From all the reading I have done about Steve Jobs, I really don't think his first priority is to "beat" Microsoft. Steve is ALL about design and user experience. He feels that if Apple's products "ace" those two elements, the market share will take care of itself. The problem with "acing" the user experience is that in order to do so, some parts of it have to have tight controls - and that is one of the major complaints with Mac naysayers. I cannot understand how so many MS users can complain endlessly one minute about all the headaches involved with the threat of malware, and turn around and take jabs at Mac OS and iPhone OS being a "closed" system.

Techies and geeks like to tweak things - and Windows & Android are far better for that than Mac & iPhone. They are also the types that know what to avoid as far as the threat of malware is concerned. However, the far greatest majority of users out there just want stuff to "work", without having to worry about what to avoid. I just happen to be somewhat of a geek that got tired of having to tinker with my computer all the time to keep it in good working order. It has been a refreshing change to sit down at this iMac and just use it instead of spending so much time each week on system maintenance.

I have a Droid smartphone - only because I don't have AT&T coverage in my area. I have come to the conclusion that Android is to phones as Windows is to PC's. Yes, it works and is far better than a "dumb phone", but I have found the apps available are a joke compared to what I had on my iPod Touch. The user interface is all over the place - controls in one app are far different than the next, ect. I have found apps that totally screw up my Droid and had to uninstall them. I just didn't see that sort of stuff on the iPod. Apple reviews every app to make sure they adhere to a set standard and actually work well with the device. Android is wide open to anything. It is merely a matter of time before Android owners will need to start running anti-virus apps on their phones - and like PC's, it will drag on the system. Yes, there are a lot of joke apps in the iTunes Store too - useless for the most part. BUT, you can rest assured that they will not cause problems with the device and the user interface is predictable. But, getting back to the original topic of this thread. MS just did a major overhaul of it's phone and entertainment division. I read last night that they have goals of selling 30 million Win 7 Phone devices by 2011. This is after sales of only 3 million the past year. They are living a pipe dream if they believe this. For starters, they are WAY late arriving to the market. Most device makers have already committed to other mobile OS's. They just lost HP. Steve Ballmer demonstrated an HP prototype tablet that was running Windows a couple of months ago. HP has now taken that device back to the drawing board and are ditching Win in favor of Palm's OS that they now own. This was a MAJOR blow to MS and probably what lead to the recent management overhaul. The Courier that really looked promising has now been exposed at complete vaporware and will never come to the market. The only way to get a mobile device to sell well is to have a large selection of apps available. Right now, there are only three app stores that developers are making apps for - Crackberry, iTunes, and Android. Even HP with their Palm mobile OS will have a battle on their hands getting their tablet to sell due to this - and Win has absolutely nothing. Not taking the mobile market seriously was a major blunder by MS and will be extremely tough to overcome. And this is the reason why - Ballmer hasn't got a lick of "vision" and he likes their strategy "a lot"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO4pL9P6uow&feature=related