Apple dropped two notebook computers and a couple of very significant applications on the show floor, and I was both delighted and amazed. The notebooks are nice, but what floored me were the applications, not only for what they are, but also for what they mean to the company and the PC industry. This is Apple sticking it to Microsoft.
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The GUI license Apple granted Microsoft that allowed them to use a trash can in Windows 1.0 came about strictly because the Apple II BASIC contract was about to lapse and Microsoft threatened to take its BASIC and go home.
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It was more of the same in the Macintosh era. Microsoft was begged to write applications for the Mac, ... What few people don't remember, however, is that the price of Excel was Apple cancelling its own spreadsheet project called Mystery House.
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The story goes on and on. Apple feels it needs Microsoft, Microsoft demands a pound of flesh, and Apple gives in. Most recently this happened with web browsers
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So the fact that Apple would this week introduce its own web browser was not only a surprise, it was a shock.
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That Safari escaped has as much to do with Microsoft as it has to do with Apple. Relations between the two companies have lately been strained. Microsoft, out from under its Department of Justice legal cloud and feeling once again empowered to act on its corporate paranoia, has been grumbling about pulling Mac IE and about poor sales of Mac Office V.X. But this time, rather than capitulate, Apple has fired back with a world class browser of its own. I like that.

But wait, there's more! Apple also introduced a $99 PowerPoint competitor called Keynote. This presentation program does more than PowerPoint and does it cheaper. ... With Redmond periodically threatening Apple with an end to Microsoft Office for the Mac, this is Apple saying, "We dare you."