It's often been suggested that the way forward for the iPhone will be to focus on catering to developers. This often comes up because the primary reason the Macintosh did not dominate like Windows did, is because they closed the platform. Many writers are drawing the same parallel with the closed iPhone and the open Android.
But, despite the brilliance of focusing on developers, why has Microsoft been so late to the Internet party. And why are they so far behind in mobile?
I blame corporate culture. What happened is that Google stole all the talented tech trailblazers by treating their developers like kings.
(credit Roger von Oech for starting this thread)
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I'd be interested to hear why Microsoft was 'late to the Internet party' - I feel like the first thing I thought of was the dominance of IE because they bundled it with their operating system. I guess I could see how they focused more on a software model than trying to corner search or be your email/search/advertising/RSS Reader/Mobile Device... okay, maybe I just answered my own question.
Because all those things really paid off, while IE just sort of became a chore to update with no real source of revenue.
I guess I just don't know if even Google knew what Google would be when they set out. It's like a light snapped on at some point once someone asked the question 'hey, what can we do with all this information people are volunteering?' - which is maybe something they first learned from Yahoo...