What's particularly telling here is not that they were "scared" - they weren't. They thought that this was a simple failure of marketing. It never occurred to them that Apple might have introduced something that might actually have some advantages over their next generation system. It was inconceivable to them.
That is not a failure of marketing - it's a failure to understand the market and your competition. It is a failure of management - and a failure at the highest levels of the most profitable software company in the world.
End users - real people - are hardly to blame - Microsoft gives their needs short shrift when compared to volumne corporate IT users. It's those idiots with million dollar orders that cause MS marketing to force developers to rush out changes without concern for their impact on security. So, it's corporate IT and their ill-cosidered requests compounded by MS marketing's naked aggressive pursuit of the almighty dollar componded by just average outsourced OS development shops where the blame lies...
No one argues that Apple's business was financially insignificant to IBM. That is totally uninteresting and a waste of bandwidth.
However, what it clearly shows is that any one customer's needs is also insignificant to IBM - no matter how large the customer. It also shows that IBM does not honor commitments they make to their "partners".
While the same thing can be potentially said for any large company, if you're a company who is a partner or looking at partnering with IBM for some reason, Apple-IBM should be a case study to consider when making your decision. I suspect this will be discussed in b-schools for years (they'll say IBM did the right thing in screwing their customer Apple).
Slashdot Mirror
Come one now - your bias is showing... sudo existed on UNIX before Linus Torvalds was a gleam in his father's eye....
In related news, it is reported that the Wall Street Journal leaked that the Allied have broken the Nazi Ultra code.
What's particularly telling here is not that they were "scared" - they weren't. They thought that this was a simple failure of marketing. It never occurred to them that Apple might have introduced something that might actually have some advantages over their next generation system. It was inconceivable to them. That is not a failure of marketing - it's a failure to understand the market and your competition. It is a failure of management - and a failure at the highest levels of the most profitable software company in the world.
Well, it is...
MS accounting wants to know where to send your check...
End users - real people - are hardly to blame - Microsoft gives their needs short shrift when compared to volumne corporate IT users. It's those idiots with million dollar orders that cause MS marketing to force developers to rush out changes without concern for their impact on security. So, it's corporate IT and their ill-cosidered requests compounded by MS marketing's naked aggressive pursuit of the almighty dollar componded by just average outsourced OS development shops where the blame lies...
This should pose an interesting comparison of how Dell is treated by the press vis a vis Apple.
To be "fair and balanced", the next articles should say that "beleagured" Dell faces delisting
by the Nasdaq and that Michael Dell faces SEC charges.
Wonder what the WebCT folks think about Microsoft staling their product name?
No one argues that Apple's business was financially insignificant to IBM. That is totally uninteresting and a waste of bandwidth. However, what it clearly shows is that any one customer's needs is also insignificant to IBM - no matter how large the customer. It also shows that IBM does not honor commitments they make to their "partners". While the same thing can be potentially said for any large company, if you're a company who is a partner or looking at partnering with IBM for some reason, Apple-IBM should be a case study to consider when making your decision. I suspect this will be discussed in b-schools for years (they'll say IBM did the right thing in screwing their customer Apple).