He's right to a certain extent, but he misses a few points.

First, on MS can afford to lose huge sums of money pushing a new technology, because they are already a monopoly. This is exactly why certain actions by monopolies are illegal, it given them to much of an advantage over other companies that they can't fight against.

Second, he under estimates just how much PHBs are responsible for the movement of the market. There are a lot of companies that have no technology strategy other then 'do whatever MS is pushing.' This means every other product faces a huge barrier where MS products face a downhill slope.

On the other hand, he is certainly correct about Apple holding themselves in their corner. By refusing to give up any control over the hardware part they kept the Mac a nitch product.

Jay