May 11, 2006
In Our Post-PC Era, Apple's Device Model Beats the PC Way

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

For many years, there have been two models of how to make computers 
and other digital devices. One is the component model, championed by 
Microsoft. The other is the end-to-end model, championed by Apple.

In the component model, many companies make hardware and software 
that run on a standard platform, creating inexpensive commodity 
devices that don't always work perfectly together, but get the job 
done. In the end-to-end model, one company designs both the hardware 
and software, which work smoothly together, but the products cost 
more and limit choice.

In the first war between these models, the war for dominance of the 
personal-computer market, Microsoft's approach won decisively. Aided 
by efficient assemblers like Dell, and by corporate IT departments 
employed to integrate the components, Microsoft's component-based 
Windows platform crushed Apple's end-to-end Macintosh platform.

But in the post-PC era we're in today, where the focus is on things 
like music players, game consoles and cellphones, the end-to-end 
model is the early winner. Tightly linking hardware, software and Web 
services propelled Apple to a huge success with its iPod. Microsoft, 
meanwhile, has struggled to make its component model work on these 
devices and, in a telling sign, is using the Apple end-to-end model 
itself in its Xbox game-console business. Now, Apple is working on 
other projects built on the same end-to-end model as the iPod: a 
media-playing cellphone and a home-media hub.

The jury is still out on whether the end-to-end model will prevail in 
the long term. Many at Microsoft, and some outside analysts as well, 
believe the new devices will eventually succumb to the component 
model, and that Apple's success with the iPod will fade, just as its 
early dominance of the PC market did. Apple officials say history 
won't repeat itself if the company continues to make great products 
and avoid the business blunders committed by its past management.

...

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20060511.html




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