[moocowduckquack]

MS got its initial strength primarily from IBM signing something extremely stupid. I don't see anyone signing anything like that with MS today and there isn't the same monolithic business entrenchment that there was with IBM back then, so I don't see how they are going to get back their leverage.

[cturner]

It wasn't just IBM. Everyone except Microsoft made a mess of the 80s and 90s. On the whole, computers sucked. A few didn't and those companies made a terrible mess of the business side.

Think of the hapless operating system efforts, or the terrible application ports from DOS to win16, or from win16 to win32. Platforms or products that were just unusable. And the web was awful.

Even the capable unix companies managed to run themselves into the ground - vast resources wasted in fights over nothing. Not one of them made a sustained or convincing appeal to this emerging market of consumers.

The main change is in the competition. Being boring-but-adequate used to be enough to win. But these days Google and Apple create exciting, affordable, responsive things that work.