Microsoft and Apple are Clearly Heading in Different Directions

After this weeks CES keynote, it’s clear to me (as if it wasn’t before) that Microsoft and Apple are heading in two different directions. Apples response to the operating system, as proven with their preview of OSX Lion, is that they want to make the desktop as simple as iOS which runs on iPods, iPhone and iPad devices. Bringing the app-mentality, app-launcher and app-store to the desktop is clearly their main priority. “Form over function” always seems to be the unofficial mantra coming out of Cupertino.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has something totally different in mind. Whereas “form over function” is Apple’s mantra, “function over form” could be Microsoft’s. They want Windows on every device, which is clear after their announcement to make Windows ARM-compatible. The problem with this thinking is that they tried this before and failed (remember “Windows Everywhere”). In their own words, and I’m paraphrasing, they essentially said in their Windows Phone 7 unveiling that consumers didn’t want a copy of Windows on their handheld devices, which is odd, when you consider that Microsoft spent last years and this years CES touting Windows 7 as their tablet solution.