Microsoft - a losing battle.

I know, tech is totally not my thing and i should just stay out of it. But the Apple v. Microsoft ordeal is just too interesting.

In sixth grade, my teacher had a computer in the classroom - of course, it was a Mac. He loved his Mac and would give us little demo's on Macs and "email" (a bizarre concept to me at the time) and would talk to some of the techy kids in our class about the Mac v. PC. A few years later, my parents bought a computer (Tandy? or something....) - and I was disappointed. The Mac format seemed so much easier to use - drop down menus etc. And just as I started to get used to using Windows... windows began tweaking its programs (suddenly there was drop downs and a start menu... hm). I remember being a kid and thinking... Gee, is Microsoft copying Mac?

Years went by - Microsoft built its empire/monopoly and then, Apple started to make its comeback. The comeback was pushed along with the release of the Ipod which soon took over the mp3 player market leaving other (some even better) players in the dust.

Since then, Microsoft seems to be losing ground and popularity - yes yes, I know, Microsoft is still huge - its on every computer and Microsoft owns everything. I got it. But did you read the Zune reviews? The basic consensus is that Microsoft took everything that users don't like about the ipod (that stupid wheel thing) and COPIED it and then took everything that people LOVED about ipod and, well, CHANGED it. They can't yet compete with the extensive iTunes store and every "innovative" thing they tried to add on Zune was a pathetic attempt to be cool (yay, you can "send" your music to your friend's zune - but they can only listen to it 3 times - even if it's not copyrighted material!!!! - so whats the point? no one will ever use it!). Zune will fail unless some rap group comes out with some catchy jingle about it (hey, it worked for vans and nikes didn't it?). And, while microsoft was busy trying to copy the iPod success formula, Apple was busy creating the awesome iPhone and apple TV. (Check out the iPhone on their website... its pretty neat though I'm not a fancy phone person myself).

So sad that Microsoft lacks such innovation! Apparently they've created a new Word program... and (SURPRISE) it resembles the Apple formats (ribbons instead of drop down menus). And, according to the first review i've read... it sucks.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/04/technology/wordreview_fsb.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2007010513