@Icebike

Great analysis but this go round has a few different wrinkles. Both Google and Apple are building out to a similar vision but it is how they are funded that makes them different. Google has a Trojan Horse in their platform and it’s their cloud services – search, mail, calendar, etc. This is where Google derives their revenue and also allows them to give Android away to manufacturers for free. Microsoft never did anything close to that because Windows was/is their cash cow.

Apple, as you point out, is still following their tried and true model of having hardware pay for the software platform. They have a cloud solution in MobileMe that is a subscription service is treated like an application and it does not derive any revenues from volume usage like Google does from their cloud. The question is will Apple stick to their model or will they find a way to monetize their cloud services, give them away and open up another revenue stream that may or may not allow them to lower the price of their hardware products. Time will tell but it’s going to be fun to watch.

Microsoft doesn’t make PCs. Apple doesn’t have to worry about running on anything they don’t control.

The closest thing to Microsoft is Canonical. The closest thing to Apple doesn’t exist because everyone else has exited the private computers-AND-software niche 20 years ago leaving them a private playing field.

With smartphones you see the same scenario being played out all over again right before your eyes.

Apple and iPhone hardware solidly entrenched.

Android minus any hardware charging foreward.

Moto, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, Sony, dropping their proprietary OS just as fast as they can to concentrate on hardware.

Its the exact same scenario as happened in computers, and it will probably lead to the exact same sort of ecosystem in the smartphone market as we see in computers, with several OS Vendors, several Hardware Vendors and one lone company filling a niche by continuing to hold both closely in house.

Its a role Apple fills well.

Quest was spot on in trying to ask (in the nicest possible way) how much of Apple’s appeal was Fanboyism, and Deiter, to his credit, successfully dodged the issue, not once but twice. Well played.