Apple could wow the technology world again tomorrow , most likely releasing a long - awaited redesign of its popular iMac strain along with a slew of other technology innovations . analyst and the military press now haunt Apple ’s every move and sift through every word from Apple Porto Rico with a hunky-dory - toothed comb , looking for information on the company ’s plan . Apple ’s stock toll keeps hitting new high on what seems like a hebdomadal basis , and its retail storage are fulfil to capacity .
In other words , things are go well for Steve Jobs and caller .
time were n’t always this good for Apple . Aug. 7 also denounce another milestone : The tenth day of remembrance of Steve Jobs at his first issue at Apple as the returning iCEO ( the “ I ” standing for interim ) . When Macworld ‘ 97 take position in Boston , Apple was a mess . It had been just over a month since Jobs again took the roulette wheel at Apple after Gil Amelio had been give his walk papers . Jobs had start out the physical process of killing off the Newton and clone operations at Apple . The company was near belly-up and had lost its direction . Nobody knew what the future held — and what was to be shown that mean solar day was anything but reassuring .
To the Mac close , Apple was ( and , to many , still is ) construe as the anti - Microsoft , and the raft bring out on Aug. 7 , 1997 , was seen as a trade with the dickens . When Microsoft ’s then - CEO , Bill Gates , look on a jumbo screen above Steve Jobs and the Macworld attender that day , the Macintosh community ’s realness was flipped upside down . Microsoft was bailing out Apple with a $ 140 million cash infusion that at the meter represent more than 5 percent of the company ’s resources . The heap was belike made to help oneself Microsoft resist off a roseola of monopoly suits as much as it represented a strategic investment in a long - metre partner . The deal , like many in the years since Jobs ’ return , turned out to be a blessing for Apple . More than just infusing the company with operating chapiter , the partnership helped restore faith in the tumultuous Macintosh platform as Apple move forward with cuts to various parts of its business and an overhaul of operations .
Microsoft get plenty in the softwood , too . At the time , Microsoft ’s Internet Explorer was trying to usurp Netscape as the WWW browser app of choice , and a major component of the Apple deal was to make IE the nonpayment web browser app on every new Macintosh system . A few years later , Netscape was all but account . Microsoft also worked out a mint that called for Macintosh organisation to include Microsoft ’s adaptation of Java — to be jointly developed by Microsoft and Apple — assume a big blow to Sun Microsystems . Microsoft did n’t have as much success in cornering the Java market , and its Java Virtual Machine implementation in Mac was ho-hum and bonkers .
Another big part of the arrangement was the cross - licensing of patent . This was another huge win for Microsoft , which was still in court at that metre fight letters patent disputes with Apple . With that battle behind them , Microsoft ’s lawyers could more in full condense on the monopoly case involving Netscape and Sun and the eventual successful collection .
The stack had n’t been settle until 2 a.m. on the twenty-four hours of the declaration , and Jobs ’ and Gates ’ remarks at Macworld were scripted just hours before the event .
Apple and Microsoft are in two entirely different situation now . Microsoft ’s portion terms has been comparatively flat , and the company is n’t doing much in the way of introduction except in gaming ( XBox 360 ) . The new Vista operating organization is induce a middling reception as it look to succeed XP with some security improvements and UI eye - confect that had more than one reader crow that Vista was “ copying Mac OS X. ” Anecdotally , many exploiter are switching out to either OS X or Linux . For its part , Microsoft has promised more frequent operating system update that incorporate more gradual changes , but Gates is now about a year from leaving the caller altogether and seemed almost apathetic about Vista during his worldwide release tour .
Apple , on the other hand , is riding high-pitched and on the offence in the mobile sound , handheld euphony / telecasting actor and computer securities industry . Its pedigree Leontyne Price has skyrocketed over the retiring few years . Apple ’s market detonator is now worth more than those of Dell , Adobe Systems and Sun put together , and many analyst have sky - high predictions for the future .
Always the strangest of Apple bedfellows , Microsoft ’s Mac products have consistently been very solid app and an invaluable asset to the chopine in the patronage world . For Apple buff , it has always been hard to swallow up that the most successful piece of software on the weapons platform is made by the competition ( talk about your old - school halo effect ! ) . Anyone rallying to the Mac cause has to take this fact .
Microsoft was the first ship’s company to embark a major native web browser for OS X , beating Netscape and even Apple by months . Microsoft Office was also one of the first major suite ported to OS X — beat the Adobe and Macromedia suite . Windows Media Player and Microsoft Messenger were also early successes on OS X.
Lately , however , Microsoft has fall behind on the Mac political program . IE for Mac was killed in 2003 and is n’t even available for download anymore . Office 2008 , the first Intel - native interpretation of the software suite , was just push back again , this metre until the new year . Also , Microsoft choose to buy and bolt down Virtual microcomputer for the Mac rather than port it to Intel — sacrifice up the virtualization monopoly on the Mac Platform to Parallels and VMware . Microsoft also stopped developing Windows Media Player for Mac — alternatively pointing Mac Users to the Flip4Mac plug - in for QuickTime . With Steve Ballmer taking over the helm at Microsoft , thing are likely to become even less cordial . In fact , with Office Live moving to the vane and Windows Virtual Machines becoming so powerful and stable , it is concentrated to think a scenario where Office 2010 would be let go of to the Mac weapons platform .
In contrast to Microsoft ’s attitude of benign disuse of the Mac platform , Apple seems to be innovating away on the Windows platform . Besides the iTunes and QuickTime applications ( and Bonjour for PC , if you ’re counting ) , Apple of late released its Safari web web browser for personal computer as well — doing a reverse of Microsoft ’s IE play on the Mac . Apple is also rumored to be releasing a Modern version of its iWork and iLife suites . Would n’t it be interesting if they also landed on the Windows side ?
Seth Weintraub is a planetary IT direction adviser specializing in the applied science penury of originative organization , including The Paris Times , Omnicom and currently the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile . He has position up and managed cross - platform networks on four continents and is an expert in message management systems and large - scale PC and Macintosh Infrastructure .
