apple is still around right? Some might say stronger than ever. Mistakes were made sure, but they were certainly learned from n the sense that I don't really think treatment of developers had all all that much to do with the dark period. Questionable business practices on the side of microsoft, vast amounts of money poured into products which didn't exactly make good on their promises (pippen, original apple tv, even the newton). Mac clones weren't exactly good for business either. Upon his return jobs didn't exactly start kissing the ass of developers. He trimmed the fat. That's what got them back in the game

Apple is going to work the exclusivity angle to try and keep the device a "valued" product.

The fact that the have competitors doesn't matter, because their product is so compelling.

Eventually, this draws new competitors with new product (HTC,Palm) because the potential for profit is so great.

Historically, companies with pricing power tend to have long periods of being top dog, like IBM, Microsoft.

But this market is changing so fast that I'm not sure Apple can keep up the pace. If the 2010 phone is a re-hash of the existing phones, the run is over.

But if the 2010 phone has a new look and a new OS, then everybody else gets to play catch-up for another two years.

So far it's been a new iPhone EACH year.

They weren't suffering in 1986-89, either, when folks in the Mac unit had solid technology, an early market lead, and breathtaking profit margins. They focused on increasing margins while keeping developers at arms length. How did that work out for them?

Bind Boggling?

And awesome new pic Rene!