When Apple retired its long-running "I'm a Mac" ads, starring John Hodgman as PC blustering, we felt something akin to nostalgia. Though, in retrospect, Apple was smart to stop campaign: Mac-PC rivalry eventually became a contentious issue. Although direct comparisons with Apple, Microsoft is still King on the desktop with Windows installed on 90% of computers worldwide. Really thanks to the successful launch Windows 7, the company reported a strong end to the last fiscal year, earning 4.52 billion profit, to 48 per cent from the previous quarter.
But there's another reason why the desktop war cooled: consumers just don't care, as they used to.
More people buy smart phones and tablets, increasingly mobile operating systems. Recent iSuppli prediction, for example, predicted that the number of tablets sold will be almost four times between 2011 and 2012 and mushroom another 57 percent by 2012. Apple has sold over 120 million i/o devices since the original iPhone launched in 2007, which helps explain why, in may, Microsoft in market capitalization exceeded for the first time last year. (As of this writing, Apple was worth 315 billion Microsoft $ 244 billion).
At the same time, Google said it activate 200 000 Android phones a day, and users can choose from over a dozen Android phones via four major carriers United States. Plus, more than two dozen tablets running Android have either hit shelves or will in the coming months. A separate operating system, chrome OS will attempt to take down Windows in high-volume, but slowing the netbook market.
Microsoft isn't giving up mobile device war without a fight. In November the company launched its revamped Smartphone OS Windows 7 phone, which features a unique and compelling interface and integrates well with Microsoft Office, Xbox Live and Zune. However it comes almost four years after Apple began selling iPhone and Microsoft still does not have serial tablet strategy almost one year after the iPad. The company has demonstrated that the next generation of Windows will work on the ARM processor in this year's CES, but it doesn't identify the interface.
Question for Microsoft, how long will it take before the pills phones and cloud all traditional desktop OS relic. And Microsoft will be able to act quickly and decisively enough to remain relevant?