Apple & Microsoft duke it out for top tech spot; will Steve Ballmer get TKOed?
Apple has been looking pretty shiny since Wednesday, having just crossed a golden threshold: slipping past Microsoft in "market capitalization"— the valuation of a company based on its current stock price multiplied by number of shares available; as well as "enterprise value" which is market cap, plus debt and minus cash holdings. Speculation had been rampant for months whether it would ever happen; and then, on Wednesday— surely to be memorialized in computer lore— after a wild ride on the market, AAPL ended the day worth a few billion more than its frenemy MSFT.
Apple was now not only the top technology company in the world, it was the second highest valued company in America (behind Exxon-Mobile.) Thursday, MSFT and AAPL traded neck-and-neck in valuation, but by the market close, Apple held the crown for a second day.
Apple wins computer wars. News at 11.
Today Apple announced a small but massively important beta application called "Boot Camp" -- a masterstroke which may just explode the userbase for Apple's computers. The software lets new Intel-based Macs (AKA "MacIntel") install Windows. Let me repeat that: Mac now does Windows... natively. Last week, a couple of hackers won fame (and $12,000) for coming up with their own solution, which involved owning an actual PC, burning a custom Windows install disk, using three rolls of duct tape, two cases of "Orange Shasta" plus a sacrifice of a small marsupial to the angry "B'lgateus" demon.
Running Windows on Macs something that has been tried before in various ways, but never satisfactorily. A decade ago, Apple released a kludgy option of having a "DOS compatibility card" installed inside first generation PowerMacs. It was basically an 486-era computer-on-a-card, stuck inside a Mac; it had its own processor, memory and video output, but its price was comparable to buying an entirely new PC. Suffice it to say, it wasn't the most popular of add-ons. It was eventually replaced with a "PC Compatibility Card" using a PCI interface, with a 100Mhz Pentium which could be installed in nearly all pre-OS X PowerMacs. And there have been number "emulators" which ran Windows in a software environment-- the most famous being VirtualPC, which was bought out by Microsoft a couple of years ago, who brought out updates through the G5 processor line. Since Apple switched to Intel chips, the Microsofties have been silent as to the future of the product, but it's unlikely now that VirtualPC for Intel Macs will ever happen.
Followup coverage: different views on the same process
* "You need to download the Boot Camp software and step through an installation process that will be daunting to non-expert users. At one point, if you accidentally make the wrong selection, you can erase the Mac operating system from your computer." (Macs running Windows won't shift balance, Mike Landberg, Mercury News.)
* "Aside from the C: drive caution, it's almost impossible to make a mistake if you pay attention to Boot Camp's onscreen instructions. As I write this brief report, the iMac functions flawlessly in either Mac OS X or Windows mode." (I Install Windows XP on a MacIntel, Gene Steinberg, MacNightOwl.com.)
Apple Goes Intel; End of World Near?
The news has been whispered (more like hissed) around the Macintosh news world: Apple is getting "Intel Inside." Has Steve Jobs finally lost it?
In truth, the development has been brewing for years. Since OS X was based on NextStep, which previously ran on Intel chips, converting to x86 was always a possibility. The story goes that from at least 2002, deep inside Apple's skunkworks, a current version of OS X has been running on Intel-based PCs as part of a secret project codenamed "Marklar." Supposedly, only a small team of software engineers were needed to do the necessary updates.
Two years ago, the rumors initially flared up, just before Apple announced the G5 systems. Now, Apple has been straining to come up with an upgrade to its aging Powerbook and iBook families. The current G4 chip is manufactured by a spin-off to Motorola, Apple's former chip-development partner, now called Freescale. With neither IBM nor Freescale having been able to deliver a speedy, low-power and low-heat processor, the move to Intel seemed a natural consequence.
This morning, at the San Francisco Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs took the podium for the Keynote address and confirmed the speculations: for years, Mac OS X has been leading a secret "double life."
First, however, he spoke about the developer community "thriving" with the highest attendance at the show in a decade, and more than 500,000 members of Apple's "Developer Connection" program. He then proceeded to pump up Apple acolytes with propaganda about the success of the retail store operation. He moved on to the iPod (16 million, 76% of all MP3 players sold) and iTunes (over 430 million songs, 82% of all songs sold online) Then onto the latest advance in iTunes: integrated "podcasting", which seems to have Jobs particularly excited. (Could he be a closet Podcast junkie?)
But what everyone wanted to know was: what's this stuff about Intel?
Here's what Jobs had to say:
TigerDirect “sues” Apple for “Tiger” OS
In the category of misusing the legal system, online retailer Tiger Direct.com has apparently filed an injunction the day before Apple is to release its update to OS X -- because it's codenamed "Tiger." Gee, what marketing geniuses.
It's simple: Suing Apple generates "free" publicity. Any seemingly scandalous info relating to Apple gets immediate distribution by news sites, and hence makes people take notice of the controversy. Remember the recent "virus contest" which ended before it even started? Or the flack over Apple Stores pulling all books published by John Wiley & Sons in protest over the unauthorized bio of Jobs?
As proof, the initial news of this was actual via a press release from Tiger Direct.
Tiger Direct has no actual standing to sue, as they don't make any software package/OS which competes with Apple's offering. Furthermore, "Tiger" is a code-name, just as Microsoft's "Longhorn" is. It's properly 10.4. Thus, there's no competition nor trademark dilution between the Mac OS, codenamed "Tiger" and a retailer called TigerDirect. (Incidentally, my alma mater, The University of Texas actually holds the registered trademark to "Longhorns" as well as the logo of the horns -- shouldn't they be suing Microsoft?)
Look for Apple to file a "summary judgement" to dismiss the case -- which is scheduled for preliminary hearing on May 3, five days after Tiger's release-- but by then, Tiger Direct will have gotten what they want: attention.