Originally Posted by vienna
The whole Apple will replace MS in the business world argument has been going on for decades. Experience has taught me the demise of MS and MS-driven PCs is a bit exaggerated. For a very, very long time, generations raised in an Apple education technology environment have had to deal with the fact MS PCs are the very dominant presence in the real world business environment and have had to adapt to the fact. The idea businesses will scrap MS PCs and embrace Apple environments is false; the sheer cost of such a change would make any good-sized business balk. Apple really did itself in as far as PCs are concerned when they both over-priced their product and placed severe constraints on the ability of business to modify, scale, customize, and easily integrate their systems. Businesses did not choose MS and IBM products and clones because they were better than Apple products, they did so because they were less expensive, easier to service and maintain, and far more flexible than Apple devices and OSes. Apple thought they had a winning scheme when they threw their weight behind setting up educational programs designed to "hook" the young students and have them become acolytes who would spread the word of Apple unto the world; unfortunately for Apple, the business world was looking for fast and cheap, as always, and Apple was not cheap and, given its somewhat limited production capacity when PCs first came on the market, Apple was unable to provide product fast enough to meet demand. In the years I have had in the field of data processing, from mainframes to tablets, no matter what system or format, the person coming on to the job always has to adjust and adapt to the prevailing system. Apple is too far behind the curve when it comes to business needs: does anyone know of a major business running an Apple server?...
I don't think PC desktops will vanish altogether; they may remain in much the same manner as phonograph turntables, which, lately, have seen a significant resurgence of popularity, as have tube amplifiers for musicians and audiophiles. Where the real change will come is in the operating systems: the Apple OS has now been supplanted in worldwide popularity and use by Android and I would not be surprised to see desktops running Android-based OSes in the near future. Other OSes, like Linux, will have their adherents, but when it comes to developing a standardized, across all devices and media OS system, Android is the big dog. If you've got to make all of your business be able to interact easily and cheaply, Android, with its wide base on so many personal devices currently has the upper hand...
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