5 ms·

I wouldn't consider this the end of Microsoft's dominance in the "desktop" market. What's actually happening is that the desktop market is shrinking, and being

I wouldn't consider this the end of Microsoft's dominance in the "desktop" market. What's actually happening is that the desktop market is shrinking, and being slowly replaced by smartphones and tablets as the casual computer. I doubt it's going to go away entirely so long as Microsoft continues to sponsor schools with Microsoft Office coursework, but I have a hard time believing that every house is going to continue to need a desktop computer for much longer. My parents can get almost everything they need done on an iPad, and are somewhat annoyed when they stumble on the rare site that makes them walk into the Office and use their computer instead of finishing the task on the couch.

paulddraper 10y ago
It's the personal computing market though. Close enough translation.
- derefr 10y ago
  I'm not so sure. Tablets are personal, certainly, but Microsoft and Sun didn't care so much about the "truly personal" computing market (the market that in the 80s/90s would be translated as "game consoles and PDAs.") Instead, they were after the workstation market: they both wanted to be the platform that businesses wrote their line-of-business Intranet-facing CRUD apps in. Any PC-targeted uses for their platforms were just loss-leaders to win mind-share in the enterprise server+workstation market.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    And that is why Microsoft went all out when Netscape started pushing the intranet idea, because it targeted the platform that MS had built up after they blindsided Novell.