Lion's AppleWatch

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"Attempting to analyze Apple through the general mediocrity of the industry they're part of, is just not the way to look at Apple..."

  Sunday, February 7, 2010

Apple overtaking Microsoft in cash, how Steve Jobs 'smoked' competition with iTunes

Look at that chart up there - it shows the total cash and short term investments of tech companies and comes to us from the Silicon Valley Insider. Isn't it interesting to see the company people rejected as a spent force in the mid-to-late 90's (Apple) now has more cash in hand than Google or Intel and is rapidly moving to eclipse Microsoft.

Only another half billion dollars or so and Apple will be a bigger company by cash on hand than Microsoft.

How did we get here? There's a lot been said on reports that Microsoft's dated competitive corporate infrastructure and its focus on internal competition is partly to blame.

We also like the look of this Groklaw report here, which points out that all the way down the line since Steve Jobs return to Apple, Microsoft execs felt they had been "smoked".

The report publishes a whole host of internal Microsoft emails from 2003 when the company reeled in shock at Apple's launch of iTunes.

Here's what Bill Gates really had to say about Apple's iTunes Store in 2003.

"Steve Jobs ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.
"This time somehow he has applied his talents in getting a better Licensing deal than anyone else has gotten for music.
"This is very strange to me. The music companies own operations offer a service that is truly unfriendly to the user and has been reviewed that way consistently."

He added in a somewhat visionary moment, "I am not saying this strangeness means we messed up - at least if we did so did Real and Pressplay and Musicnet and basically everyone else." (Editor's note, yep. so they did.)

Jim Allchin's response is charming:

"1. How did they get the music companies to go along?
2. We were smoked.
jim" 9:31:04 PM    




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