrong. The tcp/ip stack was implemented in Win3.11 for workgroups as an afterthought. And Win 95 was definitely NOT the first consumer OS with TCP. That was Mac OS 6. Long before that Win95 pile of shit.

    7. Re:Not the whole picture by otuz · · Score: 4, Informative

      MacTCP was released in 1988.

    8. Re:Not the whole picture by AvitarX · · Score: 2

      Spam has been solved for ages from what I can tell. But I use gmail.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    9. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MacTCP wasn't bundled with the OS and was only site-licensed to large institutions.

      First version of MacOS that could do IP out-of-the-box was 7.5.something which came out after Win95.

      You could also pay big money to license TCP/IP for OS2, but again wasn't included until after Win95

    10. Re:Not the whole picture by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Apple's share ain't bad even if you do take Android into account. For smartphones you get something like

      13% of units of by volume
      40% of units by revenue
      85% of the profits.

    11. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Also, you're totally wrong about TCP/IP, microsoft was pushing it for corporate networking, and Win95 was the first consumer OS to ship with an IP stack.

      Win95B maybe, but the original Win95 release still required something like Trumpet Winsock installed to talk IP. And as for pushing it for corporate networking, probably because even though Cisco routers could at the time route NetBEUI, we networking guys told the desktop guys to go f*** themselves, if they wanted a packet to cross a router boundary, it was IP or nothing. Oh, NetBEUI, the only protocol chatty enough to make AppleTalk look positively mute.

    12. Re:Not the whole picture by antdude · · Score: 1

      Maybe Bill Gates does need to come back since MS is going downhill.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    13. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Absolutely everything HAD to be based on Windows and it was/is a beast. And then there is the protectionism aspect of Gates which made him run the company such that every product had to be wed to Windows and only Windows. If it didn't it was beat into being that way and marketing was used to kill off the competition.

      Not a visionary but lucky once to get the IBM contract and milked that cow for a very long time using mostly anti-competitive business methods.

    14. Re:Not the whole picture by WingCmdr · · Score: 1

      Spam has been solved for ages from what I can tell. But I use gmail.

      LOL, if you used GMail when it was first introduced, you wouldn't believe how much spam was allowed in there. It was by far, the worst email service in terms of spam that I've ever used.

    15. Re:Not the whole picture by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      However the reality is that Android and other Linux powered devices substantially reduce M$'s market share (they also reduce Apple's) and hence put in within reach of Apple's numbers. The article in question is what is called advertising as news, buy Apple because we are going to pretend after fudging with the details everyone is buying Apple.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    16. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bill would not have let this happen? They missed the boat on smartphones same way the missed the boat on office suites, internet, web and email, virtualization, and tablets; and they had to resort to using anti-competitive tactics to win significant share in any of these markets at all.

    17. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's true, but it isn't the well-known "Linux on the desktop".
      iOS isn't Linux-based, it's BSD-based with a TON of Apple-specific or proprietary extensions. The UI and everything that builts upon it has pretty much *nothing* to do with standard Unix/Linux UIs.
      Android is Linux-based, but also comes with a completely own UI (even an own display manager) and own applications.

      The problem with Linux over all those years has not been the technical side, which should be fine, but the UI and application side. Linux has poor UIs (and poor consistency between different UIs/graphical toolkits) and still a lack of meaningful desktop applications. Also, even after all those years users still sometimes need to use the command line to fix things, while this is almost eliminated from Windows or OSX except in very rare special cases.
      It's fine to use when you can live with that and don't need that many applications, or don't need some of the big industry-standard applications like Photoshop or MS Office or whatever, but it's a deal breaker for most people. While there sometimes exist some alternatives, they are not at all in the same league. The only people who claim that LibreOffice is as powerful as MS Office or Gimp as powerful as Photoshop are people who barely use a minimum set of features in those programs and claim that that's all you'd need, basically ignoring the needs of many other users.

      I don't blame any particular Linux UI developer for this (although it sometimes shows that many OSS developers are hobbyists, especially in terms of UI design and documentation/support), but apparently - as a conceptual issue - you cannot beat the consistency and ease-of-use that the commercial desktops provide when you have a bunch of independent developers and solutions and combine them together. If it were so, Linux on the desktop would already be way ahead of ~1-2% market share. And remember that even professional users prefer ease-of-use when they don't want to or can't afford to spend a lot of time tinkering with something.

    18. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is interesting, though, that after all these years of /. saying that "20XX is the Year of Linux on the Desktop," Unix-Like devices actually account for more than half of computing devices.

      Granted, they aren't as FOS as we might have hoped for.

      That was always to be expected. Fragmentation is the issue preventing the "Year of the Linux Desktop". Even Android is suffering from fragmentation, despite the fact that Google made some strong engineering decisions, so there is no bickering over KDE vs fvwm or Wayland vs X11.

    19. Re:Not the whole picture by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      They're not as "obscure commands typed at the console" as you might have hoped either.

      "Focus follows mouse" debates, where are you now?

    20. Re:Not the whole picture by otuz · · Score: 1

      7.5 came out a year before Win95 and everyone who used an internet connection warezed MacTCP anyway.

    21. Re:Not the whole picture by Sique · · Score: 2

      Android is Linux-based, but also comes with a completely own UI (even an own display manager) and own applications.

      You know that the UI is not an integral part of Linux? It's a part of the distribution, and different distributions are offering different UIs for Linux. There are X.org based UIs and Wayland based UIs, and HTML-based UIs and command line based UIs... So Android is just shipping Linux with its own UI.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    22. Re:Not the whole picture by skine · · Score: 1

      I actually don't think that fragmentation is the big issue.

      Rather, Linux developers seem to be like that one friend that takes a joke and tells it in a way that it is funnier than the original, but they take it too far, and it becomes apparent that they never really got the joke in the first place.

    23. Re:Not the whole picture by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Maybe.... I'm not sure. Clearly in the USA for smartphones Apple's marketshare is moving towards establishing a monopoly. The carriers are aware of this, analysts are but the general public mostly isn't. I'm not sure if it is to Apple's advantage for the public to be aware. Similarly at the high end of the market, laptops over $1k. For years Apple's share in this segment has been in the 90% range. Most of the public doesn't know that and Apple doesn't push this fact.

    24. Re: Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You just described the whole tragedy. Fragmentation. Extreme fragmentation. Hell, there are different installation packages for each flavour of Linux. Until there are certain standards used by every distribution, Linux won't go anywhere. You can't sell average consumers an OS that works differently somewhere else. Including the GUI. You can't seriously tell average people that an OS with a dozen of different window manager are still the same OS. In their eyes they are different OS. Sad but true.

      "Hi Joe. I switched to Linux."
      "Great George, I have some RPM packages for you to install"
      "What's RPM? My Linux says DEB."
      "Then you don't use Linux George"

      *head scratching neighbours*

    25. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "'Focus follows mouse' debates, where are you now?"

      I had this on my WindowMaker desktop, and a friend of mine was over. I was getting a drink or something, while he was still in the room where our computers were. He was poking around on my computer, and cried out in frustration. I came back in, and he says: "Why on earth would you have the focus follow the mouse?! I lost the window I was looking at!" My reply: "It's faster once you get used to it."

      It's like you have to be on your game just to use the basic window management when focus follows mouse is on. I really felt like I was a "power user" when I had it set. And, not to lie, it's a pretty cool feeling.

    26. Re:Not the whole picture by Morky · · Score: 1

      He isn't perfect, but to say he is not a visionary is missing the fact that he was selling software on every from platform the moment the PC arrived (1975), at 20 years old. He saw the software market before anyone.

    27. Re:Not the whole picture by DKlineburg · · Score: 1

      but you get spam every time you log in. It is the little ticker that runs Google ads in there somewhere. You spam is just hand delivered by Google based on your e-mails.

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    28. Re:Not the whole picture by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      85% of the profits.

      An interesting number is that in the smartphone market, Apple and Samsung together had 102% of all profits in the last year, and 101% of all profits in the last quarter. Which means all other vendors combined are actually losing money.

    29. Re:Not the whole picture by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Yep. People often fail to realize how much Samsung and Apple changed the ecosystem and how quickly. I think a lot has to do with the complexity because of Android & iOS vs everyone else partially overlapping the Samsung & Apple vs everyone else story.

    30. Re:Not the whole picture by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      you're right, I get the screen space of one spam in a safely isolated place. I also get a ton in my spam box, but my false positives on spam are about one a year, and false negatives are about 6 a year.

      considering my junk mail folder gets 30-100/day, It's not really a problem to deal with the one from google.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    31. Re: Not the whole picture by Sique · · Score: 1

      No, it's not a tragedy. It just shows that the OS itself matters less and less. You can basicly port all applications available for Linux to Windows, if you want to use Cygwin. You can port them to Mac OS X, if you have MacPorts available. And now something strange happens: It's more and more attractive for companies to develop under Linux and then use the available tools to port the software for other plattforms. Linux is ubiquitous. The main programming interface is the same, libc is the same, and the GNU tool chain is the same everwhere.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    32. Re:Not the whole picture by Burz · · Score: 1

      I think you misread the parent. Android's UI belongs to the Android OS, not Linux per se.

      The main underlying problem we are wringing hands about in this thread is that Linux enthusiasts are trying to use 'OS' in the strict academic sense of the term, which doesn't fly on the desktop. Personal computers follow a defacto set of standards set by Apple and Microsoft: One of them is that the user interface must be readily recognizable to laypeople across any number of up-to-date computers (e.g. if I switch from a Mac at my old employer to a Mac at my new job, the new one should be familiar).

      Another standard expectation on personal computers is that the user/owner can get software products written and distributed by independent third parties and easily install them. This is enabled by having a rich set of APIs that are *always* included with each copy of the OS, which is itself largely defined by these high-level APIs.

      So-called "Linux" does not rate as a personal computer OS by such standards. When it comes down to it, Linux really is just a kernel and geeks need to stop using it to grab the attention of average consumers... you are just confusing them and, in the end, making yourself appear irritatingly inane.

    33. Re:Not the whole picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But Bill is too busy helping to increase overpopulation to be concerned about Microsoft.

  5. Xbox and Windows CE? by Megor1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Did they include Xbox and windows CE devices?

    --
    Everyone that disagrees with me is a paid shill
    1. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, of course not. Including all microsoft devices against all apple devices doesn't make for scandalous headlines.

    2. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      of course not, that would put Apple at a disadvantage and then gartner would not be able to generate as much sensational press.

    3. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 1

      That's a good point. I looked and looked but can't find evidence that Gartner considered an xbox as something running "Windows". I did find this article that says that Apple TV was outselling the Xbox on a per quarter basis as late as last year. Lifetime sales of Xbox are still higher, but Xbox has been around a long while. While I don't doubt that a new Xbox release would reverse this, what I don't get is what Microsoft would possibly do with a new console that would make it worth buying. A little hardware refresh won't make any magic happen. On the other hand, there is this funny quote from the founder of Valve saying that an Apple iTunes-style walled garden gaming platform would eat Sony's, Nintendo's and Microsoft's lunch, so go figure. I can't imagine that Apple looks at the gaming space and thinks there's an opening there though, it's pretty saturated. On the other hand, there's a lot of clever little games out there for the iTunes store made by indie developers, maybe they really could create an opening for themselves.

      --
      Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
    4. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by otuz · · Score: 1

      The topic is about all Windows devices.

    5. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by a_n_d_e_r_s · · Score: 1

      Xbox sales is very small in comparison. Microsoft have sold a total of about 70 million units of Xboxes since 2005. Currently they sell like half a million each month - basically neglectable compared with total sales of windows; its even less then windows mobile.

      As for Windows CE its hard to find data of number of licenses but its also small given that Linux is comming along and many are already using Linux or switching too it. Microsoft has tried to relauch WinCE as WIndows Compact 8 during 2013. Doubt it will get alot of success. WinCE is the basis for Windows Mobile who don't sell good either.

      So I would not think about them alot. They don't really matter.

      --
      Just saying it like it are.
    6. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      CE is so crippled it's a wonder it gets used at all. It has multitasking capability as a bullet point but developers outside MS can't get to it for their apps - it's a step back from the 1980s Amiga FFS.

    7. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by maxdamage · · Score: 2

      Yes indeed. All Windows devices vs all Apple devices. Not Mac OS devices.

    8. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many people are left out there that don't have an Xbox 360 yet?... I'm certain it is a small number.. I am an Idie Developer and the walled garden may provide less piracy, it will in my opinion drive away gamers like myself that feel like they are getting the shit end of the stick. I know developers like myself create the software, but the software is only as good as the people that buy it and use it. Honestly though with Facebook taking away peoples privacy more and more everyday and that the morons still use it, tells me that the Walled garden will not bother that many people, and AppleTv is a joke in my opinion.. Lets remember how people think that they have to pay $400 for a 2TB External HDD for their Macs because it says .. For Mac on it.. Yes I know the people at Apple are a bunch of proprietrary douche bags, but HDDs work on all Macs.. It's the software that comes with them that isn't compatible.. I format them once i get them anyway because I find the included software to be broken and too much of headache to even bother with. Is the data you put on the HDD yours to do with as you wish or the HDD companies..? I know the software is mostly for people that have no idea what they are doing and simplifies the process of backing up and encrypting data, but I used the included software once to make an image of my OS.. When I needed it though the software didnt work, and would not restore the image.. Luckily I made another copy using traditional methods. Anyway AppleTV is the same crap in my opinion.. I hope the Apple fanboys realize that Apple does not have a NOS anymore, and without Windows, Linux, and Unix there would not be an Internet to get onto... Or if you prefer them in the proper order: Unix, Windows, and Linux..

    9. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ADHD in action.. I could not follow any of what you wrote dude..

    10. Re:Xbox and Windows CE? by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      You can't count in Collector's Editions, they don't get taken out of their packaging.

  6. It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by whozatmac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    . . . Microsoft has done this to themselves. Having failed to come up with a compelling mobile space product, they decided to force the half baked mobile OS on desktops, where they had, for better or worse, at least established themselves. No one is buying windows 8 machines that owns any previous windows computer. . . and those who hadn't bought a computer yet are buying tablets and phones and other internet consumption products. Now Microsoft wants to kill of thier segment of the content creation space. It's baffling.

    1. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You know they should have taken a page out of their own success story. When IBM came knocking they bought an operating system and created MS-DOS out of it. They should have bought Nokia and gotten behind Maemo and put their own spin on it. Maybe a linux kernel with a MS proprietary system on top would have worked for them like Darwin under OS X did for Apple. No, they had to try to reinvent the wheel and it had a flat spot on it.

    2. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they didn't reinvent the wheel, they used Windows. they have always used Windows except for Windows CE and that sucked so badly they were forced to pay vendors to use it to get market share. Then they eventually had to throw it out and use the desktop OS version which is going no place fast.

      while it's great to think how great it could have been if they picked and used another OS you are talking about Microsoft and it is not in their DNA to use anything but Windows. Never has, never will be while any of the old guard are still there.

    3. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Maybe a linux kernel with a MS proprietary system on top would have worked for them like Darwin under OS X did for Apple. No, they had to try to reinvent the wheel and it had a flat spot on it.

      They can't do that under the GPL. All modifications must be included which means that any product would have been open source. OS X is based on BSD which has no such limitation on modifications. Apple could close source Darwin tomorrow. They haven't but it is well within their rights.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    4. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by amiga3D · · Score: 2

      Well actually that only applies to modifications to the GPL software. If they use their own proprietary top layer like OS X does with Darwin then that would be legal. Any changes to the kernel would be required to give back but not to anything that was their own from the start.

    5. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Apple has to modify OS X libraries with each new version. Their Aqua UI and certain system libraries are proprietary and not released. This is allowed with BSD. I seriously doubt that MS could put something on top of Linux without modifying any of the libraries used. Remember it's not Linux, it's GNU-Linux. Linux is just the kernel but all the supporting GNU libraries are also under the GPL.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    6. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Maybe a linux kernel with a MS proprietary system on top would have worked for them like Darwin under OS X did for Apple.

      WTF? Microsoft's problem in the mobile space has nothing to do with what kernel they use, any more than Apple's success is because of their choice of the Mach kernel.

    7. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by GauteL · · Score: 2

      The BSD license is irrelevant. The GPL does not cover aggregation, that is shipping two non-related components together in the same distribution, and it specifically provides an exception for allowing essential GPL operating system libraries to be used by proprietary applications.

      There are many, many proprietary GUIs used on top of a GNU/Linux base system out there. Particularly in terms of TV Set-top boxes and other embedded systems. This alone is proof that your argument is flawed.

      Microsoft could well have done the same. They could even have used Xorg with proprietary extensions if they wanted, since the X11 license is pretty much the same as the BSD license.

      The only issue would be difficulty in keeping drivers locked in to Microsoft Linux so they can't be used for regular GNU/Linux, but I imagine they would just introduce deliberately incompatible changes to stop this from being easy.

      They could also move most drivers into userland where they could certainly control a proprietary driver model.

    8. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe a linux kernel with a MS proprietary system on top would have worked for them like Darwin under OS X did for Apple. No, they had to try to reinvent the wheel and it had a flat spot on it.

      They can't do that under the GPL. All modifications must be included which means that any product would have been open source. OS X is based on BSD which has no such limitation on modifications. Apple could close source Darwin tomorrow. They haven't but it is well within their rights.

      Actually they could do that in application space. Let kernel be GPLed and everything else can be pretty well closed sourced. Something similar then RedHat EL or SuSE.

    9. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      To make the changes MS would need to make, they would have to massive amounts of code to work with but not integrated with Linux and GNU in order to satisfy the GPL.

      The difference between this and “incorporating” the GPL-covered software is partly a matter of substance and partly form. The substantive part is this: if the two programs are combined so that they become effectively two parts of one program, then you can't treat them as two separate programs. So the GPL has to cover the whole thing.

      Can it be done? Probably. However it would be so far removed from Linux that it doesn't gain MS any benefit to use it all. Remember Linux is monolithic; moving drivers to userland would be painful. Currently Windows is based on a hybrid kernel. It would be far easier for MS to abandon proprietary than to make Linux work with Windows.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    10. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2
      As far as I know, RedHat EL source code is available but not always in binary form. RedHat EL is commercial but not necessarily proprietary. The GPL allows for commercial usage:

      I'd like to license my code under the GPL, but I'd also like to make it clear that it can't be used for military and/or commercial uses. Can I do this? (#NoMilitary)

      No, because those two goals contradict each other. The GNU GPL is designed specifically to prevent the addition of further restrictions. GPLv3 allows a very limited set of them, in section 7, but any other added restriction can be removed by the user.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    11. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by jbolden · · Score: 1

      There is no huge change between post Win 8 sales and the Win 7 sales before it came out. No meaningful effect in either direction.

    12. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      Your average Linux distro comes with plenty of software that is not GPL-licensed. This includes many licences that are compatible, others that may not be compatible with the GPL, including closed source software like Flash, W32-binaries to play movies in mplayer, and certain graphics card and other drivers.

      Changes made to the Linux kernel and other GPL software must be shared back, indeed.

      But that doesn't mean that all software in the system must be GPL licensed, and shared. Just like Android: open-source Linux kernel with partly open source and partly proprietary GUI.

    13. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Yes, but those are in addition to GNU-Linux. MS would have to replace a lot of code if they wanted to use it as they currently have Windows. Would it be worth it to them to even do that? The amount of effort and time it would take would be considerable. Given how cumbersome MS is now, it might take like 5 years.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    14. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      That's about the time OS-X was in development at Apple, not counting the time NeXT had spent on it already when Apple bought the company in 1997. The first release of OS-X was over four years later... and it took another few years and a few more releases before it was considered "good" by most

    15. Re:It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Apple benefited from the fact that there was not a lot of users. As many pointed out, Apple didn't have a large market share. But the core groups stayed with Apple during the transition; however, none of these groups lambasted Apple for switching to a new UI that didn't make sense as they do with Win8 or putting out a very shoddy version like with Vista. Apple had time but they spent that time working on continuous improvements. Given how MS works, it will take them 5 years to put out their first version. All the while they are starting to realize that consumers are leaving the desktop for Android and iOS; they are not leaving Windows per se but the whole device. In this aspect, the move to Win8 makes sense; however, MS didn't create a new OS just for tablets. Instead they are ramming their tablet OS on desktop users. This makes them less likely to consider Win8 when purchasing a tablet.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  7. And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In 2008, the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe was the best selling car in the US. However I don't think Toyota was overly concerned about the competition. Apple devices include things like the iPod. Microsoft's big money maker has always been business licensing. When Apple makes double digit market share in the enterprise arena, this will be news.

    http://jalopnik.com/5282451/little-tikes-cozy-coupe-the-best-selling-car-in-america

    1. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Kjella · · Score: 2

      In 2008, the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe was the best selling car in the US. However I don't think Toyota was overly concerned about the competition. Apple devices include things like the iPod. Microsoft's big money maker has always been business licensing. When Apple makes double digit market share in the enterprise arena, this will be news.

      Well that might be the cash cow but the castle guarding it is that "everyone" is on Windows. Netapplications now say 12% of all browsing happens on mobile+tablet and Macs+Linux has 8% on the desktop. together that means roughly one in five no longer surfs on Windows. That's pretty huge considering how recent tablets came along, if they lose the consumers their position would be very much weaker.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    2. Re: And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple already makes twice as much money as MS. Their business market is irrelevant.

    3. Re: And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fine. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had larger profits than Apple last year, again making this article pointless.

    4. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Informative

      You do realize that the iPhone makes more money than all of MS right? Quarter ending 12-31-2012: MSFT $21.42B Quarter ending 12-29-2012: Apple iPhone: $30.06B

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    5. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      together that means roughly one in five no longer surfs on Windows.

      I'm sure they do still surf on Windows, just not all the time. Between wanting a real keyboard and so avoiding mobile/tablet screens and using work/secondary PCs I'd imagine the number of people who never touch Windows is a small fraction of your fraction.

      I was going to say that mobile/tablet must include some Windows Phone and Windows RT users as well, but then realized 8 people isn't really enough to show up in the stats.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, and THOSE ARE TWO SEPARATE AND UNRELATED MARKETS.

      Even if APPL sells 1T in iPhones, it doesn't affect MSFT's sales of business software. They are also not concerned that Toyota grossed 39.65B, BECAUSE IT'S A DIFFERENT MARKET.

    7. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      My point was at a $50 a piece, there was no way the Little Tikes Cozy comes anywhere near what Toyota sells. Toyota sells their cars for $15,000-$20,000 per unit which is 300 times as much. Toyota has nothing to worry about Little Tikes Cozy in terms of revenue or market. Also no one is ever going to replace their Toyota with a Little Tikes. MS has to worry about Apple and Android as people are starting to use tablets/smart phones instead of computers. MS might have the enterprise desktops locked up, but if fewer companies need fewer licenses because individuals are needing fewer computers, MS has to worry.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    8. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know what you do for a living, but I know that no tablet nor phone has yet to replace the computer for my work. It's not even coming close, heck when I set up an ipad, I needed to attach it to a computer to do it. It's not a stand-along replacement. It wont be any time soon.

    9. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Everywhere I see people using their smart phones instead of the laptops/desktops for email. Everywhere I see, consumers are not using their laptops as a second computer but opting for tablets instead. And they are bringing these devices to work. On planes, as soon as electronics are allowed, the vast majority whip out their iPads. Some open the laptops. In years past, it was the other way around. In cafes, I see them using iPads as credit card payment processors instead of Windows POS system. They have a dumb cash register for cash transactions. I work in an office environment and I travel a lot. MS doesn't have to worry about losing the desktop space to Apple; rather, people are not needing desktops as often as they did.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    10. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by snadrus · · Score: 1

      The rise of Microsoft was everyone wanting a machine like the one at their office, because the buying businesses made it cheap.

      Now it's ARM & *nix making mobiles cheap while laptop & desktop prices rise due to reduced output.
      The secret is cross-vendor "collaboration" (GPL-enforced, buying-selling hardware designs, fab-sharing), which MS & Intel don't do.
      Economies of scale do interesting things to the non-collaborative world. The tipping-point will be ubiquity: do you want to develop on something you can take anywhere & have specific knowledge be legally valuable to many, or do you want to develop on something uncommon that you can't transfer to another job if this employer goes?

      --
      Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
    11. Re:And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny that you have decided to use revenue as a metric instead of gross income when comparing a primarily hardware company to a primarily software company.

  8. What's on the menu at Microsoft strategy meeting? by bogaboga · · Score: 0

    Gartner shows just how important the mobile market has become. According to the firm's estimates for 2013, Apple devices will outsell Windows devices for the first time this year.

    Although Gartner isn't on top of my list when it comes to sources of reliable information, Microsoft's next strategy meeting will be heated to a degree. I guarantee that.

    My advice to those who'll participate in that meeting:

    Spare some energy to flee as the chair of previous such meetings has been known to throw furniture around. Some call it environmental destruction.

  9. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I read the press release and the report...

    http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2408515
    http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=clientFriendlyUrl&id=2396815

    In units shipped, Microsoft maintains its lead.
    The prediction doesn't reflect the reports own claim that ultrabook sales will make up for some of the losses.
    The headline doesn't take into account licenses sold to corporations and private customers to upgrade existing hardware or to install software on custom-built machines.
    There is also no mention of Windows RT or Windows Server in the prediction.

    But what do I know.

    1. Re:Huh? by jaymz666 · · Score: 1

      I didn't realise microsoft sold that many devices. I thought most of what they sold was software licenses. It's Dell, Sony, HP, Lenovo that sell devices. Aside from xbox and similar things.

  10. Shh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The Apple fanboys will cry if you burst their unreality bubble.

  11. Seriously Slashdot, you guys must be with me here. by Severus+Snape · · Score: 1

    GARTNER? C'mon, these predictions get richer ever year. I'm not a fanboy of either, I have an iPad and Win8 PC. I dislike both companies, if anything. How many of the analyst prediction articles on Slashdot have came true? I'd bet my mortgage the percentage is small.

  12. gartner... really? by jaymz666 · · Score: 1

    This is the same company that said in 2012 that over 350,000,000 PCs were shipped last year now claim only 150,000,000 this year?

  13. Oh yeah, well what has Jobs done lately? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If you think Gates and Allen have turned their backs on their company, you should see the cold shoulder Jobs is giving his. (and cold hands, feet, and everything else, for that matter)

    1. Re:Oh yeah, well what has Jobs done lately? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      What makes you so sure that Steve is still buried?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  14. Linux beats them both combined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Devices with Linux on them outsells them both combined. Many devices people are using are embedded Linux and they don't even know it. Set top boxes, routers, phones, televisions, GPS devices, and so on. Beautiful transparency where the OS is behind the scenes providing seamless functionality and flexibility. A true success but silent.

    1. Re:Linux beats them both combined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only the loudest voices are heard in today's world, especially today's marketing-driven social-networking world. Linux doesn't count, because it's just trying to achieve what it set out to achieve, not "take over the world". Ironically, in the process, it's actually taking over the world, just in a silent and humble way.

    2. Re:Linux beats them both combined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Devices with Linux on them outsells them both combined. Many devices people are using are embedded Linux and they don't even know it. Set top boxes, routers, phones, televisions, GPS devices, and so on. Beautiful transparency where the OS is behind the scenes providing seamless functionality and flexibility. A true success but silent.

      And some company is making a boatload of money off of the work of volunteers writing an OS for them, so they don't have to spend the money to do it. Success! Weeeeeeee

    3. Re:Linux beats them both combined by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for pointing that out, maybe you should tell all of those volunteers because they must not know about that. Do you work for the RIAA/MPAA by any chance?

  15. Gartner garbage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait, what?! people pay attention to gartner reports? The only use for the company is somewhere to dump the IT consultants we have on our books that no other idiot will take.

  16. Re:Seriously Slashdot, you guys must be with me he by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    I'd bet my mortgage the percentage is small.

    I doubt anybody would take that bet... I mean, who wants to win somebody's debt?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  17. Windows 8 is killing PC sales by BenJeremy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Obviously consumers are mostly staying away from Windows 8, which is slowing new PC sales... and in all honesty, there isn't an urge to upgrade PCs every year or two any more. We've reached a point of maturity in desktops and laptops, in terms of memory and drive space... the sweet spot seems to be around 8GB of RAM and 1TB of drive space. 90% of consumers do little more than surf, get e-mail and play games. Gaming hardware really hasn't vastly improved the user experience in a few years, even low end cards deliver nice graphics and performance on 1080p monitors.

    Combined with customers' concerns over the "Modern UI" in Windows 8, and there just isn't a lot of compelling reasons for consumers to purchase new equipment.

    Likewise... IT departments have likely slowed hardware refreshes in light of Windows 8. Many took a year or two to adopt Windows 7, which was a no-brainer upgrade after struggling with Vista (which many IT departments skipped). Again... nothing compelling to move into Windows 8 and integrate it into their common office environments, and hardware requirements of current software hasn't demanded more ram than most companies already have deployed.

    1. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > 90% of consumers do little more than surf, get e-mail and play games.
      > just isn't a lot of compelling reasons for consumers to purchase new equipment.

      But they are buying new equipment in droves. You're just sticking your head into the sand by assuming these people are just staying put. In fact, they're phasing the PC out of their lives and switching to mobile devices. Once their old laptop dies, it won't be replaced.

    2. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Yes MS really messed up with its xbox "low end cards deliver nice graphics and performance on 1080p monitors" ports are good enough.
      They could have ramped up the resolution and game world detail every year, forcing upgrades - it would have worked too.
      Now the lazy developers just port games to the PC with a few hi res textures and wonder why sales are not what they once where.
      MS and developers would push once work hard with GPU and CPU demands, ensuring a constant trade up and profit taking.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop playing crappy ports and play a game designed for the PC. Trust me, the graphics are there.

    4. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by jaymz666 · · Score: 1

      until they realise they can't do the same cool stuff on their tablet that their laptop can.

    5. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by evil_aaronm · · Score: 2

      Like what? Seriously, short of code compilation and serial communications - for connecting to embedded devices, which I might, in fact, be able to do with my iPad - what can't I do on my tablet? Word? Got it. Excel? Got it. Drawing tools? Got it. Browser and email? Got it. Network analysis? Dunno - haven't really checked if Wireshark has been ported.

    6. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, the laptop is superior at nagging you about software updates and running antivirus scans while you're trying to browse cat pictures.

    7. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not just that, the shift towards tablets and smartphones is doing a hell of a lot of damage in that regard as well.
      Most of the average customers are fleeing the market to those 2 devices.

      The only ones that really remain are those who want something more beefy or gamers.

      Also Microsofts tablet, which would be good as a tablet, is extremely terrible for a desktop OS, which they try to force on people and never even bothered to make the UI responsive to the mouse at all. (I could do that in my sleep if I got a copy of Win8, I made a bunch of mouse-related contextual hints that are very simple to learn, similar to those like shaking a window or dragging it to a corner of the screen and similar)
      What could have been, Microsoft must be regretting forcing all their devteams in to the same room. Absolutely terrible idea.
      Microsoft OSes sold their best when they were separate OSes for each level of use, whether it was home or server editions.
      They could have easily replicated this in modern times if they went ahead with the Windows Core and modular OS system they were going to make for Windows 7 was it? Nope, lets lie to shareholders and the entire fanbase again.
      Even my friend who was a diehard Microsofty is hating them now.
      I myself quite liked them, more the development and social side (MSN), but they have completely obliterated anything that was related to MSN when they had millions of users they could have got in to using them FROM MSN if they done it right, and they keep killing InDev ideas instead of trialling them with users like Google used to do. (Don't get me started on that monster Google now, wow they have fallen hard in the past 5 years, I am slowly moving all my stuff away from them now)

      Microsoft took so many wrong turns in the maze of design and ended up falling in to the spike pit. They are hanging on to the edge but the floor has no grip, slowly they fall to their doom.

    8. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by jaymz666 · · Score: 1

      You run full featured copies of word and excel on your iPad? Really? No compromises?

      How about using multiple windows at the same time so you can see and interact with them all simultaneously? You know, like a web browser and a word doc?

    9. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      wireshark hasn't been ported, but you can still do network captures in pcap format using an app called pirni (you need a jailbroken iPad though) or you can use a "Remote Virtual Interface" (iOS 5+)

    10. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by jaymz666 · · Score: 2

      I forgot to mention some other biggies. Ripping and burning CDs. Yes, my non-computer savvy 60+ year old relations do this all the time. They would rather create mix CDs than use an mp3 player.
      Then there's all the DVDs they watch on their laptop.

    11. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by snadrus · · Score: 1

      I'm using my last working CD/DVD drive ( & VHS with adapter) to put the media in digital formats. Then I make movie mixes (to tablets for the kids), and MP3 mixes easily. Sure, use legacy equipment if you have it & know it, but as it dies, replace it with modern solutions.

      --
      Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
    12. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by jaymz666 · · Score: 1

      Do you have the disk space to hold a few hundred DVDs and Blu-Rays? I sure don't see the point in digitising these things.

    13. Re:Windows 8 is killing PC sales by snadrus · · Score: 1

      Yes & (compression + drive tech) keeps up. But I save movies I will watch again because they're expertly-made or personally-made.
      My young kids broke 2 tablets already. It would have been worse if they were managing DVDs in a player w/o backup.

      --
      Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
  18. Great! by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    When can we start suing them for being a monopoly?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:Great! by Jeremi · · Score: 1

      When can we start suing them for being a monopoly?

      It's the USA, you can pretty much sue anyone for any reason at any time.

      That said, there isn't anything illegal or actionable about being a monopoly. It's only when you abuse your monopoly that you get in trouble.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    2. Re:Great! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      They first have to be a monopoly. Then you have to show that they abused monopoly power. As for monopoly definition: As many Android fans will gladly tell you Android have more sold units than iOS. If the company doesn't have the largest marketshare, how can it be considered a monopoly? Second, the barrier to entry must be high: See all the WP8 and Android devices that exist. Lastly, no suitable alternatives exist: See Android and WP8. You don't want an iOS device, you don't have to buy one.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    3. Re:Great! by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

      When can we start suing them for being a monopoly?

      If you're not careful, they'll be asking the government for bailout money next!

  19. And the zune? by transporter_ii · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't forget the Zunes. Whatever their final total was, add +8 to it, so it reflects the Zunes.

    --
    Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
    1. Re:And the zune? by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I saw a zune the other day. One guy I work with has one and he listens to music on it. I was amazed and asked him why he bought it. His wife gave it to him for Christmas one year.

    2. Re:And the zune? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, who's the other five guys??

    3. Re:And the zune? by skine · · Score: 2

      I know that Zunes get a bad rap, but I bought my Zune as an open box item at Best Buy when it first came out, and it's probably the only device that I own that's that old and still works perfectly.

      (I own a number of old video game consoles, but they tend to all need special treatment. For example, for my Sega Genesis, I have to blow into the cartridge, blow into the slot on the console, insert the game in all the way, raise the cartridge back up about 1-2mm, shove my wallet underneath the power cable where it meets the console so that it's at exactly the right angle, and pray that when I turn on the power that all works so I don't have to start over from the beginning)

    4. Re:And the zune? by elashish14 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but that's Windows CE, my friend.

      --
      I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
    5. Re:And the zune? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      still works perfectly

      Only because it isn't a leap year.
      With such an utterly braindead mistake I wonder what else suffered from a lack of attention to detail?

    6. Re:And the zune? by savuporo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thats a tricky one to get out of. The only way to save face is to crash convincingly enough breaking some bones and the zune.

      --
      http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
    7. Re:And the zune? by hawk · · Score: 1

      *shrug*

      However you spell "WinCE", it still makes you wince . . .

      hawk

    8. Re:And the zune? by skine · · Score: 1

      I can't say as I've ever used an mp3 player as a timepiece.

      The only "lack of attention to detail" that I suffered from using my Zune was that one time in college where I almost got hit by a truck. I was listening to my Zune while walking through the main quad to my advisor's office, and the quad was completely closed to motor vehicles except for the delivery truck that served the coffee shop in the library. I turned the back corner of the library, noticed tail lights, and dove into the nearest snowbank. Listening to the Zune caused a "lack of attention to" the "detail" of the backing-up noise that delivery trucks make.

      Apparently, my advisor saw it out of his window, and laughed at me for showing up wet and covered in sand (when you're far enough north, salting the sidewalks isn't useful for melting snow, but sand gives you traction).

    9. Re:And the zune? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats a tricky one to get out of. The only way to save face is to crash convincingly enough breaking some bones and the zune.

      only if she's not determined to replace the broken one!

    10. Re:And the zune? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My boyfriend uses a Zune, you insensitive clod!

      So +1 more.

    11. Re:And the zune? by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      He just listens to music on it and it works well enough for that. The damn thing is butt ugly though.

    12. Re:And the zune? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For example, for my Sega Genesis, I have to blow into the cartridge, blow into the slot on the console, insert the game in all the way, raise the cartridge back up about 1-2mm, shove my wallet underneath the power cable where it meets the console so that it's at exactly the right angle, and pray that when I turn on the power that all works so I don't have to start over from the beginning)

      That does indeed help :P

  20. First time since the 80s, not the first time ever. by Tr3vin · · Score: 1

    How was Windows outselling Apple before Windows existed?

  21. Re:Seriously Slashdot, you guys must be with me he by Severus+Snape · · Score: 1

    Depends how you look at it. When I bought my house it was a new housing estate in the UK, Scotland to be precise. The house was valued at £225,000 when I bought it 4 years ago. There is 15% of the mortgage left to pay. Do you want my deeds for 15% of the house value? My real point was, Garnet talk shit.

  22. Re:What's on the menu at Microsoft strategy meetin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's on the menu at Microsoft strategy meeting?
     
    Hard to say... they got rid of the menu.

  23. Not surprising by klazek · · Score: 1

    Microsoft never offered anything that was all that good (ok, maybe applesoft was ok, but integer basic was much cleaner code... we gave up a lot of elegance and speed just to be able to use floating point numbers, even if your program didn't implement them) - their success had to do with luck and a contract with IBM, in which Microsoft maintained ownership of the cp/m clone that they bought (we all know it as MS-DOS) and essentially rented to IBM. Now that they (MS) lack any kind of monopoly in the mobile space (and thus any kind of leverage on vendors), their products are doing about as well as one would expect in a more or less competitive market. If they would have had to compete in a competitive market selling MS-DOS and Windows, I would expect about the same so-so sales that they get now in the mobile space. Just compare Windows 3 to the old Mac OS. OK, they both seem horrible by today's standards, but Windows was a lot more horrible. I would say even horrible by yesterday's standards. It only did well because you could run it on your DOS PC.

    1. Re:Not surprising by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I loved the assembler in integer basic and considered even applesoft basic a step backwards

  24. Re:First time since the 80s, not the first time ev by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

    Windows was introduced in 1985, so not sure what you are trying to say, last I checked 1985 was in the 80's

  25. Define "computing" by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Passively reading news, or tweeting out the occasional 140-character update on your boring life is not "computing" to me. Watching videos isn't computing. Playing games isn't computing, even if it is computationally intensive for the device.

    Call me when people start running spreadsheets on these things, or are using them as their primary development platform.

    I think it would be more fair to say that these devices have surpassed the PC as interactive entertainment devices, as opposed to "computing" devices.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:Define "computing" by game+kid · · Score: 1

      The worst part of this will be that since Windows will be outsold by Apple, Microsoft will just say "make it even more like Apple, and Facebook! More Facebook! Wouldn't want Mr. Vader Fader Kid to beat us at phones too!"

      --
      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    2. Re:Define "computing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, *ring ring*, I believe you requested a wake-up call?

      While not doing development on it, my wife regularly uses Numbers on her iPad, and not to make lists of things.

      Plenty of people do web development on their tablets too. It's possible to do with the shitty on-screen keyboard, but once you add a physical keyboard, most of the pain goes away.

      I couldn't stand using one myself, but you did act like this is not done. You're wrong.

    3. Re:Define "computing" by Monoman · · Score: 2

      I agree. Computing vs consuming or creating vs consuming.

      Most computer users are using them as consuming devices. Not that there is anything wrong with it but I'm pretty sure without mobile devices Apple would be right where it was 8 years ago.

      I also agree that the consumer market has been Microsoft's to lose and so far they are doing a darn good job at losing it.

      --
      Keep the Classic Slashdot.
    4. Re:Define "computing" by not-my-real-name · · Score: 1

      Most computer users are using them as consuming devices.

      This has been true since the very first computers were used to calculate things like sine tables for artillery use.

      --
      un-ALTERED reproduction and dissimination of this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED
    5. Re:Define "computing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are correct, Sir!

  26. Re:First time since the 80s, not the first time ev by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    > How was Windows outselling Apple before Windows existed?

    MS-DOS

    That's right. Microsoft nearly ground Apple into the dirt with MS-DOS.

    That's "manual memory management" versus the GUI driven Mac with an early form of LAN networking, virtual memory, and something akin to USB.

    The tech gap between Microsoft and Apple now is nothing like it used to be.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  27. Windows XP EOL by tepples · · Score: 1

    No one is buying windows 8 machines that owns any previous windows computer

    Except to replace a PC that currently runs an operating system that will stop receiving security patches a year from now.

    1. Re:Windows XP EOL by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      No one is buying windows 8 machines that owns any previous windows computer

      Except to replace a PC that currently runs an operating system that will stop receiving security patches a year from now.

      Most XP users if they have not left for now have no plans to do so in 2014 either. They have AV software so why worry? And will keep XP for the next 13 years afterwards until the day the power supply goes kapoof.

  28. Maybe cause.... by Chewbacon · · Score: 1

    ...M$ is losing on those gambles it keeps making pissing off their long-time customers. I'm glad I upgraded my PCs before Win8 came out, because the next machine I buy will probably run Mac OS.

    --
    Chewbacon
    The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
  29. This will be the year!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    2011, no, 2012, no, 2013 is the year of Windows on the Phone!

  30. and? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, isn't that something.

    Of course, American Midol and Glee are two of the best rated TV programs in this country in the last decade, too.

    So....ya know, grain of salt and all.

  31. IF TRUE ANDROID DID IT A LOOOONG TIME BACK !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Haha !! Silly foolz you !! Active numbers are another thing !! Count MS-DOS 1.0, Windows 1.03 (and count its DOS bottom, too), and everything since, too, then !! Fucking MIND BLOWING (last words of Travis Alexander before he was cut up by his bitch, Jodie Arias, after she said, "This is for Nina Reiser") !!

  32. PC sales are doing great! by symbolset · · Score: 1

    It just turns out that personal computers aren't what you thought they were.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
    1. Re:PC sales are doing great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      max laptop (non apple) resolution is 1920x1080 monitors, why buy new one ?

      only quad core cpu, why buy new one cpu ?

      5-10% more speed for 10x the price, why buy new cpu ?

      people but apple because they like osx for example, for 15 euro's you get osx update every 1-2 years. Things get better and some new features.

      Windows / Office => new version, everything different, at some other place. Half of the stuff is not finished, next version, won't fix it either, they will just
      try again, why buy a new version ?

      this list can go on a long time. Why buy new stuff if there isn't real improvement. Smartphones/Tables seem to be improving a lot, so people spend there money there...

      microsoft designs something new every 1-2 years, and instead of supporting it, they abandon it again. (Silverlight, WPF, Gdi+, and a lot of other stuff).
      apple has xcode / object C, improving it for years and years.

      Apple has stuff that people buy because they like it. Microsoft has stuff people buy, because they need it, but mostly don't want it... (Of course there are some ms-fan-boys that like every shit microsoft makes).

  33. Re:Microsoft is fast becoming a Jewish ghetto... by larry+bagina · · Score: 0

    "It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'" Bill Gates, Microsoft, 10 February 2010

    Maybe he wishes Microsoft hadn't done Windows 8?

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  34. Thanks to S. Balmer ... by porky_pig_jr · · Score: 1

    and Windows 8, no doubt.

  35. Re:First time since the 80s, not the first time ev by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The battle was already over by the time the Macintosh came out.

    IBM/Microsoft curbstomped the aging Apple // with the original IBM PC in the business markets. After that Apple was stuck in the graphics/edu/yuppie niches until recently.

  36. Re:Microsoft is fast becoming a Jewish ghetto... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think he's secretly very happy about Win8, as it will finally erase Microsoft Bob from the minds of those of us who lived through that particular flavor of hell.

  37. Re: First time since the 80s, not the first time e by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple was founded in 1976. They sold stuff before MS was even founded. Billy Boy was happy to get a contract from Apple back in the old days.

  38. Give the money back by goombah99 · · Score: 1

    Clearly it is time to close apple down and give the money back to the stockholders. I mean it has a price to earnings ratio of 9.6 in an industry where 30 is the norm ( Facebook has a P/E ratio of 1,854.43, and arguably a book value of zero.) Seriously it's on the way out.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Give the money back by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If anybody "argues" that facebook has a book value of zero, then they are utter nitwits who have no business giving any financial advice, or making sarcastic rhetorical comments about finance.

  39. Re:Microsoft is fast becoming a Jewish ghetto... by ackthpt · · Score: 0

    "It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'" Bill Gates, Microsoft, 10 February 2010

    Maybe he wishes Microsoft hadn't done Windows 8?

    Maybe he shouldn't have wasted so much time fretting over Java and moved Windows to a *nix kernal OS a long time ago.

    In Redmond, they've been playing the same hand for decades. Totally missed the iPod, totally missed the mobile media player market, totally underestimated the mobile phone/communication device market and still utterly failed with the tablet market, learning absolutely nothing from their failure with XP tablets. A sign of intelligence is learning from your mistakes. Telling, isn't it? Ballmer should give back his entire salary and quit.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  40. No kidding by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

    The whole thing is stupid period since those devices are all very different markets and kinds of devices. However it is even sillier to compare all of Apple's stuff to just Windows desktops and laptops. If we are going to grab random devices that happen to run stuff, well then there are actually a number of things that run CE, or the embedded versions of Windows.

    It actually is not all that impressive to say all of Apple's devices, desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, and so on managed to outsell Windows desktops and laptops (since let's be real, that's where the numbers are the MS tablets and phones aren't selling hardly at all). All that really says is that the market for electronic gadgets is big, and that MS still has a huge share of computers.

    This is not news.

    Computers are getting to be a mature market. The growth is leveling off, we will get to a point where it'll largely be replacements getting sold, not new ones. However that doesn't mean it still isn't a huge market, or that it isn't profitable.

    So ya, Apple is beating MS left right and center in tablets and phones... However it would seem MS is still the be-all, end-all of desktop and laptops which, despite what teenagers may think, are still where shit gets done in the real world and thus still quite in demand.

    Also in terms of talking phones, a fun one would be to have a look at Android. I am betting that one is the real winner in that arena.

    1. Re:No kidding by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Also in terms of talking phones, a fun one would be to have a look at Android. I am betting that one is the real winner in that arena.

      Sybian is still in there even if it's taking the rear.

    2. Re:No kidding by TuringCheck · · Score: 1

      Sybian is still in there even if it's taking the rear.

      Oh, a Sybian (NSFW) can definitely take the rear!

      Symbian is not doing better though

    3. Re:No kidding by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Growth isn't leveling off. Sales have been declining for about 3 years now. Growth leveled off a decade ago.

  41. Apples vs. Oranges by fragMasterFlash · · Score: 2

    Keep in mind the Gartner comparison is in number of units sold. Considering Apple is much more vertically integrated than MS they keep a much larger chunk of the unit selling price and therefore earn substantially more revenue from per device sold. Apple should really start rolling their own server and office productivity software to compete against the remaining MS cash cows.

    1. Re:Apples vs. Oranges by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Apple should really start rolling their own server ... software

      I see most of the current "cloud" craze as being moving from MS Exchange, Sharepoint and other MS efforts at integration to third party hosted integration efforts that actually deliver what MS Exchange promised over a decade ago but still has trouble delivering. It would not be cheap or easy for Apple to get into that already occupied space and MS appears to be relying on nothing but inertia to stay in that space, which is why they are becoming far less relevant in that area. Even active directory/LDAP is rendered irrelevant in many cases which then leaves no MS presence in server space and no easy way for Apple to squeeze in, even if they wanted to get into such a low margin environment.

    2. Re:Apples vs. Oranges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they want to steal MS cash cows they'd really have to create their own version of MS Office (and when I say Office, I actually mean Excel and Word). The thing is that this Excel/Word would have to be a equal or better Excel/Word, and have full MS Excel/Word back compatibility with at least Excel/Word 2003. This means all the VBA has to work, and add-ins should be easily portable to this Excel/Word. Ah yes, and domains. This is no one year project.

    3. Re:Apples vs. Oranges by Rufty · · Score: 1

      Apple server offerings here.
      Apple office suite here.
      Neither are particularly new, though. And the server offerings have actually been decreased, no more rack mount Apples.

      --
      Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
  42. Re:First time since the 80s, not the first time ev by damn_registrars · · Score: 0

    How was Windows outselling Apple before Windows existed?

    MS-DOS

    I suspect the OP was after the point that MS-DOS, while being a key part of Windows for a long time, is not Windows itself. There were Apple computers around for several years before Microsoft released its first commercial version of Windows, and that first version did not likely outsell Apple computers in its first year.

    Hence the article title here of "Apple Devices To Outsell Windows For First Time Ever" is likely not accurate. Perhaps if you disregard all versions of Windows prior to 3.0, it might be accurate, but as written it is almost certainly an oversimplification.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  43. It's called "moving the goalposts" by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft "devices" (which apparently means "Windows devices" - mainly laptops, desktops and servers, with a few smartphones and tablets) are being outsold by Apple devices (mainly smartphones, tablets, and laptops, with a handful of desktops and even fewer servers).

    In other news, Ford is outselling Airbus in terms of vehicles sold, and India makes more films than America.

    Not only is there the whole computer-vs-mobile thing (with mobile being a growing market and actual computers having plateaued), but Microsoft itself is pretty new as a hardware manufacturer. They make Surface RT, Surface Pro, two generations of Xbox, the Zune, and a long series of mice and keyboards. Whereas Apple has been making hardware since day 1. So a more fair comparison would be "hardware sold" and "software sold" (not counting OS copies bundled with the hardware). Bet you it ends up with each winning one.

    PS: Doesn't the Xbox count as a "Microsoft device"? TFA doesn't say, but they don't seem to include it. Seems unfair to have "OS X + iOS" versus "Windows" when Microsoft has their own locked-down, walled-garden media-consuming device.

    1. Re:It's called "moving the goalposts" by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Apple is also making more money than MS. As for Xbox, it is MS but not Windows per se. Even if we count it, the total lifetime units sold is easily six month's worth of iOS sales.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:It's called "moving the goalposts" by houghi · · Score: 2

      You can even go further. How about Microsoft devices like the mouse or the keyboard?

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    3. Re:It's called "moving the goalposts" by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      Apple is also making more money than MS. As for Xbox, it is MS but not Windows per se. Even if we count it, the total lifetime units sold is easily six month's worth of iOS sales.

      Currently, sales rates of XBox 360 are less than Apple TV. Which probably nobody remembered to add to iOS sales.

    4. Re:It's called "moving the goalposts" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple is also making more money than MS. As for Xbox, it is MS but not Windows per se. Even if we count it, the total lifetime units sold is easily six month's worth of iOS sales.

      Currently, sales rates of XBox 360 are less than Apple TV. Which probably nobody remembered to add to iOS sales.

      If it is an Apple device it should be counted as an Apple device.

  44. Android has probably not by backslashdot · · Score: 1

    Android has probably not outsold Apples devices, when you consider Android's non existent tablet sales and lack of laptops/desktop installations.

    1. Re:Android has probably not by goombah99 · · Score: 1

      Android has probably not outsold Apples devices, when you consider Android's non existent tablet sales and lack of laptops/desktop installations.

      Don't forget to count Cameras and TVs.

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    2. Re:Android has probably not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Android has probably not outsold Apples devices, when you consider Android's non existent tablet sales and lack of laptops/desktop installations.

      Are you blind or just in denial?

      Globally, Android is outselling iOS almost two to one.

    3. Re:Android has probably not by Goody · · Score: 2

      Don't forget to count Cameras and TVs.

      And OS/2 beats them all if you count ATMs!

      --
      Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
    4. Re: Android has probably not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I know you're only joking but I googled it and it seems there are only 2,5-3 Million ATMs worldwide.

    5. Re:Android has probably not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been seeing more and more Diebold ATMs running Windows lately.

    6. Re: Android has probably not by MikeMo · · Score: 1

      I believe that is only true for smartphones, and does not include iPads or iPod Touch. Android still outsells that total outside of the US, but not by 2-to-1.

    7. Re:Android has probably not by cusco · · Score: 1

      Nonexistent tablet sales? In my extended family there are two iPads, three Nexus tablets, a couple of Samsung ones, and several off-brand Chinese or Taiwanese Android tablets. Sales are especially strong outside the Untied States, where people aren't willing to cough up an extra couple of hundred dollars for the dubious privilege of having submitted to superior marketing.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    8. Re:Android has probably not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  45. PEG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah apple's PEG ratio is 5 times SMALLER than google's. Price/ Earnings/ Growth. So smaller means better. five fold better. Stunning.

  46. Gartner prediction is not a fact by mike449 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I tried to find data on historical accuracy of predictions by Gartner, but surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be any.
    Here is one example (which is actually not that bad): http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/013108-gartner-it-predictions.html?page=1

    1. Re:Gartner prediction is not a fact by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This time Gartner has nailed it. Microsoft is doomed, and it's more and more of a reality the longer the nincompoop Steve Ballmer is in charge.

      Microsoft has had tons of cash and one whole decade to make the right moves, but that bumbling idiot had screwed things up over and over again.

      He's only the CEO because he's the good friend of Bill Gates.

  47. Including Compact, Embedded, POS, and other SKUs? by elabs · · Score: 1

    Really? So this new figure is counting every device that runs any flavor of Windows? That obviously includes Xbox, Windows Phone, tablets, desktops, laptops and Netduino. But it also includes home appliances, cash registers, industrial machinery and millions of other devices that runs Windows Embedded, CE, Compact or one of its many other SKUs. No, I don't think Apple will be overtaking Microsoft any time soon.

  48. Obvious mistake in the summary by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

    "desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones powered by Microsoft's various Windows operating systems"

    "tablet" and "smartphone" shouldn't be plural.

  49. Step back, Apple & MS by markdavis · · Score: 1

    Oh, if we want to count machines running desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones,and servers then Linux wins over both Apple and Microsoft.

    First take 70% of all smartphones on the world market, which are running Android Linux. Then add the 50% of all tablets which run Android Linux. Then add the many millions of Linux desktops, and millions of servers running Linux.

  50. Not the First Time Ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That was 30 years ago, before Windows was on the market.

  51. Get the facts correct ... by MacTO · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Gartner report never projects the sales of iOS and OSX devices exceeding those of Windows devices. Those projections cover the years 2012 through 2017, so I'm not sure where that sensational conclusion came from. It's also worth noting that the projected sales of Windows devices is continuing to increase, albeit not at the same rate as iOS/OSX, each year.

    Not that I would place much value in these projections. The volume of sales of mobile phones suggests that people will be replacing them every 2.4 years, and that's assuming that everyone over the age of 15 owns one. (If you assume that fewer people own mobile phones, the replacement rate must increase to less reasonable levels.)

  52. Apple is how computing should be. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's funny. A lot of windows users don't realize the torture that os puts them through. A lot of IT admins won't admit this but when you blanket a office with apple solutions, there pretty much out of a job because everything just works.

    Apple makes the most cohesive and user friendly computing environments, and I'll gladly pay premium to not use windows 8.

    1. Re:Apple is how computing should be. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they're pretty much out of a job because the network infrastructure won't work and they'll be fired.

      Obvious shill is obvious.

    2. Re:Apple is how computing should be. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And why does the underlying network infrastructure give a crap about what kind of device is sending packets across it?

      Obvious idiot is obvious.

  53. Apple is the way computing should be. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's funny. A lot of windows users don't realize the torture that os puts them through. A lot of IT admins won't admit this but when you blanket a office with apple solutions, there pretty much out of a job because everything just works.
    Apple makes the most cohesive and user friendly computing environments, and I'll gladly pay premium to not use windows 8.

  54. Re:First time since the 80s, not the first time ev by hawk · · Score: 1

    I believe that MBASIC shipped with a majority of CP/M machines. It shipped (generally version 2) on nearly every eight bit machine of significance except the original Apple ][, the TI 99, and the Atari 400/800 (and some other non-disk based machines).

    Once the Apple ][+ came out (the only difference was that it had the Autostart ROM (with no disassembler) and Applesoft (e.g., MBASIC 2) instead of Apple Integer BASIC), it outsold the original by several to one (and then put the //e into the mix . . .).

    The result is that most Apples shipped with MBASIC--which functioned as the operating system for most intents & purposes.

    So prior to Mac, nearly all of Apple's machines ran MS . . . (and most of the early macs ended up with MS Basic for Mac).

    So there is *something* reasonable to the notion that MS was outselling Apple before Windows & Mac.

    hawk

  55. Ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There was a time when Apple devices were outselling Windows devices. And that was before Windows existed. Remember Apple existed before the IBM PC.

  56. a few things by Chirs · · Score: 1

    1) Typing on a real keyboard/mouse with a 24" or bigger display. Yes you can do this with some tablets, but most of them don't.
    2) Run virtual machines to have multiple OS's simultaneously.
    3) Play high-spec video games.
    4) 3D CAD work
    5) Software development (not just compilation, but writing code, debugging, etc.
    6) Support dozens of open windows simultaneously, with many of them visible at the same time.
    7) Full flash/shockwave/silverlight/java implementation in a browser.
    8) Non-linear video editing, transcoding, etc.
    9) AV recording via digital inputs.
    10) Edit large (greater than 2GB) files of whatever kind.
    11) Any sort of physics simulation or other number-crunching task.
    12) Run specialty software like matlab/maple or R for statistics.
    13) Run random x86-centric stuff for work or school.

    Yes, some of these are higher-end things to do, but they're all things you can't do on your iPad.

    1. Re:a few things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, i'll bet that this list would look almost the same as one that would have been produced by someone who was using a high-end Sun | SGI | Intergraph | Digital | RS6000 | PA-RISC | ... workstation in the 1990's when addressing the usefulness of a PC. It took the PC what? 25 years to reach the point where it could displace UNIX Workstations for most tasks that would have been considered high-end?

      Even when announcing the iPad, Steve Jobs talked about the strengths of both cars and trucks, not that the PC would not go away, but be pushed into a niche where their unique talents are required. Just like the PC pushed the Workstation into the niches that they remained good at and were still valued, whereas something much cheaper and much less capable was able to satisfy the tasks of low end users typing out documents and checking email.

      Ignoring that Windows Tablet edition has been around for over a decade, the widely accepted tablet computer is still in its infancy, give it a bit longer to grow up and mature and see what it becomes capable of.

      Go back and watch the keynote videos of the introduction of the iPad and then the iPad2. The vibe I got from the first was "here, we've built something we think is pretty cool, but we're not sure what it's good for". The second video, with a year of experience under it's belt was a completely different story.

    2. Re:a few things by H0p313ss · · Score: 1

      1) Typing on a real keyboard/mouse with a 24" or bigger display. Yes you can do this with some tablets, but most of them don't.
      2) Run virtual machines to have multiple OS's simultaneously.
      3) Play high-spec video games.
      4) 3D CAD work
      5) Software development (not just compilation, but writing code, debugging, etc.
      6) Support dozens of open windows simultaneously, with many of them visible at the same time.
      7) Full flash/shockwave/silverlight/java implementation in a browser.
      8) Non-linear video editing, transcoding, etc.
      9) AV recording via digital inputs.
      10) Edit large (greater than 2GB) files of whatever kind.
      11) Any sort of physics simulation or other number-crunching task.
      12) Run specialty software like matlab/maple or R for statistics.
      13) Run random x86-centric stuff for work or school.

      Yes, some of these are higher-end things to do, but they're all things you can't do on your iPad.

      Absolutely, however the average Joe does not need to do any of that. I do... and I have some nice machines to do it. (And some of them run windows, I'm a gamer....)

      But I do my personal email, social media, casual web browsing and ebooks on an iPad.

      It's the right tool for the job.

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
    3. Re:a few things by jaymz666 · · Score: 1

      Multiple windows and real keyboards and mice and larger displays are biggies that a whole heck of a lot of people need often.

    4. Re:a few things by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      1. all tablets and most phones have a HDMI-out capability, so I use my phone on a 42" display. All have bluetooth, and you can easily get bluetooth keyboards that are real.

      5. I can do software development on a raspberry pi, which is way underpowered compared to my S3. what makes you think I couldn't do it on any Android device?

      7. got it already.
      8. got it already.

      anyway, while there is a lack of software for these things, that's because no-one with a phone really wants to do these things. They will have a PC or laptop for that and will work happily on it.

      The thing to understand is that this is the future we've moving towards and tablets and phones as 'development' computing devices are in their infancy. That doesn't mean they will continue to be which is why MS is running scared and is what we should be thinking about. I would drop my PC in a second if I could dock a more powerful phone into a docking station on my desk just like I do with my laptop. I think the CPUs are almost there (the upcoming 64-bit ARM A57 is 3x the power of the A15, which in turn was loads more powerful than the A9s that most phones run). We do need more storage capability, but I suppose you could add that to the dock if you didn't store it on a network. The point I'm making is that this isn't sci-fi fantasy anymore.

  57. Win8 may be a predictable slash and burn stratagem by democrates · · Score: 1

    Microsoft must look with cold calculating green eyes at Apple's success in selling overpriced consumer devices, apps, and content.
    The traditional personal computer allows customers to install third party software creating no additional revenue for Microsoft. With a fiduciary duty to shareholders to maximise revenue, Microsoft strategists seem to be hell bent on the goal of selling millions of client devices that customers can only use to buy apps and content through Microsoft's online facilities.
    To achieve this vision, a world of walled garden consumer devices, it looks like they are willing to follow Apple and abandon the general purpose computer.

  58. Really didn't know about the leap year bug? by dbIII · · Score: 1

    I can't say as I've ever used an mp3 player as a timepiece.

    Somehow you've missed the point, maybe you didn't know about this textbook example of bad software design. The designers of the device put in time based digital rights management so it needed to keep track of time. Whoever did it fucked up so badly that the device will not play music at all on the last day of a leap year, even the stuff without DRM. That's what I mean by lack of attention to detail. If the people producing the software for a product can't even implement a calendar correctly and then others can't find that fault in testing it makes you wonder what else they fucked up. Such a mistake would not even be considered acceptable in a high school project let alone a product.
    I'm astonished that there's somebody here that doesn't already know that story.

    1. Re:Really didn't know about the leap year bug? by narcc · · Score: 1

      If the people producing the software for a product can't even implement a calendar correctly and then others can't find that fault in testing it makes you wonder what else they fucked up. Such a mistake would not even be considered acceptable in a high school project let alone a product.

      Like Apple? They can't seem to puzzle out this whole time and date thing.

      Just a few example.

      http://www.tuaw.com/2011/03/14/more-iphone-clock-problems-reported/

      http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/01/apple-iphone-4-alarm-problems-worldwide-clock-app-alarm-broken-3-days-in-a-row.html

      http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/iphone-do-not-disturb/

    2. Re:Really didn't know about the leap year bug? by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      Like Apple? They can't seem to puzzle out this whole time and date thing.

      What's in the operating system is actually pretty well thought out and has no problems whatsoever. The problem is programmers writing applications.

      Example: If you, as a user, set an alarm to wake you up 8am every morning, and the programmer tells the OS "every 24 hours", both MacOS X and iOS will do that perfectly fine. Except that "every 24 hours" is _not_ what the user wants twice a year. What they want is "same hour on the next day".

    3. Re:Really didn't know about the leap year bug? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      There is a vast difference in the clock not working right for days and the entire device not working for days.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    4. Re:Really didn't know about the leap year bug? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      You are seriously comparing a daylight savings time glitch that reports the wrong time on a display and alarms displaced for an hour to a problem that prevents a device from functioning for an entire day?

  59. missing a few areas? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do these numbers include Xboxs and servers? Hell virtual servers should count too since a windows license is a windows license. I fucking hate microsoft but these numbers seem meaningless if these aren't included.

  60. Re: First time since the 80s, not the first time e by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

    Microsoft was founded in 1975

  61. sort of by tomxor · · Score: 1

    More precisely he was referring to adoption rate, not market share... In which case he is correct. A more relevant statistic in reply to your comment on market share is that the WebKit rendering engine by most measurements has a higher market share than IE's trident. This is mostly down to mobile safari, but also chrome and the default android browser. What will be interesting is how that all changes post the chrome WebKit fork (blink) and the adoption of mobile chrome as the default android browser. Personally I feel that chrome will only increase (proportionally) in its market share given its position on the web (google) its speed and generally good security. For all its flaws they are made temporary by the concepts driving it, automatic updates regardless of platform is a must for any modern browser, for both the good of the developer and the user.

    1. Re:sort of by DKlineburg · · Score: 1

      ah, the chart I looked at showed chrome share going down? Did we look at the same chart?

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
  62. Numbers make no sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This news is surprising, and clearly the methodology is a bit fuzzy.

    From the article http://bgr.com/2013/04/05/apple-sales-windows-sales-2013-gartner-416934/ :
    >In 2012, Windows device sales totalled 175 million units while combined sales

    From another article linked from the article http://bgr.com/2013/04/04/microsoft-tablets-smartphones-414440/ :
    >The latest research from Gartner shows that this trend won’t change anytime soon and the firm projects that PC shipments will shrink from 315 million in 2013 to 302 million in 2014

    Well 175 mil Windows devices in 2012 become 315 mil PCs in 2013, I know Macs are PCs, but _Half_, seriously ?

    Let's continue to follow links on this site (journalism at it highest) : http://bgr.com/2013/01/11/pc-q4-sales-shrink-6-4-percent-289405/

    And we find this IDC study: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23903013#.UV_lSqCs6vG

    So what are the acual numbers for 2012 (Worldwide) :
    HP: 58 mil
    Lenovo: 52 mil
    Dell: 39 mil
    Acer: 33 mil
    Asus: 24 mil
    Other: 145 mil
    Total: 352 mil

    You'll notice Apple is not even in the top 5 (it makes it in the US).

    So I don't know what this article is about but (if you find where the actual numbers come from, let me know), I think it's along the line
    of :
    Apple devices will outsell consumer (no corporate desktops or servers) Windows devices in 2013 in the US.

    That may be an impressive feat, but saying that people are using smaller and cheaper devices for personal computing needs is hardly a new trend.

  63. Re:Microsoft is fast becoming a Jewish ghetto... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MS is a PC software company and that's a market they contributed to create. Actually, they have been the main force that made it grow. Apple has always been an hardware company and it's still selling hardware. Their market got much bigger lately and they've been the main force to make it grow (iPod, iPhone, iPad).

    The PC market is going down as PCs are replaced by other devices running non-MS software and MS is trying to become a hardware company too. But adapting is difficult. Most companies just die when their core market dies.

  64. Apples to oranges. Gadgets to actual *computers* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This compares apples to oranges! Most Apple devices are NOT even remotely computers to the end user. They use computers *internally*. But the user never gets to use that computer directly. He can only use appliances that happen to be implemented on a computer. But he's just as limited as using hard-wired appliances. And Apple makes damn sure the rest of OS X also becomes like that.

    All in the name of "simplicity", but actually because they are rampaging totalitarian control freaks, even after the king of control freaks, Steve Jobs, died.

    Also, what is a "Windows device"? A "Surface"? Elop-infected Nokia phones? Because otherwise it's just a bog-standard PC with no link to any OS! And we already knew that the "Surface" and WP8 are complete crap.

    What's next? Stating that Samsung phones outsell “Linux devices”, where the latter is deliberately limited to Top 500 supercomputers??

    This is another Apple marketing publication. Just like that "The CIA can't circumvent iMessage encryption", which turned out to be complete bullshit. Typical Apple marketing style. Meanwhile they sell the shittiest, most limited crap on the market, simply by adding enough brain-dead bling on top for the morons to get all wet eyes.

  65. Define "No True Scotsman" by Kjella · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If we take "passively reading news" to include other sources like forums, home pages, blogs etc. then most web browsing is excluded in general. If "tweeting out the occasional 140-character update" isn't computing then everything from IRC to e-mail to posting on Slashdot isn't either. Take away "watching videos" then I'm guessing that excludes listening til music, watching pictures or any other form of similar activity too, we've already excluded social activities and commenting as blabbering so all of Facebook and YouTube has nothing to do with computing. When you exclude things that are computationally hard for the computer but not for me, then I think you've excluded 95%+ of all I've ever used my computer for personally. Even compiling from source probably shouldn't count as "computation" then, if all you do is make && make install.

    Let me try phrasing it it another way, what were the reasons I wanted to upgrade to a better PC in the past? Playing MP3s and MIDI was big in the 90s, better graphics modes in the 90s and HD video in the 2000s, games the 80s until present. In fact, I don't think I've ever wanted a new computer to make my spreadsheets go faster or to get my compilation times down. So since you've excluded all the reason I'd like to have or upgrade a computer, I guess it hasn't lost as a computing device only as a PC. Because I guess almost all the things I've used it for over the last decades haven't been computing, silly me. Oh and the really heavy computation you now do on a server or in the cloud, welcome to the new mainframes - on my desk at work is nothing but a thin client.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:Define "No True Scotsman" by jellyfoo · · Score: 1

      Well you clearly aren't supposed to be posting here. This is supposed to be a place for geeks and nerds (or so the slogan goes), but you're just a "user" if a thin client is all you need. Go away scum!

      Note: I'm mocking of course (well, somewhat), but it doesn't sound like you have any real interest in computers anymore if you're actually satisfied by thin clients. Servers might be able to do some of the heavy work but there's value in having local resources in front of you as well, at least in my line of work. A geek wouldn't relish giving up all that for a dumb terminal, would they?

  66. Re: And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It doesn't make the article pointless. Just the argument of the thread parent.

  67. People buy a new iSomething every year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But nobody buys a new computer with a new Windows every year. So who gives a shit?

  68. Saving their best 0-days by tepples · · Score: 1

    Most XP users if they have not left for now have no plans to do so in 2014 either. They have AV software so why worry?

    I imagine that once Windows XP no longer receives updates, Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP will no longer receive updates. Besides, an exploit of XP's TCP/IP stack could cause a worm to burrow deep into the system where AV doesn't normally hook. Microsoft would usually fix these deep exploits as they are discovered, but not starting April 2014, and computer criminals know this. They're probably saving their best 0-days for the day after XP EOL, when they know they're going to have an easy time port-scanning the net for targets. They'd need to bring the machine to a computer repair shop to get it wiped and reinstalled, and no reputable shop will reinstall an EOL OS with 0-days in the wild.

  69. What's the use case for this computing device. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even as BYOD catches on, you won't see many companies relinquishing controls on the back end. At our company if you choose to bring a Apple Mac book to work, you'll still be using a Windows 7 Virtual Desktop Image to access any enterprise assets. Same goes with the tablets, you're put in a sandbox with Citrix receiver. Costs of the hardware are just going to be handed down to the employee. I think most people are short sited in their vision.

    I have worked in large creative shops in NYC with 40 percent Mac base. Mac is really built for the consumer. We were limited to about 7,000 group policies on the Mac, while Windows had over 30,000. Meanwhile all the majority of back end servers were Windows. If anything Linux is making more in roads in the Data Center.

    Tried Xserves, XRAID storage... it all floundered. Apple has its place and it should stick to what it knows best graphics and media players. My take is that journalists love their Macs and their reporting will always be skewed in Apples favor. Who really cares what people use, as long as it's stable, secure, simple and easy to integrate in a larger network environment.

  70. Conclusion dubious, needs more data by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 1

    It's possible Windows 3.0--which Wikipedia claims was the first pre-installed Windows--outsold Macintoshes running System 6 in 1990, but historical data is needed to validate the claim that assuming Gartner's sale estimates Apple devices would be outselling Windows devices "for the first time ever."

    --
    Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
  71. 2 important things by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    First, for every iOS device there are 3 android ones. Second, smartphones and tablets are not PCs or laptops.

  72. Article's Conclusion Not True by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The projection produced by Gartner shows Windows sales beating Apple through 2017.

    See Table 2 at http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2408515

  73. And even further by evanh · · Score: 1

    OS only sales! This has always been M$'s stronghold. Enterprise sales and system builder/upgrade sales still make a large base. M$ is still totally dominant on the desktop.

  74. Cat got tongue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is happy claim covers also the white boxes, then is time to save for an expensive iPride. Otherwise is time for look for another reliable nerd news since this place seems more like "News of the World: Nerd Edition DeLuxe".

  75. Re:First time since the 80s, not the first time ev by Shag · · Score: 1

    I suspect that Tr3vin is right, despite wording it poorly - at some point during the Windows 1.x or Windows 2.x product cycles, Microsoft was probably still selling fewer copies of Windows per accounting period (year or quarter) than Apple was selling computers (including the Mac, but mostly the Apple II series). Of course, by Windows 3.x, that was probably no longer the case.

    Anyone have actual stats?

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  76. Apples and Oranges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are comparing Apples to oranges. Take the ipads and iphones out of the equation. Apple computers don't outsell PCs. That's why they are leaning so hard into the phone thing. It's an area that they actually can win at. They'll never win the desktop war.

  77. The Keyword by CHIT2ME · · Score: 1

    The keyword is "devices". Apple is well known as a device manufacturer. They are also well known for grossly overpricing their uber hyped devices. Since the super hypster (Jobs) is dead, look for this to play a rapidly declining role in Apple's future. It's why I've dumped all my Apple stock. On the other hand, take a long look at Microsoft. They have only recently been dipping their toes into device production, since, they are mainly a software company. Oh yeah, I can hear you saying that all those Apple devices are running Apple software and that's true, but, consider this: Apple software all comes from the walled garden. There are very few indipendent companies producing iOs, etc. software. Then, look at Microsoft. Look at the enormous amount of software being written by third parties for the Windows OS. It makes Apple software look like "Sams Club Cola" compared to Coca-Cola. There is no comparison. This is a Windows world because of the simple fact that Microsoft allows so many indipendant companies to write Windows compatible software. I really don't think Microsoft has too much to worry about when it comes to Apple, since, like I said: "The Hypster-In-Chief" is dead!

    --
    My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
  78. It will never happen by Mike+Corpuz · · Score: 1

    Well as an Apple Fan who's always updated in Apple Inc., there had been lots of rumours that's been going around that Apple will launch this software, that software, and some other bloody crap like that, well eventually, none of those things came true. Trust me Apple will never change it's software.

  79. This is making it sound like apple is going to by HellcatM · · Score: 1

    outsell Microsoft in every market. This is not true. apple may sell more ipads and iphones than Microsoft sell tablets and phones but they don't even come close to the amount of computers Microsoft sell. apple doesn't even sell 1/3rd the amount of mobile devices as Microsoft sells PC's and laptops. Even apple and Android together doesn't come to half that amount. This is why when people say Windows 8 is a failure it makes me laugh. It may not be doing as well as Windows XP or 7 but even a failure for Windows 8 machines is more than the sales high of apple (macos and ios) and Android devices.