By Rich W Woods
I started this “What If…” section of For the Love of Tech a few months ago. The idea was to ask “what if” questions and then provide a hypothetical scenario of how it would play out. The idea was to create discussion but mostly, to have fun. When I thought of “What if Apple Acted like Microsoft”, it felt like I was finally realizing why I created the entire category.
This column was inspired by a post I saw on Google+. Someone posted one of those “This is what I think of me, what my friends think of me, and what the world thinks of me”, but it showed Android users, iOS users, and BlackBerry users. I commented that I found it interesting that they used BlackBerry as number three instead of Windows Phone and someone else said it was most likely made before Windows Phone. I pointed out that while Windows Phone came out in 2010, Windows Mobile came out in February 2007, and that was Windows Mobile 6. Windows Mobile goes back to 2003 and even goes back before that as Pocket PC and then Windows CE. As it turns out, Windows Phone dates back to the early 90s.
Apple and Microsoft are two completely opposite companies. Apple is a hardware company and Microsoft is a software company, but it gets deeper than that. Apple doesn’t implement features until they know they’ll work while Microsoft fixes it in update one. Apple creates a brand and nurtures that brand until it’s time to abandon it while Microsoft creates a brand, changes the brand, changes it again, abandons the brand, and then brings it back ten years later as something else. So, what if Apple acted like Microsoft?