The first computer I used was during an optional after-school computer class in the first grade. There were about six or seven of us at tables, each with what I think were old 386es, where we would learn to type (although I still use my “Ninja Turtle” six-finger method), use basic DOS commands, and play Commander Keen.
The first Mac I used was a few years later, an old black-and-white Mac (probably a Mac Classic in hindsight), in art class (of course!). This was around the time that Windows now had a GUI and Warcraft I was the best game around.
Other than that one Mac, Windows machines were what I used almost exclusively, other than during my internship at Hawk Communications where I got to use a first-gen iMac with that godawful hockey-puck mouse. At home we had a Windows 98 desktop with a 1.5 GB hard drive that was always full.
Apple’s Great Leap Forward
Then I took graphic design in college, during their move from Mac OS 9 to the then-new OS X. What a revelation! So many aqueous textures and animations and drop shadows! So much more stable than Windows! Apple is the best company ever! Why do 99% of people use Microsoft junk? We got a Mac at home too and I didn’t use a PC at home until the fall of this year.
Then the iPod started becoming more popular after overtaking the massive, battery-devouring Creative MP3 players, and Apple became better-known. Those white earbuds became ubiquitous, but few people had an Apple computer. In the meantime, Microsoft was busy pushing those awkward touch/stylus swivel laptops, as well as the Xbox.
The release of the iPhone in 2007 really brought Apple into the mainstream and people started buying Macs en masse. White laptops with a glowing fruit on the lid became all the rage, especially for students. It wasn’t weird to use a Mac anymore.
The Present Day
Microsoft has now evolved (or rather, devolved) into the red-headed stepchild that Apple was back in the day. The Xbox has been extremely successful but none of their other products has had much of an aura to it. The PC was an appliance, the cubicle-dweller computer. Windows 7 was (and is) actually very good, but never got much praise. It was good in a boring way.
Now Microsoft finds itself the underdog. Apple has enough cash on hand ($121 billion) to buy over half of Microsoft’s stock (at its current market cap of $234 billion). An Apple product release is an almost religious experience with sycophantic media whipping people into a frenzy over game-changers like slightly higher pixel density.
Apple doesn’t need its desperate drive anymore. It can churn out slightly bigger iPhones and slightly smaller iPads rather than create groundbreaking products. Apple can afford to coast.
Microsoft can’t. Windows Phone’s market share is puny compared to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Windows’ market share is declining as people buy fewer PCs and buy more tablets – that also run iOS and Android. Microsoft finds itself needing to innovate rather than coast like it did through the 90s and early 00s.
That’s a good thing for us consumers. The quality of Microsoft’s products has never been better. Apple is beginning to act complacently but hopefully they can reach some equilibrium where they both push each other to build better, less-expensive products. We all win in that scenario.