Back on the cusp of the new century, I was one of the ThinkPad people, rarely encountering Mac machines unless you counted the machines used by Forbes.com’s design staff. In August 2000, when I joined Red Herring (the Jason Pontin edition), I got a Pismo Powerbook running the Mac OS 9.
As a technology journalist chronicling the world of Internet and broadband, I could see that our world was going to change. All media was going to go digital and will be distributed over this new broadband network. It was a matter of when and how.
In January 2001, when Steve Jobs spoke about his digital hub strategy, a light bulb went off in my head. Apple was going to the company that was going to lead us through the transition.
Fast forward to today, Apple has done what Steve wanted it to do. Apple and its products have done insanely amazing things: disrupted an entire industry (music), invented new product categories and now with iPhone is reinventing not only the mobile phone business, but the very idea of the computing itself.
It has survived (so far) near-death experiences of its leader Steve Jobs. Most importantly, it was smart to recognize very early on that the commodity hardware was merely a spring board for premium user experiences. It was also smart in remembering that mass brings morass.
No one can deny the achievements of Google, for many reasons Apple is the company of the decade. Google’s stock performance inspires shock-and-awe, but pales in comparison to Apple. Look at it yourself!
Since Google went public, the search engine giant is up close to 500 percent. During the same time frame, Apple’s stock has climbed up 1200 percent. From 2000 to 2009, Apple’s stock was up nearly 10 times – climbing from mere $24 a share to $211 a share at the end of 2009.
As the next decade of the 21st century rolls around, it is becoming obvious that the battle between Google and Apple is going to dominate the headlines for years to come.
- Fortune magazine: Steve Jobs: CEO of the Decade.
- Harvard Business Review: Steve Jobs, Best Performing CEO in the World.
- Wall Street Journal: Steve Jobs: Person of the Decade.
- Adweek: Apple: Brand of the Decade.
I have great respect for Om Malik and I wholeheartedly agree with his analysis.
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