What Apple and Google know that Microsoft does not?
The power and unlimited access to resources and talent found in the Open Source community.
The popularity of Apple and Google continue to increase while Microsoft struggles to compete.
Microsoft users must still wait years for the newest software version of their favorite program to become available (and hope it works correctly) while Apple and Google continue to supply new software programs and applications that are that is increasing their name recognition, customer loyalty and a competitive advantage over the Microsoft in the marketplace.
The popularity of Apple and Google continue to increase while Microsoft struggles to compete.
Microsoft users must still wait years for the newest software version of their favorite program to become available (and hope it works correctly) while Apple and Google continue to supply new software programs and applications that are that is increasing their name recognition, customer loyalty and a competitive advantage over the Microsoft in the marketplace.
How do they accomplish this- do they have more staff and resources than Microsoft, more money for their Research & Development?
No- one of the smartest things that Google and Apple have done is opened up the development, creation and enhancement of applications that they promote to the open source community. Rather than relying on the paid staff and developers to tweak their programs- Apple and Google have at their disposal millions and millions of computer techies- from seasoned software professionals (some even work or worked for Microsoft) to novice computer programmers at their disposal.
The Open Source community has been around since 1960s and is characterized by a collaborative process of open source work that led to the birth of the Internet in 1969... But there are earlier cases of Open Source and free software such as IBM's source releases of its operating systems in the 50s and 60s, and the SHARE user group (utilized by up and coming tech starts- Bill Gates and Bill Joy) that formed to facilitate the exchange of software
No- one of the smartest things that Google and Apple have done is opened up the development, creation and enhancement of applications that they promote to the open source community. Rather than relying on the paid staff and developers to tweak their programs- Apple and Google have at their disposal millions and millions of computer techies- from seasoned software professionals (some even work or worked for Microsoft) to novice computer programmers at their disposal.
The Open Source community has been around since 1960s and is characterized by a collaborative process of open source work that led to the birth of the Internet in 1969... But there are earlier cases of Open Source and free software such as IBM's source releases of its operating systems in the 50s and 60s, and the SHARE user group (utilized by up and coming tech starts- Bill Gates and Bill Joy) that formed to facilitate the exchange of software
The expansion of Open Source has only benefited from the existence and greater access to the Internet, after all much of the Internet runs on open source software, tools, applications and utilities such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, known as the LAMP stack for web servers.
The use and access to the global internet community promotes an environment of accessibility, easy and inexpensive redistribution and sharing so instead of users being limited to their own facilities and resources, they are granted access to a vast network of facilities and resources, some for free. Older analog tools such as the telephone and television provide limitations on the kind of interactions between users. The television offers little, if any interaction between users/viewer and the telephone users rarely interact with more than one other person (usually a peer-to-peer) relationship.
However, Internet users have the potential to access and meet millions of peers at once which can enhance culture, collaborate and communication with others from anywhere in the world.
With the proliferation of newer technologies such as networks, blogs, wikis more people have access, can contribute, resolve and produce products and distribute to others for free, as opposed to traditional distribution, redistributing of products and services. Therefore the Open Source medium appeals to many professional and novice developers as this approach is low or no cost, having access to source code can assist with tailoring a program as well as to serve as gaining ideas for improvements while installing a shared community that offers a solid code base, with quick fixes for any new issues that may arise.
With the proliferation of newer technologies such as networks, blogs, wikis more people have access, can contribute, resolve and produce products and distribute to others for free, as opposed to traditional distribution, redistributing of products and services. Therefore the Open Source medium appeals to many professional and novice developers as this approach is low or no cost, having access to source code can assist with tailoring a program as well as to serve as gaining ideas for improvements while installing a shared community that offers a solid code base, with quick fixes for any new issues that may arise.
The Open Source partnership with Apple is one of similar functionality of features also.
Both are usually virus free, both allow the converting and opening of Microsoft created documents and presentations- where Microsoft users have always had problems opening documents created by their own software program from different version (opening a n Office 07 document pr presentation from Office 03). This is another example of the old corporate mentality of requiring their users to purchase the upgraded version to continue to complete their work and share information with others using the same products.
Open source and Google share the fact that their applications are also free for users. These free programs also get around any compatibility issues by being able to access and read MS documents and even save the document as an Microsoft version.
Both are usually virus free, both allow the converting and opening of Microsoft created documents and presentations- where Microsoft users have always had problems opening documents created by their own software program from different version (opening a n Office 07 document pr presentation from Office 03). This is another example of the old corporate mentality of requiring their users to purchase the upgraded version to continue to complete their work and share information with others using the same products.
Open source and Google share the fact that their applications are also free for users. These free programs also get around any compatibility issues by being able to access and read MS documents and even save the document as an Microsoft version.
As technology continues to be more accessible to people anywhere in the world- the old corporate style mentality that Microsoft still tries to cling on to cannot keep up with the massive demand of users. Even as Apple has tapped into this market for creating new applications from the computers and phones- the future will require Apple to adopt a more Google free approach or it will start to resemble Microsoft more in operating from a world that no longer exists.
Case in point- compare the stock values and 52-week range amounts for Google, Apple and Microsoft:
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