Thanks for dragging us – sometimes kicking and screaming – into the future. You will be missed.
Godspeed.
Apple has passed Microsoft to become the largest tech company in terms of market capitalization. This is quite a remarkable feat considering that Apple commands about 6% of the operating system market compared to Microsoft’s 90%. Besides the fact that both Microsoft and Apple produce operating systems, in reality, they are very different companies.
If one delves into the numbers, it becomes very clear that Apple has ridden to the top on success in the mobile space and media – in particular, the iPhone, iPod, and iTunes – not on traditional computers or operating systems. It’s still too early to see what impact the iPad will have on their bottom line, but based on history, one can expect it to be substantial.
For most of their lives, Apple has primarily been a hardware manufacturer while Microsoft had been primarily a software manufacturer. Sure, Microsoft does manufacture hardware, but it’s primarily to support the software side of the business and Apple does manufacture software as well, but it’s primarily to support the hardware side of the businesses.
'”3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”
However, in the last few years, Apple has quietly crept into the software side of the equation with almost nobody noticing. No, they’re not going head to head with Microsoft, rather, they have become a software pimp.
Things are changing in a big way for Apple.
A bit of advice to Steve Jobs and the Cupertino Kids – watch your back.
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/gore.html