Is Tim Cook still the right choice as CEO?

[thekev]

That's just nasty, and potentially illegal.

It also sums up much of what I hate about Microsoft. I dislike anti-competitive behavior.

Apple's extreme of not wanting anyone to know anything about forthcoming products until they jump out of the magic hat fully-formed seems unwise in the present competitive environment. I wouldn't mind them throwing their weight around a little. Everybody else does.

See I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if they actually have plans for that market and consider revealing them to be a good idea. I still don't buy the "everyone else does it" logic. I think words should be credible. If they mention something they intend to ship at a later date, they should ship something unless their plans change for unforeseeable reasons whether they're related to engineering, market conditions, or whatever else. Throwing weight around with no intention to enter a market hurts the smaller firms much more than the multinational conglomerates.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Microsoft has taken things to one extreme, Apple to another. In the former case Microsoft making their plans public hasn't necessarily been for the purposes of litigating, so much as to suck the air out of a competitor's sails. In some instances they clearly never had the intention of actually shipping. That's just nasty, and potentially illegal. Apple's extreme of not wanting anyone to know anything about forthcoming products until they jump out of the magic hat fully-formed seems unwise in the present competitive environment. I wouldn't mind them throwing their weight around a little. Everybody else does.

I forget the exact details, and, Google didn't add much, but, I recall that when Control Data Corporation came out with the 6600, IBM pre-announced the 360/91, which was supposed to be faster (and 360-compatible), even though the machine was not designed yet, and, not delivered until 3 years later, by which time CDC had the 7600 out--roughly 4X faster yet again. Someone who remembers feel free to correct the details, but, CDC successfully sued IBM, using the Sherman Antitrust Act, which forbids companies from announcing products that don't exist in order hurt competition. I seem to recall that CDC got part of its commercial timesharing network (I forget the name) as part of the settlement.

Regardless of the exact details, it is supposed to be illegal to announce products that don't exist, in order to hurt your competition. Obviously, I'm not a lawyer and not offering legal or any other kind of advice, but, I think I like Apple's strategy better than illegally announcing vaporware.

(Edit Much of this is covered in the Wikipedia article on Vaporware:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware

 

[IJ Reilly]

It also sums up much of what I hate about Microsoft. I dislike anti-competitive behavior.



See I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if they actually have plans for that market and consider revealing them to be a good idea. I still don't buy the "everyone else does it" logic. I think words should be credible. If they mention something they intend to ship at a later date, they should ship something unless their plans change for unforeseeable reasons whether they're related to engineering, market conditions, or whatever else. Throwing weight around with no intention to enter a market hurts the smaller firms much more than the multinational conglomerates.

I certainly won't disagree with you about anticompetitive behavior, but I wasn't suggesting that Apple engage in any, or even that they approach the line. Apple's habit of absolute secrecy is what sets them apart from everyone else at this point. A few selective peeks inside the kimono wouldn't do them any harm, and might do a lot of good.

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I forget the exact details, and, Google didn't add much, but, I recall that when Control Data Corporation came out with the 6600, IBM pre-announced the 360/91, which was supposed to be faster (and 360-compatible), even though the machine was not designed yet, and, not delivered until 3 years later, by which time CDC had the 7600 out--roughly 4X faster yet again. Someone who remembers feel free to correct the details, but, CDC successfully sued IBM, using the Sherman Antitrust Act, which forbids companies from announcing products that don't exist in order hurt competition. I seem to recall that CDC got part of its commercial timesharing network (I forget the name) as part of the settlement.

Regardless of the exact details, it is supposed to be illegal to announce products that don't exist, in order to hurt your competition. Obviously, I'm not a lawyer and not offering legal or any other kind of advice, but, I think I like Apple's strategy better than illegally announcing vaporware.

(Edit Much of this is covered in the Wikipedia article on Vaporware:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware

In general you are right, but for an action to be prohibited by the Sherman Act, many other findings need to be made for it be found to be anticompetitive by a court. Microsoft was conducting themselves in obviously anticompetitive manner for nearly two decades before the law caught up with them, and only just. One of their more nefarious anticompetitive acts was PenWindows (a product announced to sandbag a competitor, and never released) -- but they were never sanctioned for that one, or many others.