I think you're not giving MS enough credit. The pieces of the story that are missing are IBM and Intel. IBM was the only firm in the world at the time that we

I think you're not giving MS enough credit. The pieces of the story that are missing are IBM and Intel. IBM was the only firm in the world at the time that were able to integrate a working computer. To do so at a price that was appropriate for the home, IBM had to outsource large pieces of the project, both the CPU and OS. MS and Intel were brilliant to allow substitutes for the early IBM computers to rise to market by working with multiple customers. The first firm to fully copy IBMs system (allowing software purposed for the IBM computers to run on other machines) was Compaq. Henceforth, MS and Intel were able to commoditize the PC and extract tons of value from their portions of the value chain. MS, Intel, and Compaq were key in effectively capturing about 1/3rd of IBMs value in a short time span. The factors that led to their success can probably then be assessed in the context of Apple et al.