The Macalope on Mike Elgan’s Absurd ‘Apple Is the New Microsoft’ Thing

So last week Mike Elgan wrote a piece for IDG titled “Apple Is the New Microsoft”. It was, as you might guess, craptacular. There is a core tenet of truth to his premise, in that success breeds enemies and resentment, and Apple has been very, very successful this decade. (As Dave Winer often quotes former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée: “As the monkey climbs the tree, more people can see his bottom.”)

But what Elgan misses, by a country mile, is that the core problem with Microsoft was that they broke the law. The problem wasn’t that they built a monopoly. The problem was that they abused their monopoly powers.

As for the specifics of Elgan’s crummy article, just read The Macalope, who, bless his heart, picks it apart perfectly.

★ Sunday, 9 September 2007