Think about it. MacWorld 1997, Steve Jobs turns to the big screen, and there’s Bill Gates, to the shock (and hoots) of the crowd, investing $150 million in Apple to keep it alive as a hedge against anti-trust action by the DoJ. Apple was, to all accounts, ninety days from bankruptcy.
Fast forward to this week in Los Angeles.
Microsoft was always content to make its money on Windows and Office. That was the angle, the indispensable hammer they held over the PC industry. Every desktop and laptop that went out the door everywhere but Cupertino was money in their pocket. They didn’t have to do anything at all, and for the most part they didn’t.
Meanwhile, Apple dialed in on the post-PC world. Sure, Mac OS X made the move to Intel and basically completely captured the market for consumer personal computers over $1000, but let’s face it – for all the glitz and glam of the MacBook Air and the new retina-equipped MacBook Pro, Apple’s making its bankroll these days off the iPhone and iPad. They captured the market for the consumer smartphone, essentially stabbed Blackberry to death, and currently makes ridiculous sums of money relative to the half-dozen companies pushing Android-based phones. They created the market for consumer tablet computing, scaling a phone OS up to a tablet instead of trying to cram a PC operating system into it, and nobody has even come close.
And now, Microsoft is chasing Apple.
Think about it: the entire Monday event was like a parody of an Apple rollout. The Microsoft stores opening in malls across America are essentially imitations of Apple’s brick-and-mortar retail establishments (which were roundly mocked as a failure in the making when they opened). And now, Microsoft is attempting to do what Apple didn’t by cramming a PC operating system into a tablet – albeit by making it as much like a tablet OS as possible, and most of all, by making their own hardware.
Microsoft never made hardware. Keyboards and mice, sure, but never computers. But for some reason, they now feel like they have to make their own tablets to run their OS. They’re joining Amazon, who decided to fork Android and make their own version of the OS to go with their own tablet. And next week, at Google’s own developer conference, the Great Mentioner expects them to launch their own tablet hardware to run Android.
Today, in 2012, everyone – Microsoft included – is chasing Apple. Somewhere, Steve Jobs is smiling.