On the same day Apple announced…drumroll, please!…a cheaper version of the iPhone, the iPhone 16e, a successor to the iPhone SE. There’s no new technology in it, aside from the first modem built by Apple. On second thought, hold the drumroll.
How did we get here? Why is the tech world looking to Microsoft for the newest technologies like AI and quantum computing, and looking to Apple for a cheaper iPhone? To understand the present and predict the future, you need to know the past. So, we’ll start out by looking at both companies’ earlier days.
A look at technology’s past
It’s said that to a man with a hammer, everything in the world looks like a nail. In the old days of Microsoft, Windows was its hammer. Its competitors were the nails. One by one Microsoft used Windows to pound them into submission. Lotus, the maker of Lotus 1-2-3 — the world’s most popular spreadsheet — gone. Harvard Graphics, maker of the Harvard Graphics —the world’s most popular presentation software — gone. WordPerfect, maker of the world’s most popular word processor WordPerfect, barely even a shell of its former self. Many other competitors were crushed by Microsoft as well.
