Greetings and Salutations.
On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 14:22:12 -0500, (p_j) wrote:

Leon wrote:

Again, only a comparison that describes why Apple got stomped by the PC
economy.

Well, for what it is worth, my take on it is that Apple was a
company of hardware and software geeks who were focused on making the
coolest systems and software. They were pretty clueless when it came
to the business world.
M$ has always been a marketing giant. I have to say that I
DO admire Gate's ability to build up a frenzy of excitement over his
product, and get folks to buy it. He might not be that great a
geek, but, he can sell snow to an Eskimo.
So...you put an apple system and a PC next to each other...
The apple had a lot of strengths (great graphics support from day one,
ease of use, shallow learning curve) but cost $3000 or so.
The PC was really cheap, and, did most things "well enough".
Americans will, more often than not, go with cheap over quality, which
gives the PC an advantage.
Also, of course, there was the flood of PCS on the market. It
was, and still is, kind of a challenge to find a place that sells
Apple hardware and Software. However, it is hard to walk more than a
block without passing a clone shop or some other source of PC stuff.
Market penetration, adequate value, aggressive marketing
all work together to take over 85% of the market.

If you ask me, the reason Apple got stomped was the lack of a capitalist
system in America. MS doesn't even market that well. They manipulate and
litigate well. If they had real consequences for their crimes, they
probably wouldn't exist.

Look at the roll-out of Windows 98. That was so hyped and
pushed that it had folks who did not even OWN a computer asking me
if they should buy a copy. Now THAT is marketing.
Of course, as the judge said...M$ may have gained its monopoly
legally, through aggressive marketing, but, they used that power to
illegally maintain that monopoly...and by definition, a monopoly
makes it very hard for competition to grow.
It is a tough world out there.
Regards
Dave Mundt