Quote:
Originally Posted by
Marvin 
I don't think it will ever be too late for them. Windows can only ever lose out to Linux. Macs are held back by the hardware options and that's not changing soon.
The only way that Apple can make a significant impact is if hardware prices drop to such an extent that PC hardware has no advantage. Apple need to realise this with their lineup and simply keep using older processors longer.
People I see using Macbooks simply do not need more than a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo for emails and general office work.
Some interesting points in there, but
if you look at the W3C's OS stats here Macs have doubled their worldwide market share in the last four years although admittedly growth seems to be slowing a little bit. I think Apple will start to price more aggressively accepting lower margins for higher sales: we're already starting to see it with the iMac and the Macbook and I know quite a few individuals who have moved from PC to Mac in the last three months.
The thing that stops Linux being a serious contender is that generally you have to be quite careful with your hardware choices for life to be even approaching simple. I say this speaking from my own experience of the fairly arduous task of getting something as common as a broadcom wifi card to work and as for the RAID array, well I had to forget it in the end short of learning how to hack my own drivers.
Yes it's true that I probably spend as much time in terminal on the Mac as I did on Linux, but it's mostly because I choose to, not because I have to.
As for it never being too late for Microsoft, giants can always fall. You only need to compare IBM's market position in the late seventies/early eighties to the way it is now to know that. It only takes one major strategic mistake for a company to lose it's dominance. Another case in point would be Yahoo's opportunity to buy Google some years back that they decided against.