Comments on: Microsoft’s dirty tricks or genius negotiation strategies? Apple gets screwed anyway

By: Mr. Fusion

Mr. Fusion — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:04:12 +0000

#24, LOL real hard. I agree, #23 sounds good and I buy it.

By: MikeN

MikeN — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:48:01 +0000

Most of you are saying that Apple was in a very poor position at the time. In that case, there is nothing wrong with what Microsoft did. They shouldn’t have needed a club if Apple was so desperate. If MS hadn’t done what they did, there would be no Apple at all. Once again, you guys are just engaged in blind MS rage. If Microsoft kills a company, they/re evil. If they save a company, they’re evil.

By: MikeN

MikeN — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:47:17 +0000

By: pedro

pedro — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:43:56 +0000

#23 See? A well informed person with a positive input. What a pleasure to read a post like that.

By: R

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:23:40 +0000

I was working for Apple at that time as an engineer. I wasn’t in a position to have first hand knowledge of what was happening but the word within the company was that Apple was about to hit Microsoft with a big patent infringement lawsuit. Instead of creating another big Apple v. Microsoft court mess, they decided to settle the suit in the form of a stock purchase.. It made Apple look good because Microsoft was (supposedly??) investing in the company and it didn’t make Microsoft look like a bad guy (borrowing other companies technology) once again. BTW, at that time, Apple still had about $5 billion in the bank.. Far from a bankrupt company and definitely not in need of MSFT’s money.. But Apple was definitely in a poor state after Gil Amelio and the previously CEO’s. This was just part of Job’s turnaround plan for Apple.

By: pedro

pedro — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:12:58 +0000

#20 now, who let the ipod’s synch soft & itunes be ported to that other OS that has the real marketshare ipod was after?

What I find funny, is the latest mac statement that they aren’t porting itunes to neither windows 64 bits versions (XP nor Vista). What, too small a marketshare to bother?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:21:30 +0000

#13
Mouse – Invented at SRI in 1964
3.5″ Floppy – Developed by Sony in 1983
SCSI – Developed by Shugart Associates in 1979
Bitmaps – Clearly you cannot be claiming Apple created bitmaps nor displays.

What was innovative about Apple and the Macintosh is that they standardized on these technologies not that they invented them. Apple’s claim to fame is combining existing inventions in a new way.

By: Brucemlloyd

Brucemlloyd — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:19:28 +0000

Indeed, Microsoft’s input of cash did help, quite a bit. Not nearly as much as the iPod did, though.

By: pedro

pedro — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:06:31 +0000

#18 Thank god that MS existed to bail mac, even out of pity (I’d be embarrased). BTW, did you read that AMD is reporting loss this quarter? they’re blaming it on ATI.

By: Angel H. Wong

Angel H. Wong — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:04:57 +0000

#15

This is frightening, I’m agreeing with you again.

It’s the same deal with Intel & AMD, if AMD goes bellyup or gets bought by Intel, then the monopoly would be pretty obvious.

By: TJGeezer

TJGeezer — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:04:19 +0000

15 – That’s exactly how most tech reporters I knew at the time read that situation: MS needed plausible competition. But the bailout wasn’t entirely or maybe even primarily financial. Though internally MS took Linux or at least open source seriously at the time, outside the industry people mostly did not. Having a reputation as the company that killed Apple (note: even if that wasn’t really in their power) would have magnified the MS legal problems considerably harder to deal with. From an investor relations point of view, Apple’s getting the money from MS/Gates meant a LOT more than it would have meant for Jobs to lend it from his spare change box. It was a declaration that MS did not intend to kill Apple and it restored a lot of investor willingness to refrain from selling Apple out to the bottom-feeders. That’s how I recall it and I admit my memory is…. what’s that word?…

By: pedro

pedro — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:01:05 +0000

#13 (bad luck number for a post) Where did I said those were IBM inventions? where’s IBM now? Still waiting for that pc/m – dos comeback, this was not it.

#15 yeah, it would look bad to have 100% market share, as opposed to have 2.5% market share, right?

By: Lauren the Ghoti

Lauren the Ghoti — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:39:48 +0000

There’s them who maintain that BillG coming up with cash to keep Apple afloat was nothing more than self-interest, since, at that time, if Apple folded, M$ would’ve become a de facto monopoly and been broken up. Under those circumstances, keeping your competition on life support is the best move.

By: Podesta

Podesta — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:21:45 +0000

Pedro is actually partly right. Microsoft’s monetary contribution was more a show of support than financial respite. In a worse case scenario, Steve Jobs could have floated Apple a loan either personally or from Pixar. The most recent comments from Jobs on this topic are in Steven Levy’s “The Perfect Thing,” a homage to the iPod. (Say Pedro, why don’t give it a read?)

By: Lauren the Ghoti

Lauren the Ghoti — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:10:59 +0000

#12 – pedro

“Could you also tell the audience that mac didn’t invent the mouse either? nor the floppy disk, nor scsi, nor…”

Hmm. Mouse; 4.5″ microfloppy; scsi; bitmapped display… Yeah you right, p-dawg. All IBM innovations. Shame how they forgot and left ‘em all sit in some warehouse for a few years, giving Steverino a chance to sneak in and copy ‘em all. Suits, lawyers and beancounters have always been the true creative members of the computing community; I think it’s an inspiration to us all how you aren’t afraid to stand up for them.