wow

Microsoft bought VPC for their virtualization software that ran on Windows itself. The Mac version of the software just happened to come along for the ride. Continued sales of VPC on the Mac were just a bonus, but not the be-all end-all of the deal.

Apple moving to Intel from PPC made continued development of VPC for the Mac unrealistic and totally uneconomical for MS. Simpler to kill the product and let others develop virtualization software for the Mac. They can always be bought later if need be by M$.

As far as MS creating drivers for Macs, why? To do do creates a reason for someone to actuallly buy a Macintosh and that is not good business for MS. They want the whole business and having something run on other platforms is less important. That they have Office and other programs is from earlier development, agreements with Apple and the profits that that software generates for MS. It is business and it is also something that tried to show they were “not a monolpoly” to the anti-trust people.

For MS to cater to the small and vocal and loyal Apple crowd, they would be spending money that would not bring the amount of sales to make it profitable. Apple developing software for the iPod to run on Windows obviously brings in a lot more revenue.

That Apple and MS have a different business model is obvious. That each can be successful is obvious. When you listen to stock pedlars try to drive a stock price up or down based upon them owning or shorting those stocks is also obvious, but in the long run means squat to those who don’t own stocks.

If you enjoy the product, use it and don’t worry about it. If a better product comes along, decide if it beats the first product before you change. Go with what works for you. Whether someone else has a different product that works for someone else is partially irrelevant as long as your needs are being met.

Follow the money. It works for Apple, Microsoft and others and also journalists and commentators. Creating a headline or comment that seems outragious brings eyeballs to the ads and revenue to the journalist/commentator. “If it bleeds, it leads” is an old newspaper axiom because people are interested to see what is going on with the world. Call it being nosey or whatever you want.

I’m too long in the tooth to wage wars about which is better, nor do I rant and rave about what is missing from software. I’ll send a note to the developer suggesting things, but I don’t hold my breath waiting for the idea to be implemented. If the software works for me, I get it. If not, I don’t. Simple and I don’t have to worry about the BS from developers or journalists.

Take care.

Reginald

And as a bellwether of Microsoft’s decline look at Vista not this.

Thanks to Parallels, I’ve been doing that regularly

Peace,
Gene

Honesty how big is the Mac VPC market considering all the players and BootCamp available for free? The ROI for a small company like Parallels might be worth it, but for Microsoft? It’s a niche app in a small market. If it’s a failure for MS, it’s a small one at worst and probably a wise business decision. And as a bellwether of Microsoft’s decline look at Vista not this.

Sorry. One of your lamer columns, I think.
As were most of your responses – except for the licensing of OSX.
Did you miss some sleep?

Tell ya what: This is one of the lamer responses I’ve seen so far today. All labels, no specifics. Can’t you do any better?

Peace,
Gene

Sorry. One of your lamer columns, I think.
As were most of your responses – except for the licensing of OSX.
Did you miss some sleep?

Steve

“…and your mother wears army boots! Spppttt.”

Peace

Gene

Seems like MSFT can’t get anything out the door. Maybe the two or three programmers doing all the work left.

Gene,

You kicked the wasp nest, I see. Hm. Here’s the fact as I see it — Microsoft would control every aspect of the software world, and more if they could, hardware, too. So if they choose not to compete, it is in recognition they can’t compete and turn a buck. I agree with you. There’s no other way to define that but as failure.

Apple ignited personal computing and the iPod is hot. But the Mac platform is a lump of coal.

Which is why Apple has been recording record sales and improved Mac market share in recent quarters? Give it a rest, please.

Peace,
Gene

Gene,
I guess the gist of your opinion is that MS only wants to cater to what they believe they can make money at. That makes sense, but you are right: they are so big they are allowing other smaller companies to get into markets (Mac) that they can’t/don’t want to bother with. They ARE losing their nimbleness. The iPod is a case in point. MS is four years and millions (billions) of dollars late. I would say they are slow as molaases if they can’t react faster. But I will take your arguement one further: do they really need to be in this market? They seem to lose money at things outside of their Windows/Server/Office products. Maybe we would all be better served if they would just stick to what they make money at. Perhaps even Windows wouldn’t suffer as much.

Hey didn’t Apple have the lead with graphical user interaces at one time? Then somebody else came and trounced on them, overtook them, beat them up, took significant market share, made lots and lots of money. Yea, now thats what happened. Forget about doing the “math”, do the history. Apple ignited personal computing and the iPod is hot. But the Mac platform is a lump of coal. Now that’s what I call spectacular “failure” on a grand scale. And that’s failure in a sense that Apple lost a lot of potential that it can never get back. Obviously it’s successful in making a profit.

Microsoft will never catch up to the iPod. But at the same time, Apple won’t ever catch up to the PC in terms on dominating the desktop. They got spanked.

Let’s not forget that those who code VPC for Mac are Mac developers. Those Mac developers had a part in the decision to drop VPC. If it were easy don’t you think they would just do make a new VPC? I guess M$ is not greedy after all.

Ask Parallels how easy it is

Peace,
Gene

Let’s not forget that those who code VPC for Mac are Mac developers. Those Mac developers had a part in the decision to drop VPC. If it were easy don’t you think they would just do make a new VPC? I guess M$ is not greedy after all.

The same is happening in the Game market. People are starting to drop native Mac games. Build it on a PC and you’ll more easily be able to port to XBOX 360. That’s two platforms for the same code. Where’s the Mac gaming console? The next closest thing would be playing pacman on an iPod. Call that gaming? Pretty lame for a big company like Apple.

Of course Apple makes money on it’s hardware. It’s because it currently doesn’t sell its software (OSX) for PCs. If it did, they would make a killing. Imagine millions of users throwing in $99 for the best operating system in the world? That’s a lot more money than Apple gets from it’s hardware sales (which are really PCs anyway).

Apple would have to grow its software sales by an incredible margin to make up the difference. And they’d have a lot more work to do, as Mac OS X would have to be compatible with thousands and thousands of possible PC system combos, rather than the small number of Mac products. Even then, more and more reliability issues would be created. This is where Microsoft runs into trouble. Apple succeeds by providing the whole widget, an integrated system of hardware and software.

Folks who think Apple could just unfurl Mac OS X and make a killing don’t look into the reasons why Apple’s present setup is a good thing.

Peace,
Gene

Of course Apple makes money on it’s hardware. It’s because it currently doesnt sell its software (OSX) for PCs. If it did, they would make a killing. Imagine millions of users throwing in $99 for the best operating system in the world? That’s a lot more money than Apple gets from it’s hardware sales (which are really PCs anyway).

But wait, oh no. They won’t do so because Apple fears an OSX for PC will only get pirated in which case, not much money is made and hardware sales stall. You see, Apple can’t promise a fool proof DRM on it’s own OS either. Can’t burn a movie to DVD from iTunes downloaded movie can you?