I am not sure why people have such a hard time understanding Apple's direction. It does not need to choose to be a hardware company like Dell or a software company like Microsoft in order to gain market share. Would Jobs like to take over the world? Possibly. But he's going to do it his way. Really. Go read his commencement speech again. He's not in a hurry to make a lot of money. The ultimate prize for him is to make the coolest products.
There is an example right in front of you -- iPod and iTune. Neither is quite the same without the other. Why? Software + hardware = complete product. That's been the goal since the first Mac rolled off the assembly line. Sure people can hack OSX to run on vanilla PCs. But that's like hacking iTune to work with Creative Zen. Sure it's cool if someone can do it, but would Jobs hold up different brands of MP3 players in the next MacWorld and proudly declares that all MP3 players now ship with iTune? Right.
In the last season of Apprentice, high school grads were set up against college grads. In one episode both team had to run a motel. Guess which team won by throwing a pool party?
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and buy the virutal properties before the bubble burst.
I am not sure why people have such a hard time understanding Apple's direction. It does not need to choose to be a hardware company like Dell or a software company like Microsoft in order to gain market share. Would Jobs like to take over the world? Possibly. But he's going to do it his way. Really. Go read his commencement speech again. He's not in a hurry to make a lot of money. The ultimate prize for him is to make the coolest products.
There is an example right in front of you -- iPod and iTune. Neither is quite the same without the other. Why? Software + hardware = complete product. That's been the goal since the first Mac rolled off the assembly line. Sure people can hack OSX to run on vanilla PCs. But that's like hacking iTune to work with Creative Zen. Sure it's cool if someone can do it, but would Jobs hold up different brands of MP3 players in the next MacWorld and proudly declares that all MP3 players now ship with iTune? Right.
In the last season of Apprentice, high school grads were set up against college grads. In one episode both team had to run a motel. Guess which team won by throwing a pool party?
Lesson: If you are a slacker, stay in school.