[Cerek]

That's a good question, LennonCook.

I'm old enough to remember when Apple first arrived on the scene and eventually produced the very FIRST Macintosh computer. Back then (in the early 80's), the PC market was primarily industrial. Only schools and businesses could actually afford personal computers. Apple came along as the only competitor against IBM and they actually had a chance to become as strong as thier Corporate Goliath adversary, but they made a couple of critical mistakes.

First thing they did was the Board of Directors decided to FIRE the guy that actually INVENTED the first Apple computers. Secondly, they expected the Macintosh to sell itself and didn't pursue any new or upgraded models after that.

The result was disastrous and Apple quickly fell BACK into obscurity. It's a wonder they survived at all.

So, yeah, given their history, it would seem to make sense for them to develop a new strategy and make their products MORE compatible with as much of the available technology as possible. All they are doing is limiting their potential target market once again. Since the company almost went "belly up" with this strategy before, you would think they would have learned from their past mistakes.

I realize that all manufacturers want to have a certain amount of "proprietary technology" (you can only use OUR products and softwar with OUR machines), but the only ones that can actually afford to follow that strategy are the giants that already have the lion's share of the market (like Microsoft). Their competitors have to give people a reason to choose their product over the product of the established leader, and the best way to do that is to offer MORE services and MORE compatiblity, not less.