Michael Johnston
May 8th, 2007, 03:49 PM
Sramana Mitra has an interesting perspective on the Apple vs Microsoft game. Today, she <a href="http://sramanamitra.com/blog/938" target="_blank">posted an interesting piece</a> on her blog regarding the future of Microsoft and how the iPhone is affecting it.
According to Mitra, the iPhone isn't a big competitor in the mobile phone market, but rather in the notebook market. This perspective therefore means that Microsoft may see the iPhone as more of a threat than what was first assumed. Mitra writes:
<blockquote>"Nonetheless, we have also said, that the iPhone is positioned against the laptop, not the cell phone, that Microsoft has a much larger market share in the laptop OS world, and that the number of applications available on Windows is infinitely larger than those available on the MAC OS. (Of course, all this may become irrelevant if the world truly embraces hosted, on-demand applications as presented by Google, Salesforce.com, and others, but as it stands, the world still cares about resident apps on the device.)
The above indicates the increasing necessity for a robust and full-scale OS on this convergence device, making the Palm OS, RIM, and even Symbian, gradually irrelevant. "
[...]
"Thus, Bill Gates’ comments about the iPhone being largely irrelevant to Microsoft’s future appears to me like hogwash, since any of us would be a fool to underestimate the guy’s intelligence!"</blockquote>
The most important reason for the iPhone's market dominance potential is it's Mac OS X operating system. According to Mitra, the potential for full fledged applications sets it up as more of a competitor for Microsoft than any other company.
According to Mitra, the iPhone isn't a big competitor in the mobile phone market, but rather in the notebook market. This perspective therefore means that Microsoft may see the iPhone as more of a threat than what was first assumed. Mitra writes:
<blockquote>"Nonetheless, we have also said, that the iPhone is positioned against the laptop, not the cell phone, that Microsoft has a much larger market share in the laptop OS world, and that the number of applications available on Windows is infinitely larger than those available on the MAC OS. (Of course, all this may become irrelevant if the world truly embraces hosted, on-demand applications as presented by Google, Salesforce.com, and others, but as it stands, the world still cares about resident apps on the device.)
The above indicates the increasing necessity for a robust and full-scale OS on this convergence device, making the Palm OS, RIM, and even Symbian, gradually irrelevant. "
[...]
"Thus, Bill Gates’ comments about the iPhone being largely irrelevant to Microsoft’s future appears to me like hogwash, since any of us would be a fool to underestimate the guy’s intelligence!"</blockquote>
The most important reason for the iPhone's market dominance potential is it's Mac OS X operating system. According to Mitra, the potential for full fledged applications sets it up as more of a competitor for Microsoft than any other company.