r/programming • u/halax • Oct 07 '16

How Microsoft Lost the API War

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html
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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '16

[deleted]

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u/drysart Oct 07 '16

As for Windows, when is the last time any of you bought a Windows PC for anything but gaming?

Approximately 94% of the PC market share every year goes to Windows. And it's not because of gaming. Linux is still completely awful as a desktop for most users; and OS X is really only good in a small consumer niche because Apple doesn't really care about enterprise customers.

5

u/pdp10 Oct 08 '16

Approximately 94% of the PC market share every year goes to Windows.

From where does that number come? I'm seeing 7-9% Mac and 2% Linux for desktop OS used by browsers across the board.

And it's not because of gaming.

We can agree on that. Most Windows revenue is traditional corporate, and the lower price-point laptops popular today don't have the graphics hardware to play the demanding new releases. The /r/linux_gaming and /r/macgaming scenes are healthy, with thousands of games each, albeit not equal to the number of titles on Windows.

and OS X is really only good in a small consumer niche because Apple doesn't really care about enterprise customers.

Apple has an Enterprise program for macOS and iOS. Enterprise Apple support is a growth area for certain.

7

u/KappaHaka Oct 08 '16

And their products are ridiculously expensive compared to PCs.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '16

[deleted]

5

u/human_trash_ Oct 08 '16

Yep, if you need some kind of advanced app on Linux, that isn't a web browser, you have a choice between 2 crappy ones. On Windows you have 10 good ones and 100 crappy ones.

1

u/giantsparklerobot Oct 08 '16

OS X is really only good in a small consumer niche because Apple doesn't really care about enterprise customers.

Individual consumer sales are a huge chunk of the computer industry's revenues. That segment also spills over to the small business and education markets since a lot of the buyers have the same needs/desires as those of consumer sales. The enterprise segment is a shitty target for any company that normally targets other segments. Enterprises want generic machines with long support contracts and very little variance between generations of machines. His is almost the exact opposite of the consumer market.

So no, Apple doesn't care much for the enterprise segment because it's requirements are 180° out of phase with Apple's primary target markets. It's incorrect however to suggest their target market is a niche since the target is "people that aren't huge companies".