The content was incredible!

Unbelievable

I'm a PC. I don't get it.

Boggles the mind!

As they say in Texas, "It ain't braggin' if it's truue!"

:O)

They say a lot of things in Texas that are bullsh....

Incredible is such an understatement, I am amazed by the great, wonderful, beautiful, remarkable, stunningly awesome, really nice, smarter and smarter, apple tech that has been bestowed on all mankind. It is Mind boggling nay I say really easy, and fantastic to be shown such priceless unbelievable products that are meant to make us all smarter and more incredibly amazing...... :-))

NA…I will stick to my PC and Vegas... but it was very good for a amazing laugh early in the morning..

As the Alaskan said to the Texan, "If you don't stop braggin', we'll split our state into two, and then your state will only be third biggest!"

If only there was as much friendly competition in the automobile world.

But I guess we shouldn't joke about the dead.

:O]

"They say a lot of things in Texas that are bullsh...."

I think you mean: "there's alot of bullsh*t in texas!"

It never ceases to amaze me that the folks at Apple don't have to wear arm casts.

Apple was considered dead not that long along. ;-) Like a ZOMBIE... with a few millions from "Bill Gates", it crawled out from it's unholy hole and forced feed Dell's words thru a straw to it's CEO....... then the worm infested Apple poisoned the world's weak minded with buzz words and claims of instant popularity and social status without thinking or working for it, just buy Apple..... ;-)

So amazing, it's incredible; I do regret not buying a lot of Apple stock when it was on life support........ but during that time I was getting rid of a parasitic infection with a somewhat painful treatment called............... "Divorce court".

The "Microsoft saved Apple" myth has persisted for a long time. It is definitely urban myth.

MS invested $150M when Apple had $1.2B in cash on hand. Did $150M (less than a restaurant tip on $1.2B) save Apple? Hardly.

This CNET article from 1997 said Apple squeezed Microsoft's family jewels to pony up this money because they had stolen so much Apple technology and put it in Windows (including video on the desktop where Apple had several firsts). Bill Gates was (and is) a great poker player, and he knew when to fold (because of a likely loss in court that would have been way more expensive).

The part about "MS committing to support Office for Mac" wasn't about them giving anything up, as it was their most profitable product line at the time.

Good story though!

[Apit, thanks for the "parasitic infection" term, that was brilliant!]

"$1.2B in cash on hand" I think that's a very friendly translation of the value on the book assets, without the liabilities. A lot of Apple people work hard refining the Apple image. Just read the Apple's SEC disclosures from that time period. Banks and investors were very concern about Apple's future. Apple's crisis, opened the door for Steve to "run the ship" again........ a good thing for Apple.

And no doubt, MS Office on the Apple would benefit both parties.

I may complain about Apple and the fanboys, but if I owed Apple stock, I would be a very happy Apple stockholder. ;-)

I had Apple as a customer during the Pepsi-guy era, my jaw dropped when I visited them and saw the dysfunction. It seemed every department was totally paralyzed. Sad.

(Cash on hand means cash accounts and cash equivalents, i.e. that which can be converted to cash in hours. It doesn't include balance sheet assets that take time to sell, such as buildings and equipment, etc.)

Not to over "discuss" "cash on Hand"; but many big corps have payrolls that are not expensive out, and more important is the failure to fund the pension plan. Plus many corps "borrow" from the pension fund for operational cash. Depending on the legal "instruments" used during the fiscal yr to move this money around, qtr reporting can look good. GM had cash on hand most the time, but was seriously in debt, pension plan vastly underfunded....... etc... A well managed corp, cash on hand has some meaning, especially if short liabilities are fully disclosed. But with 90's and 2000 collapse of major accounting firms for cooking or creative accounting practices, plus let's not forget the clever Wallstreet gang, I find it hard to accept any fin. data with out extension data.

"Apple squeezed Microsoft's family jewels to pony up this money because they had stolen so much Apple technology"

Yeah and Apple outright stole most of their technology from Xerox PARC, things that made Apple very famous, like the graphical user interface and the mouse.

The fact of the matter was that Apple was about to fail and Microsoft was embroiled in their ridiculous monopoly lawsuits. As long as Apple was still around, Microsoft could rightfully claim that they weren't a monopoly. It was in Microsoft's best interest to see that Apple was kept alive.

By the way, as of today, Apple has 4.87% of the PC market, Windows has 93.06%.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8

Xerox couldn't even sell a hamburger to a starving texas tourist, very sad. They created a $20,000 dedicated word processing machine called the 8020 (catchy name, wasn't it?). Beautiful machine in every way, but $20K in the dollar of the day (remember when the US$ wasn't TP?).

Apple did pay Xerox for patents though, so that theft charge won't stick.

Microsoft right now is in big trouble, with Vista having been an unmitigated failure (only 30% of PCs run Vista, and they're nearly all Home Premium - i.e. nearly nobody is using it for work), fewer and fewer customers feel a need to buy the expensive Office suite, the only way they could get netbook vendors to offer Windows was to sell them ultra-super-bargain basement rate XP licenses(!), and the new "iPod-killer" Zune HD is a total flop (lower res. screen that is unviewable without carefully controlled lighting, no app store, no apps, 8-year old browser, etc.).

I think that qualifies MS as being on the ropes (although they have a good cash hoard). Perhaps Windows 7 will again allow them to charge hundreds of dollars for a Windows license at a time when PCs cost hundreds of dollars? Yeah, right.

I wonder what caused Apple's browser market share to drop from 10% in February to 5% now? Either the new number is measured differently, or netbooks have seen explosive growth. Of course the latter are used mainly for web browsing, sort of like an iPhone with a larger but poorer quality screen. And MS is getting what, $5?, for that XP license. Sounds like a recipe for success.

It's funny how the "Apple vs. other computer brands" discussion is so different compared to how car enthusiasts discuss their preferences.

You'd never hear a Ford owner tell say a BMW owner, "Well, my car has a larger market share!"

You also would never hear, "BMW owners are just stupid to waste their money. Why spend $40,000 on a car when you can get a more popular car with four wheels and an engine for a fraction of that! It's all the same experience!"

Ummm, sure. :O)

I'm more interested in what the termites in the floor are doing than the elephant and tiger in the room. Keep your eyes on Google.

Bob.

A very good point that may affect us all.

I am very concerned that their growing set of monopolies will come to cost us greatly at some point soon.

Say you want to do CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising. Today there are 2, or to be generous, 3 significant companies left. Two years from now there may be only Google.

I am even concerned that their motto, "Do no evil," was a Freudian slip.

:O|

"I'm more interested in what the termites in the floor are doing than the elephant and tiger in the room. Keep your eyes on Google."

EXACTLY.

...if I owed Apple stock, I would be a very happy Apple stockholder. ;-)

I would think so, with the stock having gone from $80 to $180 since the beginning of this year. Analysts say if FASB gives them the rule change they have requested for revenue recognition, the stock will hit $264 pronto.

...and their marketshare of $1K+ notebooks is now 91%, that's just enviable.

Sometimes I wish I had time to follow stocks again, but I just can't bring myself to prioritize it.

So I'll work off the sweat off my own back instead...

But if I had the time, I think I could make real money from shorting Microsoft. All their long-time ultra-profitable product lines are under attack at the same time, and all their new products have sucked big time (Windows Mobile 6 anyone? :O).

I think MS will have truly massive layoffs next year, and the remaining Zunes will be heading for the landfill (so far it seems the vast majority of them have been bought only by retailers where they are now warming the shelves).

I am also surprised that Bill Gates with all his smarts couldn’t see that a presumably great operations manager like Steve Ballmer won't have any imagination. Very odd.

Steve Ballmer has built up an enormous bureaucracy with 5,000 naysayers (aka middle managers) whose job it is to immediately put the brakes on every forward effort in the company. That layer will have to be swept away if they are to be successful again. Ever.