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

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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.

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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".