[OT] Market Share

[Bill Marriott]

It's possible you're right. But, I think this was the only way for them to 
get a certain, very large, group of people to even consider the Apple 
operating system. (There's essentially no Apple hardware anymore as we knew 
it.)

The MacBook is the first Apple product I've considered purchasing in a very 
long time. That's mainly because it's a decent Windows laptop for the price.

My first real PC was a Macintosh Plus. I've owned several Macs since then 
and was a true fan. But, you can only take so many arbitrary decisions from 
a company before you throw in the towel. Apple killed very many good 
products -- the most egregious murder being HyperCard. Oh, how much did you 
want to love it, hearing how the licensing requirement was that it be 
distributed free with every Macintosh forever! Oh, but they weaseled out of 
that somehow, didn't they?

It took Apple forever to move to commodity hardware. Oh, how many hundreds 
of dollars did I spend on special monitors and special hard disks and 
special keyboards and special mice. And what a lovely drawer full of ADB 
cables and whatnot I have to show for it.

Apple employs business practices that, if used by Microsoft, would have 
people crying "foul" and bringing anti-trust suits. Buying music from iTunes 
means you're locked into iTunes and iPods forever. (If I buy a track from a 
WMADRM vendor I have hundreds of devices to choose from.) So nice of Apple 
to share the iTunes success by licensing the protocol with its loyal 
developers. (Oh wait, they didn't!)

Apple is far behind in a number of technologies. Tablet/handwriting. Voice. 
A few others mentioned in this thread. Their applications are not terribly 
exciting, either. ClarisWorks/AppleWorks was a fantastic program in its day; 
it basically destroyed Microsoft Works. Then they stopped doing anything 
with it and now it's "end of life" with no adequate replacement. My 
much-beloved FileMaker languished, neglected for at least 6 years before 
they dusted it off and started making some real improvements to it the last 
two years.

Poor Mac developers, indeed. They've suffered an abusive relationship for 
years with Apple. Now, you wonder why the existence of Boot Camp is the only 
reason why I'll consider an Apple again.

Richard Gaskin wrote...
>  "Welcome to Macintosh.  Thank you for your two decades of sacrifice.
>   Now please excuse us as we make it easy for non-Mac developers to
>   walk in and destroy your business without lifting a finger..."