That's what Microsoft does. Copy Apple and make the copy so bad that Apple can't quite sue them. MS has been doing that for DECADES.
That's why I call MS "The Worlds Biggest Out-Of-Focus Copying Machine".
It's not good for consumers in the long run. We get stuck with expensive and inferior copies of Apple products. Yuck.
A Microsoft App Store is almost too hilarious a concept to think about. Thinking about it might make good therapy for depression but could have side effects related to excessive laughter.
If they're very lucky it will be Zune2.
MS has been focusing on Enterprise features? Odd. Our MS based computers at work are actually worse to use than Windows computers at home. Perhaps our IT guys are just being cruel?
Have Fun.
Keri
MS knows 5 things, more or less:
1) How to extend boredom and bad software into the enterprise
2) How to copy (poorly)
3) Office suite rehashes
4) Xbox
5) How to ride the coattails of their universal licensing racket
For quite a long time now, the only thing MS has had left is empty talk. Lip service and blustery denial, i.e., tablets are a fad, Apple rounding errors, etc. All of these are
excuses in the face of continued, embarrassing criticism. MS is all about excuses. Ever notice that? Whenever it's question period Ballmer always has an answer - even if it sounds ******* insane. Of course, excuses don't put insanely great products into consumers' hands (unless it's substandard copies three years later!) But that's OK. MS wil "get it right" eventually. We keep hearing that. Just give them time. Meanwhile Apple, at a fraction of the cost, redefines entire markets overnight. It's almost like business as usual at Apple: redefine markets and create new ones. Lead the way forward. So in other words: no waste. Money spent wisely. Which leads me to the next point . . .
Did you know that Microsoft has outspent Apple roughly 8-1 in R&D over the last decade? Yup. 8 to freaking 1.
And in that time - a decade, Apple has produced Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, lots of groundbreaking Mac models (multiple iMac versions, the iBooks, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, MacBook Air, Power Macs, etc.), iPod, popularized Podcasting, iTunes, iTunes Store, iPhone, iOS, Apple TV, the App Store, Mac App Store, and, of course their current game-changer: the iPad.
Microsoft, on the other hand,
for 8x the money, has come up with: another back-asswards Mac OS X clone - a Windows rehash that they're trying to shoehorn onto tablets with varying degrees of failure, some bloated Office retreads, the Zune, Kin, Bing, and Windows Phone 2007. If it wasn’t for the Sony-inspired Xbox (Red Ring of Death included) and a Nintendo-inspired Xbox controller, Microsoft would have nothing but a string of failures to show for
roughly 80 billion dollars. The ratio of R&D to revenue for both companies couldn’t be more telling. Of course, they put a lot of R&D into their Enterprise software. Which doesn't function any better today than it has years ago. We're still on XPee at work. So, of course it's all useless to us. It's hard to get excited about Exchange and Outlook.
That's right. $80 billion for a PlayStation clone, an accessory to make it work like a Wii, an also-ran search engine, and what’s left of Nokia.
Is it more funny than sad? I'm not sure.
Any random person picked off the street could have run Microsoft better during the last decade. Mind you, not that a lot of other CEOs are any brighter (here's lookin' at ya, Acer!)
Microsoft does two things really well, though: Retarded product names and waste. Add these to the other five above. The list still doesn't look any better.
Cheers