Testimony in Microsoft's antitrust trial is now riveted on the company's relationship with another Information Age icon -- Apple Computer. And the proceedings are exposing their ties as a complicated love-hate affair: Apple was kissing up to Microsoft for a $US150 million investment, even as the software giant was trying to sabotage one of Apple's key multimedia products, or so an Apple exec has said from the stand.
But then again, these two have long been tied in a marriage of convenience. And things have been stormy since the companies first crossed paths nearly two decades ago.
The troubles go back to 1984, when Apple introduced the first popular desktop computer, the Macintosh. Gates was impressed with the machine's user-friendly graphical interface, and he decided to focus on the platform as a vehicle for selling his company's software.
SAND in the hourglass
Dazzled by the computer's point-and-click features and easy-to-use commands, Gates and some engineers took to calling the Apple machines "SAND," an acronym for "Steve's amazing new device," according to Jim Carlton'sbook "Apple: The Inside Story." At the time, Apple's revenues were more than 10 times that of Microsoft. The company saw Microsoft as a potential ally in its war against IBM, then the other major player in the desktop computer space.
However, the relationship began to erode as Microsoft began adding graphical features to its own MS-DOS program that looked, to Apple executives at least, suspiciously similar to Apple's own Mac operating system. So similar, in fact, that in 1990, a version of Microsoft Windows prompted Apple to file a lawsuit, alleging that Gates and company stole Apple technology.
By then, Microsoft also had struck a deal with chip maker Intel to push both companies products into the growing market for IBM-compatible machines.
By the mid-1990s, Apple's market share had slipped substantially while Microsoft had become a powerhouse. When it made its $US150 million investment to help bail out Apple last year, Microsoft owned more than 90 percent of the OS market.
The big question
The big question now: What will become of this relationship in the wake of the potentially damaging testimony coming from Apple exec Avadis Tevanian?
If Microsoft loses, a now resurgent Apple will almost certainly be able to mount a bigger challenge to Microsoft as a viable alternative to the Windows-Intel-- Wintel -- machines that dominate the market.
On the other hand, no matter how abusive Microsoft has been -- or continues to be -- Apple will almost surely continue to be co-dependent. The reason: Apple needs Microsoft's Office -- the most popular business productivity software out there -- to sell more of its own computers.
It's all about understanding
"Apple understands the tenuous relationship with Microsoft and won't push it too far," says Dataquest analyst James Staten said.
But it's not all one-sided. No matter what happens in the trial, Microsoft needs Apple to remain afloat -- as evidence that it isn't the only OS maker in the desktop market.
