Microsoft has so far avoided irritating manufacturers that churn out Windows PCs, tablets, and phones. But the game has changed with mobile devices.
In the last century, while Steve Jobs was anguishing over the look of a bevel on the Macintosh, Bill Gates, rocking back and forth, figured out how to achieve world domination for Windows. Gates handily won, applying his business-friendly, partner-with-PC-makers formula to render Apple a bit player. Even today, Microsoft has more than 90 percent market share of desktops, compared with 6 percent for Apple.
In the last century, while Steve Jobs was anguishing over the look of a bevel on the Macintosh, Bill Gates, rocking back and forth, figured out how to achieve world domination for Windows. Gates handily won, applying his business-friendly, partner-with-PC-makers formula to render Apple a bit player. Even today, Microsoft has more than 90 percent market share of desktops, compared with 6 percent for Apple.
But in the mobile world, the roles are reversed. Microsoft is barely a blip on the mobile scene, while Apple and Google are running away with the fast-growing market. The number of mobile Internet users is expected to exceed desktop Internet users beginning in 2014, according to ComScore.
Microsoft got the message in introducing theSurface line of mobile devices, taking a page from Apple's total-control product strategy and its own Apple-like approach to the Xboxover the last decade. Microsoft Xbox, which follows Apple's vertical-integration formula, now has a near 50 percent share of the U.S. console market, with 67 million units sold since 2005, according to Microsoft.
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