Posted by Mac_user at 8/6/06 10:13 p.m.

Considering the number of times Apple's obituary was written in the last 20 years, the fact that the company is not only still here but actually growing (and marketing the most popular pocket music player) is something of a miracle.

As nice as it is to see Apple thrive, it seems unlikely it will ever overtake Microsoft. And that's probably not a bad thing. Being No. 1 brings a host of problems: increased security concerns, increased attention from regulators and restrictions on the ability to innovate quickly. There are days, I imagine, when Bill Gates and Steve Balmer might envy Steve Jobs ... just a little.

Can't wait to see what Jobs will show off tomorrow.

Posted by DL Byron at 8/7/06 7:50 a.m.

Correct. The Apple Death Knell has been waning only to be replaced by the weekly iPod Killer headlines. What the marketshare numbers always ignore is the installed user base and that Mac owners usually upgrade less often. Also the health of the company (debt free!) and Jobs specifically saying that he doesn't care about market share, what they care about it making good products that people buy. Apple is really good at "finding a problem and solving it the best way they can."

From my informal studies, every-time I go into an Apple Store, it's packed and at every conference I speak at macs always out number windows. I posted more about this last year: Microsoft and the iPod Nano

Todd,

Great to have you at the event.

Posted by Danowolf at 8/7/06 9:46 a.m.

More competition means lower prices for all of us pc users. Apple is getting a larger share of the pc pie and that can lead to security trouble. If there is one thing I have figured out its all of the software vendors have security holes they do not want to pay to fix, Microsoft being the most popular piņata that hackers beat with large clubs daily. They subscribe to the bean counter mentality similar to auto makers with safety flaws in cars that only kill "a few" people a year. Infamy comes to those who are popular and Apple may be the next big piņata the hacker's target. This article sheds some light on this subject: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1996542,00.asp
I am not an apple user but I hope the apple users are keeping there security updates current and there antivirus up to date.

Posted by Danowolf at 8/7/06 10:04 a.m.

Hopefully Apple computer is ready to start fixing loads of flaws that hackers may exploit. Currently they have not fixed them very fast if at all probably due to a lower target footprint generated by lower than Microsoft sales volume. I am not making a comparison of Microsoft to Apple. I am pointing out that being the most popular operating system in the world Windows is a much larger target for exploits and now Apple may be drawing the attention of the hacker world. Hackers love to brag and they love to embaress other people or companies. Here is an excerpt from an article on the recent Black Hat conference where hackers and security experts meet to learn about new exploits;
"The idea of poking a hole in Apple's current advertising campaign, which smugly boasts that Mac OS X is more secure than Windows, also appears to have been a factor."
So here we have some people at the worlds yearly meeting of hackers knocking Apple as being smug. Not a good sign for Apple users when it comes to security although I suspect Apple will adapt just like Microsoft has to the hacker threat.
The full article is here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do? command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9002175&source=rss_topic17