Apple/Microsoft....My Prediction

D

Darshan

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Somewhere down the road, at what point I dunno, Microsoft and Apple will become one company, with Microsoft buying out Apple.
The most likely scenario is this: with the US economy and financial system unwinding with greater and greater speed , a massive implosion is just a matter of time....it's not if it will happen, but when. The world's economies will be negatively affected.
With businesses and corporations starting to go under and the numbers accelerating, and an eventual upsurge in unemployment/underemployment, Apple will be far less able to withstand the big dropoff in sales that will happen as more and more people are unable to make discretionary purchases.
Under the hand of Microsoft, Macs and their operating systems will morph into a new Microsoft created beast, with Macs losing all semblances of their uniqeness to the Microsoft touch.
Think I'm absurd? Hmmm?
 
Yes. I think you're absurd. Microsoft has been in constant fights against the US and then the EU about their anti-competitive tactics, have been found guilty about these things various times and _basically_ Apple is Microsoft's posterchild of a competitor. As long as Apple has between 2 and 10% market share (closer to 2 for now), Microsoft can easily kick back and relax and point to Apple when asked about competition. (More or less.)

I wonder where you take your "prediction" from. The world goes down so MS buys Apple? I _really_ don't follow.
 
I don't think a serious Mac user would say that ... he's probably just trolling :) I am betting the farm that in another 2 years (if Apple keeps up the good work), there is suddenly going to be an explosion of Mac users, and market share will jump to nearly 50% of the personal computer market.

Hmm.. maybe 3 years...
 
And maybe only 8 or 9 percent. But yes, the tendency's about right. ;)
 
Microsoft should tell the EU to get lost and pull there products out of Europe. Everybody goes after the big dog with dollar signs in there eyes. The US is no better first the Feds then the indiviaul states and 90% of it is because of Microsoft's deep pockets.
 
That's a rather one-sided view, hawki... Netscape and others had a real case against Microsoft's tactics. And the EU now: There are rules that must be upheld. Those rules weren't made specifically for Microsoft (and they're hitting Apple as well in Norway for example). The EU has quite clearly put what MS has to do, and they didn't exactly comply at the beginning.

You say they should "simply" pull out of Europe. That's like removing a leg because of a little rash. If you compare what Microsoft _makes_ in Europe...
 
Microsoft and Apple will not become one company, for the government won't allow it. Microsoft would truly monopolize the computer, home, and several other industries. Same as saying Ford will buy out Chrysler and GM, it won't meet with approval from the government.
 
I think it will be come more or less irrelevant what type of op system you choose in the future as they will both run on either apples or pcs (see Intel chip in macs for proof of this). However, since apple makes a more user friendly, virus free (so far) system that actually is more and more enterpriseable, Microsoft will have less and less 'marketshare' in the coming years.

Apple realized with iTunes and then the ipod that these days it's less about machines and more about software; higher mark up and profit margin with cost savings to consumers!

Add the fact that Microsoft is under increasing scrutiny and penalization for its practices and we can see it will become a more and more irrelavent company as it falls behind in 'cool factor' and 'usability'. See Vista and the Zune player for proof of this.
 
hawki18 said:
Microsoft should tell the EU to get lost and pull there products out of Europe. Everybody goes after the big dog with dollar signs in there eyes. The US is no better first the Feds then the indiviaul states and 90% of it is because of Microsoft's deep pockets.
Click to expand...

Leaving the xenophobic slant aside, Microsoft's practices are blatantly anti-competitive - the EU is just pointing it out, just as the US government did. Microsoft's business model seems to be wait until something useful or innovative appears (say, Java, iPod), make a poor-quality derivative copy of it (say, .NET, Zune *snigger*) and use their monopoly to force it into position. A piss-poor and anti-competitive, if financially successful, way of doing things.

The only way MS's "deep pockets" are an issue is that they can easily afford whatever fine is thrown at them.
 
I agree that Apple and Microsoft will never become one company. It would be the disgusting child of Windows and OS X against Linux; the government wouldn't stand for it. It's ridiculous to conclude that because of an economic shift we would experience anything such as the mergence of two completely different companies with completely different ideas.
 
If any company was to aquire Apple. Of course IF! it was to be sold, that company would most probably be Google.
 
Who do you mean? The thread starter? I just don't get where the idea's coming from, but in other threads he's not necessarily been a troll. (While in others, yes...)
 
Being an Apple employee, it's hard to fathom the idea of Microsoft buying out a company that just had a 1 Billion dollar profit for one quarter. The idea that the board members on Apple's side would allow such an outragious thing to happen is just asinine. To me this kind of opinion might as well be yet another Why Microsoft is better than Apple. I don't hate Microsoft, I just love Apple and for as profitable as they are right now, it would make absolutely no sense to entertain such ideas as the OP has made. It's not just absurd, but disturbing to think it. Plus the fact the government would no way allow Microsoft to absorb Apple...when that happens, I will gladly give up my citizenship of this country and move on.

Yes I still think the OP is a troll on this on.
 
As I said: I don't understand where the idea comes from, either. To _still_ answer the first post (I really wonder why he didn't follow up, though, a real troll would...): I think the reasons for such an absurd thing mentioned would *first* hit Microsoft before it'd hit Apple.
 
Ok..maybe he's not the usual well-defined troll, but for some reason I just picture this person with a billboard strapped to the back waving a bell frantically about our immanent demise.

I took a moment and read the OP's comment again and realized what was really being said, why point out just these two companies though does not really make much sense; hence my initial T-baggin'.

All he just described is a recession...plain and simple. No jobs=no money to buy products. No sales=no profit. No profit=dead company.

This is actually happening now, though not in a grand dramactic fashion as the OP predicts, but with the residential housing market. It will all work itself out through various other means and either a recession will happen or the government will raise/lower rates to help ease us through the turbulence.
 
The residential housing market here in Fort Wayne has already begun to stabilize to a great degree; I project we'll actually see improvements larger than before everything went downhill. I don't know about the rest of the world, however.
 
Median home prices in california are still around 575,000 - 615,000. Less than 30% of Californians can afford to own a home. I don't have sources on this, it's from memory over the past couple of months from news reports, but they are close to those numbers. It's just mind boggling, that to be in California and watcht someone try to sell a postage stamp-size lot for a half-a-mil.

Either way, when the economy goes into this supposed doomsday spiral, I think by then the last thing we will be concerned about is wether or not Microsoft has the nerve to buy up Apple. I'm sure by then I'd be more concern about the welfare of my family and friends.
 
Primitive Darwinism = fight for the fittest (the selfish gene), e.g. MS takes over Apple.

Advanced Darwinism [Dawkins etc.] = the instinctive need for diversification and co-operation (the unselfish gene), e.g. legislation prevents monopolising of the software market, or MS take over Apple, but in doing so ineviatably fuels new OS competitive products from innovators.

The end result? MS never have the final say. It goes against nature.
 
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