Apple and Microsoft: Are they really Playing the same Game?

It looks like Microsoft is serious about going after the Mac. And why not? Apple sold 3.5 billion dollars worth of Macs! That is just in the last quarter! Imagine if Microsoft could add 3.5 billion to the coffers, just think where the company would be then! Microsoft would be much bigger than Apple, they'd have more cash and it is a sure bet that Microsoft could have more than 80% of the personal computer market!

The reality is that Microsoft has already won. You couldn't tell that by Microsoft's latest ads that the company dominates the computing landscape, the ads make Microsoft look as though the company is in a real battle for computing dominance. It is a little like Budweiser becoming obsessed with Pete's Wicked Ale. Sure, Pete's has grown over the years but compared to Budweiser... well you get the idea.

For the sake of argument, let us grant that Microsoft's ads will be supremely effective. How effective? We'll just assume that Apple never sells another Mac. Well, we should assume one more MacBook because I know someone who just ordered one. Once that Mac leaves the warehouse, we'll assume zero Macs sold because no one on the freaking planet ever realized you could a PC cheaper than you could get a Mac.

Microsoft wins right? Certainly, Microsoft wins the OS wars game, a game the company has already won but what if Apple is playing a different game now. To put it another way, imagine Apple and Microsoft have been playing hide seek for twenty years. Microsoft has been using night vision goggles and just embarrassing Apple for the lat twenty years. Every now and then Apple wins one by hiding behind Styrofoam or something but the overwhelming trend is for Microsoft to completely dominate Apple.

Then, when it is Microsoft's turn to hide, Apple doesn't bother to look. It isn't out of frustration, Apple has been trying desperately to beat Microsoft for twenty years but Apple has has seen something new and shiny and, like an easily distracted child, has wandered off to investigate this newness.

Microsoft treats Apple's lack of attention as a victory. The company snickers to itself that it has been hiding ten minutes and Apple hasn't even come close to finding it. It gets so bad Microsoft is wondering around telling all the other kids that it can't even see Apple from the place where it's hiding.

Strangely, Apple doesn't care. The shiny thing the company has found is a small gold nugget. At first Apple wasn't sure if it was iron pyrite or a legitimate nugget but after much cleaning and inspection Apple has realized it is a nice sized nugget of gold ore. Apple has also realized that there is a lot more where this came from looking at the striations in the rocks surrounding the find.

In this scenario, the nugget was the iPod and the striations are the iPhone. While Microsoft is busy, fighting over the desktop Apple is busy getting people to carry the desktop with them. If you have an iPod Touch or an iPhone you know how much that product has displaced your laptop. You also realize that for most people an iPod touch or iPhone is enough computer. And this time "enough" is competitively priced.

Five years from now, it won't be Microsoft versus Apple for control of the desktop, that was a game that played out long ago. Five years from now, it will be Apple versus some other phone maker for control of everything. Meanwhile Microsoft will still be in the same hiding place chuckling that Apple can't catch them.