David Morgenstern, who is a long time reporter of the Apple scene wrote the article with the above title for ZDNet. He mentions that with Apple overtaking Microsoft in market capitalization that the myth keeps popping up that Microsoft saved Apple.
He writes:
Here’s the most common version of the myth from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Ironically, it was Microsoft that saved Apple in 1997, when it pledged to develop applications for the Apple operating system and invested $150 million in the company.
The partnership allowed Apple to go about narrowing its focus to building well-designed products for consumers. …
Oops, didn’t happen. This urban myth won’t die and as we can see, it’s now accepted in the Apple-Microsoft canon.
He goes on to tell the story as I remembered it:
Back in the summer of 1997, Apple was in trouble with its developers, installed base and investors. The was chaos in Apple’s product lines, SKUs with competing capabilities and positioning. Licensees for the Mac OS were clamoring over a go-ahead for new models. Just six months before, Cupertino had brought back Steve Jobs with his NeXT OS to create Apple’s next-generation OS, but its arrival on the Mac would not come for a long long while.
There of course is much more. Please read it so you will know how to reply to the myth of Microsoft saving Apple. After all, that myth will not go away.
