I was just reading Strategy to woo diehard Mac fans starting to pay off for Microsoft at the National Post. Interesting in itself but I have some rather different opinions since I am a "die-hard mac fan".



"Bill Gates, by the way, is a huge Mac fan and he has a warm spot in his heart for the Mac platform, and it hurt him to see our customers suffering" This is why the article thinks (i could be mistaken) why Microsoft pumped 150 million into Apple in 1997. I could go off on some tangent that Microsoft needs Apple to develop cool new features that it can steal. That would be a little narrow minded. Just because someone invented the wheel first doesn't mean someone else wouldn't have. The only reason I think Microsoft needs Apple is because otherwise they would be a monopoly and that wouldn't be a good thing for anyone. They pumped in the money to assure that there would be a compeititve market. Maybe not a healthy market but at least their is a choice. Also, could you imagine the monopoly charges that would have been made against Microsoft if Apple weren't around.