Where is Microsoft playing catch up to Apple
iTunes to Zune
ipod/phone to Windows Mobile (and Microsoft got here first but the OS and interface sucks!)
OSX UI to Windows 7 to quote a WINDOWS site winsupersite.com "if you don't think Microsoft did not copy the dock from Apple in Windows 7 you are not paying attention"
Sorry don't even try and compare a tablet with ipad, a tablet PC is Windows with a poorly implemented stylus input slapped on top of windows.
all of the iLife suite microsoft has been trying play catch up with and doing very poorly with that.
Widgets to Gadgets
Multi touch
Lets give credit where it is due, Apple made the portable digital media player market, they may not have been there first but the first to really do it right.
Mac users are sick of Windows steeling Apples ideas and still having such HUGE market share. We are just happy to see Apple finally get some credit.
Read the history of Microsoft
"Then, in 1984, Apple Computer released the Macintosh computer, which used a graphical user interface to represent a desktop metaphor, with folders, files, and a trash can, among other things. It is common belief that Apple stole the idea from Xerox. This is not true. Apple bought the interface from Xerox for a rather hefty amount of Apple stock, and the final resultwas very different from the one that Xerox invented.
By 1985, Microsoft had become quite a large company. They were the dominant software provider for IBM clones as well as for the Macintosh. Although Microsoft was putting down the Macintosh by claiming that it was for lazy people and that it was less powerful than MS-DOS, they were at the same time well aware of its superiority in both ease of use and functionality, and seeking to mimic it in their own operating system.
Microsoft came to Apple, requesting to license some of the key interface elements from them for use in what was to be called Windows. Apple, of course, declined. So Microsoft again used its dominance in one market -- this time Macintosh software -- to force the industry to bend to its wishes. It threatened to discontinue development of Macintosh applications unless Apple licensed portions of the MacOS. This would have been a major blow to Apple, since Microsoft was the dominant software provider for the Mac. So Apple was forced into licensing parts of their OS to Microsoft. Windows 1.0 was introduced later that year.
In 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. By this time, Microsoft had clearly gone far beyond its licensing agreement with Apple, and was obviously stealing patented intellectual property. Apple took Microsoft to court, and many industry experts thought Apple had a very strong argument and was going to nail Microsoft. Apple lost the case.
Microsoft released Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, completing their theft of the Macintosh look and feel, but the change was only one of appearance. Deep down, Windows 95 is still QDOS. Despite this fact, Windows 95 was a wild success, and is used today by 85% of all computer users, with another 5% of consumers using its expensive cousin, Windows NT. A few months later, Bill Gates finished writing his "visionary" book, The Road Ahead."
Its all really sad. Microsoft could really innovate but they are just to big? Or structured strange? I dont know.