Microsoft Mac FUD, Phooey!

This is such a despicable tactic. Microsoft embraced Apple and gave them funding at the height of the antitrust investigation, as a way of sustaining the idea that there was still competition in the market. Now that Apple's back on their feet, and OS X is giving them a run for the money, they pull out of the market. This decision may end up as badly for Microsoft's Office division as Lotus' decision to skip Windows.

From book sales, of course, we know that OS X is considerably hotter than Windows XP. Mac OS X: The Missing Manual has been the #1 computer book at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon since it was published last year. A pretty solid 6+ month run in the #1 spot, only starting to slip a bit as people anticipate OS X.2 (Jaguar) and the new edition...

Over on the StudioB mailing list, Rod Trent asked:

"Is the reason because MAC sales are down? Could be. MAC, along with many other technology companies, have reported failed quarters for the last year. There could be many MS employees who are out of work if MAC's numbers don't improve. That should be the worry.

"But, its not MS that is the MAC's main competitor, and its not MS that is the bad guy in this. Its companies like Dell. With Dell doing extremely well in all sectors, and in many countries, Apple can't compete."

As it turns out, Dell's sales for the past quarter were up a half percent from the previous year, vs. a PC industry average down 8.7% from the same quarter the previous year. Apple was down only 2% from the same quarter last year. Sun is down 40% from its heights two years ago.

In short, while Apple is not doing quite as well as last year, Dell is doing only a little better, and most hardware vendors are doing worse. (Ob list, so are most publishers. The computer book market was down 18-20% last year, and by all accounts is down by a similar number again this year. And computer books are a pretty good indicator. So down 2% looks pretty darn good to me.)

So I don't think that this move by MS is motivated by P&L considerations, or at least not the state of the Mac market. It's clearly motivated by the competitive considerations. And it's not just on Microsoft's side. [Apple is] being quite feisty towards Microsoft, with some renewed arrogance and sense of destiny. So the sniping between the two companies is increasing.

In sum, the comments from Microsoft are in exceedingly poor taste. And it's a shame. Office X isn't a bad product. I use (and like) Entourage, and having Microsoft Office on a Unix machine seems like a real win-win to me. I hope Microsoft's competitive machinations don't keep them from being a player on a platform where, for once, they don't hold all the cards.

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. In addition to Foo Camps ("Friends of O'Reilly" Camps, which gave rise to the "un-conference" movement), O'Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the Web 2.0 Summit, the Web 2.0 Expo, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the Gov 2.0 Summit, and the Gov 2.0 Expo. Tim's blog, the O'Reilly Radar, "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim's long-term vision for his company is to change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators. In addition to O'Reilly Media, Tim is a founder of Safari Books Online, a pioneering subscription service for accessing books online, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, an early-stage venture firm.

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