Microsoft eventually overcame Apple's superior market position and better product because the market is going to act to increase choice on the part of intellige

Microsoft eventually overcame Apple's superior market position and better product because the market is going to act to increase choice on the part of intelligent consumers of information technology(i.e. competitive organizations). Apple was able to superscede Microsoft's platform advantage because everything became a web application(thanks Netscape!) At the moment a bunch of guys with drool on their spreadsheets are trying to turn the world of web applications back into a platform one so that they can collect rent. It seems like this particular escape from freedom isn't going to occur because: 1) A major appeal of mobile devices is the idea that you can give people who are disinclined to serious computer literacy a tool that is easier to secure, and requires less support staff to show them how to use. * However, it seems unlikely that large profit seeking organizations will thrive by handing their nervous systems over to other large profit seeking organizations. Ultimately companies are going to want their locked down devices for their less computer literate employees to be completely within their control. Either there will be some sort of arcology/vertical integration type deal where there are all these companies that are in effect subsidiaries of their chosen mobile technology provider, or, the more likely answer: IBM will make a metric crap ton of money supporting in-house Tizen[0] projects for serious people who don't want their IP floating around their mobile providers network 'secured' solely on good faith and contractual assurances.(ultimately this probably goes for cloud applications as well) 2) The second big appeal of mobile devices is the idea that you can program Angry Birds in your spare time, sell it 'directly'[1] to consumers and quit your day job. It seems to my rather cursory investigation that this isn't happening as much as it could be due to people duking it out nastily to try and secure maximal app store rent, and not doing enough to support developers. [0] Thank god they stopped calling it MeeGo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizen [1] Honestly, 30% is reasonable marketplace rent. Documentation needs to be less opaque, and support for marketing analysis needs to be better for it to really be fair rent, but it's the standard marketing upsell in a lot of other industries, so it seems reasonable for apps as well.