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My PC is Your PC!

For a few months now we've been watching commercials in the US where a Mac and a PC are compared using two people. The purpose of these commercials is to exemplify the differences between an Apple Mac computer and a PC. Really, though, what is this mythical PC that is being compared to a known brand name? The PC acronym means Personal Computer. This was originally coined in the 70s and taken-up by Apple to further its little hobbiest computer. Since that time, the PC became part of the IBM PC trademark on their own personal computing device. That product is long-since dead now, and Apple no longer uses the "Personal Computer" phrase for their product.

What's worst is that many Wallstreet writers and analysts seem to think that PC is synonymous with Microsoft. That's not entirely true, of course. Sure, you can run Microsoft Windows on your non-Apple, x86 based, IBM PC clone, but that doesn't mean it's the only game in town. In fact, only about 92% of the PCs (personal computers) in use today are running Microsoft Windows. The other 8% are running Mac OSX, linux, Unix, and other variants too numerous to list.

Why do I care? Well, I just heard another "informed" industry analyst say that you should sell your Microsoft stock because "the PC will be replaced by the Internet in 5 to 10 years." Yeah, that's a quote. The genius actually thinks that the Internet, which is a concept, not a physical reality, will replace the Personal Computer you are using right now. Okay, so let's say your PC goes away. How are you going to access this mythical Internet device? Oh yeah, with another Personal Computer. Sure, it will be small, maybe even an HP scientific calculator, but it will be a personal computing device with an operating system.

What operating system will be running on that Personal Computer? In 5 years, it is a safe bet that it will be Microsoft Windows. In 10 years, I bet it will still be a Microsoft Windows OS product. Do you think the world will all of a sudden decide that they need a pretty white PC with an Apple logo on it? Sure, maybe when the Mac OSX software section actually consumes a full aisle, or even two.

If you're considering selling your Microsoft stock, consider that over 5 BILLION people out there have not adopted a personal computer yet. There's only one software company in the world with enough power and capacity to service an emerging market like that. Do you honestly think that Apple has enough manufacturing capacity to produce 100 million computers to take over the market? Let the tale of IBM be your beacon.

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