4 ms·

What’s cool about MSFT and APPLE is that there will never be another company like those two. They are true trailblazers in so many ways.

by lvl155 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bushbaba 2y ago
Amazon? Google? Meta? Tencent? etc etc etc
- scarface_74 2y ago
  Google is an ad company that can’t make another significant product to save its life. Meta under Zuckerberg has been able to stay relevant. But FB is already seen as being for old people.
- CharlesW 2y ago
  Apple and Microsoft (as well as companies like Commodore) were there for personal computing’s birth. Amazon, Google and Meta came far later and didn’t invent their respective industries.
  - 9rx 2y ago
    HP sold what they called a "personal computer" in the 1960s, well before Apple and Microsoft came around. It wasn't exactly what we consider to be a personal computer nowadays, but MySpace wasn't exactly what we consider social media to be today either. I'm not sure these things happen in discrete steps like you seem to imply. There is a clear continuum. I think it is quite fair to say, for example, that Meta help define its industry like Microsoft and Apple helped define theirs. There will never be exact replicas of Apple and Microsoft again, but there undoubtedly will be many companies in the future that we will eventually look back upon in the same way.
    - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
      You are confusing the first personal computer with the rise of personal computing. Inventing a product isn’t very useful if you don’t invent the product market as well.
      - 9rx 2y ago
        Huh? The entire comment is about that rise. Did you stop reading after the first few words?
  - pests 2y ago
    Amazon did quite literally invent their respective industries - AWS and the cloud?
breadwinner 2y ago
That's absurd. Trailblazer means a pioneer; an innovator. Apple is one. Microsoft isn't. Microsoft is known for copying ideas, not for innovating. If there is one thing that hasn't changed in 50 years, it is the fact that they don't innovate. Take their recent products: Teams is a copy of Slack. Loop is a copy of Notion. This has been going on throughout their history. .NET is a copy of Java. Windows is a copy of MacOS. Excel is a copy of Visicalc and Lotus 123, Word is a copy of WordStar and WordPerfect, PowerPoint a copy of Harvard Graphics and Aldus Persuasion, and Access a copy of dBASE and FoxPro. What about Microsoft makes them not innovate? To innovate you have to hire smart developers and let them do what they love doing. This will result in some waste, as only some of the ideas will be successful financially. But the ones that succeed will be innovative. Microsoft doesn't do that. They hire good developers and assign them to a Program Manager who gives them a fully nailed-down spec for what to build. Inevitably the Program Manager (who are often business people) will find financially successful products to clone. This rarely results in waste as the product they are cloning has already created a market, Microsoft only needs to take the market from the innovator, which they do by bundling the product with either Office or Windows.
- dchuk 2y ago
  While I don’t disagree that Microsoft isn’t necessarily the most innovative, Apple is absolutely the most successful example of “first mover advantage” not actually being an advantage, and second movers can often be the actual winners. Literally every product they have launched in the last few decades has had the category already defined, they just came in with so much more polish and elegance (and sharp marketing) that they just repeatedly obliterate and take over the category as if they invented it. I’ll never forget when they dedicated a minute or two in a keynote a few years ago to how they improved the volume indicator visual overlay in iOS to be less obtrusive like they talked to god himself to figure this out, when Android had that style for years…it was brilliant marketing. I say all of this as a die hard Apple guy.
  - asdefghyk 2y ago
    RE ....Microsoft isn’t necessarily the most innovative.... Did you know Microsoft copied the idea of product activation from a PATENT and got fined about $300M USD for stealing the IP. Google the words Microsoft's fine for copying product activation idea, Ric Richardson for all the details .....
Mistletoe 2y ago
>What’s cool about the Dutch East India Company and Standard Oil is that there will never be another company like those two. They are true trailblazers in so many ways.
- evidencetamper 2y ago
  What do you mean by that? I don't understand the comparison, but would like to. Is it about monopoly?
  - pickdan 2y ago
    It's just a joke about the ridiculousness that large economy dominating companies can't possibly be replaced and will last forever. Thus, instead of modern companies they give the example of two titans of vintage corporate might (one from several centuries ago and one more recent, just a century ago) are used instead. Ah, Hubris.

What’s cool about MSFT and APPLE is that there will never be another company like those two. They are true trailblazers in so many ways.

by lvl155 2y ago

What’s cool about MSFT and APPLE is that there will never be another company like those two. They are true trailblazers in so many ways.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

bushbaba 2y ago

Amazon? Google? Meta? Tencent? etc etc etc

scarface_74 2y ago
Google is an ad company that can’t make another significant product to save its life. Meta under Zuckerberg has been able to stay relevant. But FB is already seen as being for old people.
CharlesW 2y ago
Apple and Microsoft (as well as companies like Commodore) were there for personal computing’s birth. Amazon, Google and Meta came far later and didn’t invent their respective industries.
- 9rx 2y ago
  HP sold what they called a "personal computer" in the 1960s, well before Apple and Microsoft came around. It wasn't exactly what we consider to be a personal computer nowadays, but MySpace wasn't exactly what we consider social media to be today either. I'm not sure these things happen in discrete steps like you seem to imply. There is a clear continuum. I think it is quite fair to say, for example, that Meta help define its industry like Microsoft and Apple helped define theirs. There will never be exact replicas of Apple and Microsoft again, but there undoubtedly will be many companies in the future that we will eventually look back upon in the same way.
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    You are confusing the first personal computer with the rise of personal computing. Inventing a product isn’t very useful if you don’t invent the product market as well.
    - 9rx 2y ago
      Huh? The entire comment is about that rise. Did you stop reading after the first few words?
- pests 2y ago
  Amazon did quite literally invent their respective industries - AWS and the cloud?

breadwinner 2y ago

That's absurd. Trailblazer means a pioneer; an innovator. Apple is one. Microsoft isn't. Microsoft is known for copying ideas, not for innovating. If there is one thing that hasn't changed in 50 years, it is the fact that they don't innovate. Take their recent products: Teams is a copy of Slack. Loop is a copy of Notion. This has been going on throughout their history. .NET is a copy of Java. Windows is a copy of MacOS. Excel is a copy of Visicalc and Lotus 123, Word is a copy of WordStar and WordPerfect, PowerPoint a copy of Harvard Graphics and Aldus Persuasion, and Access a copy of dBASE and FoxPro. What about Microsoft makes them not innovate? To innovate you have to hire smart developers and let them do what they love doing. This will result in some waste, as only some of the ideas will be successful financially. But the ones that succeed will be innovative. Microsoft doesn't do that. They hire good developers and assign them to a Program Manager who gives them a fully nailed-down spec for what to build. Inevitably the Program Manager (who are often business people) will find financially successful products to clone. This rarely results in waste as the product they are cloning has already created a market, Microsoft only needs to take the market from the innovator, which they do by bundling the product with either Office or Windows.

dchuk 2y ago
While I don’t disagree that Microsoft isn’t necessarily the most innovative, Apple is absolutely the most successful example of “first mover advantage” not actually being an advantage, and second movers can often be the actual winners. Literally every product they have launched in the last few decades has had the category already defined, they just came in with so much more polish and elegance (and sharp marketing) that they just repeatedly obliterate and take over the category as if they invented it. I’ll never forget when they dedicated a minute or two in a keynote a few years ago to how they improved the volume indicator visual overlay in iOS to be less obtrusive like they talked to god himself to figure this out, when Android had that style for years…it was brilliant marketing. I say all of this as a die hard Apple guy.
- asdefghyk 2y ago
  RE ....Microsoft isn’t necessarily the most innovative.... Did you know Microsoft copied the idea of product activation from a PATENT and got fined about $300M USD for stealing the IP. Google the words Microsoft's fine for copying product activation idea, Ric Richardson for all the details .....

Mistletoe 2y ago

>What’s cool about the Dutch East India Company and Standard Oil is that there will never be another company like those two. They are true trailblazers in so many ways.

evidencetamper 2y ago
What do you mean by that? I don't understand the comparison, but would like to. Is it about monopoly?
- pickdan 2y ago
  It's just a joke about the ridiculousness that large economy dominating companies can't possibly be replaced and will last forever. Thus, instead of modern companies they give the example of two titans of vintage corporate might (one from several centuries ago and one more recent, just a century ago) are used instead. Ah, Hubris.