Remember when Apple was the cool dude and Microsoft's PC was the pudgy guy stuck in the box? It was way back in 2006 and it was so easy to laugh. That series of ads comparing the distinctly uncool PC in glasses, tie and polyester suit with the slim and youthful Apple character helped to create the company's current image.
Apple was an upstart smart Alec, anything but establishment. Besides the products and the Steve Jobs lore, those ads were brilliant in their own right in creating the Apple reputation. You didn't have to be forced to watch them. People collected them on the internet to be viewed as stand-alone cool recreation.
It is easy to forget that some 20 years before, Microsoft had started off as an underdog. Skinny kid Bill Gates tricked the reigning tech giant, IBM by hanging onto rights for software that he realized was more important than the computers that ran it.
Obviously it is too early to write Apple off. The biggest company in the world is not going anywhere fast. Microsoft is still around. And so is IBM, rediscovering itself in ways that may once again bring it to the forefront.
Apple is still riding high, but for the first time, the company feels like a real apple that has reached its peak of crisp perfection; its fragrance contains the first sweet whiff of decay.
Read more: Bytes of Apple starting to taste a little off - Business - CBC News
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