Zax, there are so many things wrong in that post I hardly know where to begin. But at least you're constructing an argument instead of just name-calling, so I'll respond.
First, there are a lot of old Windows apps that won't run on recent versions of the OS, and for the most part nobody cares. How many DOS-based games do you play? How many applications that haven't been updated since the 80s or 90s are still part of your daily life?
Second, when Windows 3.1 was released, Microsoft was playing catch-up with Apple's OS, but they were not playing catch-up in the market. They had far more market share. The situation with respect to tablets at this point is very, very different, and by the time Windows 8 tablets come out Apple's lead with the iPad will have only increased.
Third, backward compatibility with legacy apps doesn't mean shit on a tablet, because all those apps were never designed to be run on a device with a touch screen and no keyboard. You claim that people don't want compromises, and that they want to be able to run all their desktop apps on a tablet, but consumers who spend real money are proving you wrong. There were Windows tablets for many years before the iPad was introduced, and they never took off. But the iPad has been a runaway hit by any measure.
The iPad has succeeded because Apple figured out what tablets could do well, and how to make apps that worked on that kind of device. The Metro interface is an attempt by Microsoft to do the same thing - to create a user interface based on touch. It's not a bad attempt at all. But applications have to be designed to take advantage of that interface or the experience of using them on a tablet will be clunky, at best. So backward compatibility is not an advantage at all.
People are using iPads in all kinds of productive ways in business, which contradicts your argument that they're only good for consuming media.
Legacy matters more than anything else? Where do you get that idea? If that were true, the Mac's market share would have been declining rapidly ever since Apple stopped supporting OS 9 apps. What matters most is offering people a platform on which they can easily get their work done, or play games, watch movies, or whatever. That's what Apple has been offering their customers, and that's why Mac market share has been increasing for the past several years. It's why all smartphones now emulate the iPhone, and why the iPad is the first tablet computer to succeed in the marketplace. Compare the charts for AAPL and MSFT for the past ten years, and I think you'll discover that your idea about the primacy of legacy support is just wrong.
Thanks for warning us all about how Apple will be destroyed by Windows 8. Pardon me, though, if I don't take that warning too seriously, because your predictions haven't been especially accurate up to now. You established this thread a little over a year ago, calling the top for AAPL at 363.13. So you've only missed by 267 points, so far.
Obviously, you still think you're smarter than all the people who've ridden AAPL up from your "top." Maybe you are smarter, but I think most of us will continue to muddle along like the dummies we are, without the benefit of your advice. |
