>Has Apple released any "original ideas" in the past 3-4 years - I'd say no, they haven't. The iPad might have been the last really "original" concept (if you c

>Has Apple released any "original ideas" in the past 3-4 years - I'd say no, they haven't. The iPad might have been the last really "original" concept (if you can even call it that, but hell with it, they can have it). The iPad was LESS than 2 years ago. April 2010. See how fast the spoiled consumer takes things for granted? And you sure as hell can call it an original concept: No tablet had succeeded in the market before it, other companies started making copycat products immediately after, and it still commands the huge majority of the market, to the point that most of the competitors are statistical noise and the best ones are at 20% at most. >The iPod, the iPhone - what else? The GUI, no. They didn't inven the laptop. True, some guy in the seventies invented the laptop, I'm sure. It was like 80 pounds, with a 6 inch black and white display. Should I care about _that_ laptop? As for Apple they just made the best, or some of the best, laptops (at least according to most reviews, judging by most alpha geeks at programming conferences, and by a certain Linus Torvalds). Oh, and in the same 3-4 years, they have brought to the mass market: Hi-DPI displays, SSD drives, thunderbolt, unibody construction, ultraportables (the Air defined the category, and had Intel offer a bounty of millions to PC manufacturers to copy it). Oh, and Siri and a Cloud offering, integrating file storage and backup across a range of devices. Not bad for a stagnant company. >Microsoft. They might be considered more "creative" (by Woz) because of their departure from the desktop with Windows 8 Departure? They kept the whole desktop, and merely added a gimmicky (and poorly favored in reviews) tiled/touch interface on top. >- so in essence, they're being more "creative" because the ideas are more original than iOS4>5>6, iPhone 2>3>4>5>5S and iPad 1>2>3>4 (all refreshes) Windows 8 is Windows NT -> XP -> Vista -> 7, with a thin new facade that you venture off of every time you actually use an app. All refreshes here too. >We also have the new voice recognition initiative which, if successful, will be a big game changer for Microsoft. That's a big if.