Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple
There&#x27;s no real underdog now. Microsoft has a pretty consistent track record of looking at other companies making money, and making a microsoft version of that. Bing, xbox, azure, and zune are pretty obvious examples. Surface doesn&#x27;t seem to fit that mold at all. They&#x27;re giving every indication of doing something new.<p>I can&#x27;t think of a real underdog right now. Apple had this sort of desperation to do something good, right now, or die. Microsoft can throw a lot of money at something and still be ok. The surface looks very good, and it&#x27;s a unique vision.<p>I wish someone would found the equivalent of BeOS, and sell BeBoxes for it. A linux laptop with flawless hardware support. A slot for a stepper driver card would be pretty cool. Maybe a geek port, or maybe a clever way to integrate a breadboard or FPGA, or both.<p>Things feel really stable right now. Google will keep selling ads, Apple will keep cranking out consumer electronics, Microsoft will keep selling its windows&#x2F;office pair to the universe, Amazon will keep getting better at logistics, and Facebook will keep growing the social graph. None of them are going to bet the farm on anything. And, really, they&#x27;re all big clunky slow organizations they rebelled against.<p>I hope there will be a big wave of innovation, I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s going to come from the big 5. But i&#x27;d agree, yes microsoft is some percentage more innovative than apple. Big, radical, disruptive, change the world ideas? No, none of the big 5 are capable anymore.