But the key point with computers is that the users are not the consumers. The consumers, the folks who pay, these are the owners of businesses. the users are their drones, who pump out spreadsheets and keep track of business data. Who cares what they think? They are paid office drones, so nobody cares what they think.

Until Apple decides to go for enterprise, it will be a fashion label that does tech products. If it decides to go for enterprise, it will be another Microsoft, more or probably less. Even now we can see how Apple is turning into the corporate leviathan they have always set themselves against. They now charge for developer educational content, and the iPhone, whatever anyone says, is a locked down device that is 100% about clever contracting and 0% about free computing.

Apple have to bet the farm if they want to take on the enterprise market, and it is a bet they could well lose. So microsoft failed utterly with their Zune. Yeah, true. But they were not betting the farm. If Apple goes after enterprise, the cost and the risk, and the prospect of a market war with Microsoft, will be huge. THEN folks will have to wonder about how well Apple is run, in the corporate sense. Until then, Apple is in the fashion industry.

Their good at it, and I love em, but they don't really do computing in the economic world.

If the measure of success is absolute sales volume, then no one has been as successful as Microsoft. I have no problem with that but look at Dell. Large absolute sales and where has its market capitalisation been? And the stock price of MSFT over the past 5 years? Apple's is successful measured ratings, productivity, shareholder value growth, margins etc. relative to its size. It is ultimately accountable to its shareholders, because they are the owners. Vista was a failure relative to MSFT's size.

And for years, folks have been pointing out that Apple does not have a strategy for making itself accessible in the market place. Spending huge money to secure a showcase store at a prime Paris location is a PR win, but a strategic loss. It shows investors that Apple is still fascinated with how they look, and not how many folks they can access and service in the marketplace. Sooner or later competitors will get the software right and the device makers will come to the party. If Apple is still a show pony and doesn't build the infrastructure to get to the market effectively, it will lose value as fast as any other poorly managed business. Murdoch is right. Apple is slow and limited, in the corporate sense. Good PR and design notwithstanding.

Believe you me, Apple is about to turn this joke into reality!