The “Post PC” world

The other day I was reading engadget and there was an article about how Apple is “making its own rules” or “way ahead” or something in the “post PC world”.  And I got pretty annoyed.  I didn’t really read the article as much as skim it, but it was standard tech blog Apple fan love, and that crap is really starting to get on my nerves.

Obviously, I work for Microsoft, so it’s not like I’m not biased, I’m hugely biased.  I think Microsoft is a great company that’s doing some really great things in a lot of spaces.  I like my Windows Phone, love my X box, and I love Windows 7.   I think Azure’s got a lot of potential, and I’m basically guzzling the Kool Aid.  So I am biased, and I can recognize that.

Even with my pro-Microsoft bias, I can tell that Apple has used their unique position to craft some incredibly amazing products.  They are one of the best consumer electronics hardware companies in the world, and a world class software maker to boot.  The iPhone is a triumph of simplicity and design, married to nearly the perfect amount of usability.  The iPad seems completely unassailable at this time in the consumer market.  There is basically no competition for it because none of Apple’s competitors can pull of the hardware and software together to create such a beautiful device.  The iPad 2 doubles down on the sexy at less than a centimeter thick! 

But…

A Post PC world? 

Really?

Because of a tablet?

The problem with that statement is that the iPad doesn’t replace anything.  It’s a great device, to be sure, but you need a PC to really get the most out of it.  And all of the tasks you’ve been doing on PCs for the past 25 years, you actually still need a PC to do. 

The iPad is fundamentally a fantastic consumption device.  You wouldn’t want to write a novel on an iPad, though I suppose it could be done.  You wouldn’t want to edit a film on an iPad, or manage a spreadsheet.  You wouldn’t really even want to post to facebook on an iPad given a choice.  Furthermore, it doesn’t even seem apple has any plans to make it a great content creation device with their overall eschewing of pen based input.  So how does an iPad create a post PC world? 

I will grant you that the iPad does replace one PC in many people’s homes.  The venerable “surf the internet while watching TV” netbook.  So it replaces a secondary or tertiary computer.  Hardly a “post PC world”.

And why does this bother me so much?  I mean it’s some dumb article on a tech blog.  It bothers me because I feel like this concept has captured the imagination of financial analysts and investors the world over, and it’s constantly damaging my company’s stock.  For basically no reason.

I will admit that Microsoft doesn’t have the prowess to build a product the way Apple does.  It’s just not at the core of what Microsoft does as a company.  Microsoft is a software company and Apple is largely a hardware company.  Apple does hardware very, very well.  Microsoft attempts to find partners who do hardware very, very well when we can, and in rare cases we build our own. We’re not going to be showing off sexy new devices every 2 years, but we do have a solid software and business foundation that will last for years and has already allowed us to expand into several billion dollar businesses. 

Maybe one day investors will notice.

I’m not saying Apple’s stock doesn’t deserve to do well.  I’m not even saying that Apple shouldn’t be more valuable than Microsoft.  I just can’t imagine how many more hugely profitable businesses Microsoft can build and never have the stock go up.  It seems like there’s literally nothing we can do to get people to invest in us, mainly due to the “exciting new tech product” of the day, despite that it could be a flash in the pan and in no way threatens Microsoft’s core businesses.

All you iPad owners who want to flame me, for some reason, flame away, but make sure you do it on your iPad, right after you’re done writing your novel, or carefully editing your photos, or modeling a 3d character, or writing some code, or doing some taxes.