[Ti] What a moron

[Michael Bigley]

>If Apple's
>market share and flexibility doesn't change - the temptation to write for
>the PC market only will be a strong economic determinant.
>The grave danger then would be that at a miniscule market share - Apple
>would become a non-viable entity.

Can't speak for the others, but this is the point I am arguing... I 
am a Mac loyalist, but I do not think that we can "ignore" the rest 
of the world as you suggest.  The war is over; Microsoft is not our 
enemy, but neither to we have to cower in fear... Apple has carved 
out a venerable niche.

Your point about market share is flawed in that Apple's share IS 
growing (and it is a share of a market that is growing too) and with 
OSX, developers in the Unix/Linux world are often only a re-compile 
away from having a Mac version of their software... and to those 
folks that is a HUGE slice of pie.

Combine that with the fact that Apple is GIVING AWAY its developer 
tools with every purchase of OSX and/or a new Mac, and you have what 
is happening today:  a dynamic movement to develop on the Macintosh.

Big companies that are not porting their software to Mac are finding 
applications, haxies or drivers being written by the open source 
community or Mac developers.  An excellent example of this is 
VueScan; it is a $40 piece of shareware that will allow most popular 
scanners to work with OSX, something the scanner manufacturers are 
far behind in.

An interesting litmus test of our theories will be Safari... based on 
Open Source, and getting lots of support in that community, let's 
look at this topic a year from now.  See what kind of web browsing 
experience will only be available in Mac or Linux (Apple is sharing 
all of it's development with the KDE community).

Even TechTV (owned by Microsoftian Paul Allen) was all abuzz with 
MacWorld news. Why? Once reporter said it best: Everyone looks to 
these events because Apple is the innovator, and what you see here is 
usually what you will see on your PC in a year or two. (paraphrased).

There are things that Apple has to protect themselves against, but 
people who wave the "Market Share is Falling" banner are IMHO, like 
Chicken Little. ;-)
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Mike Bigley                Maineville, Ohio
       http://www.norbertrunning.com
Please support an American Indian Elder &
Medicine Man by visiting the above link.
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