You’re not listening to me. You’re not co-operating with me at all.
Is it possible that all the bungling that took place in Microsoft’s entertainment and hardware division was actually sabotage? In World War II, Germany sent a secret “fifth column” behind enemy lines to disrupt defenses during its invasions. Corporations have engaged in similar activities, and a series of “mistakes” that were beneficial to Apple has me wondering who’s really been calling the shots in Redmond.
Last week, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) passed Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in market capitalization for a number of reasons. I agree with Gary Marshall, who argues in “Apple beats Microsoft? Not so fast, Fanboys” that the two companies aren’t even in the same race. I’d even add that the only reason Apple moved ahead in valuation is because we don’t count stock owned by employees, and Bill alone has around US$40 billion of that.
However, I also agree with much of what Geoffrey James says in “Top 10 Reasons Apple Beat Microsoft” — essentially, that Apple’s relative success really has more to do with decisions made at Microsoft than decisions made at Apple. Having said all of that, Microsoft is still the most profitable company in the segment, and as Jobs himself would point out, it is all about profit.
However the one saying I’ve made famous is that “perception is 100 percent of reality,” and the perception is that Apple did and continues to beat Microsoft. The executive Microsoft had positioned against Apple was Robbie Bach, who ran Microsoft’s entertainment and hardware division, a division that became a vampire division, and this got me thinking that Apple’s greatest strength may be its secret fifth column.
{ TechNewsWorld/Rob Enderle | Continue reading | via Richard }
