Using the xbox as a marker Microsft will always have North American love and be therefore hip in that part of the world. I cannot use windows as a marker because there is no serious competition where that is concern.

Apple is a totally different beast and at the rate their "love" is spreading across the globe - especially in the developing countries can only grow.

The way Apple products are lapped up in Japan and now China and across the rest of Asia show it's worldwide appeal and laughs in the face of silly people saying Japanese "don't like American products" because of Microsoft's x360 poor sales in Japan.

MS will always be Hip in the US but Apple is hip globally. W|ith the way the world's economic buying power is shifting Apple might not even need big US sales in the future.

the thing is MS will always be 10 times tha company apple will ever be..... and on the evil scale beside being a ruthless competitor that tried to be the only one... they never really did what apple is doing today.... pilling up on bogus patent law suit to have products removed from the market... plus the MS ecosystem even if stiff... has always been with more freedom than apple... selling X million of iphone and ipad over a decade makes you the gadget king of the era but nithing compare to have close to 90% of the OS market and that doesn't count all the equipment other than PCs that run MS oem products.... and no ipad is NOT the best tablet out there my sami series 7 slate is....

wait what.....???? since when having a stock value high makes you the leader?? MS is still the world leader in their main market by light years... number 1 in the os market and productivity software.... pretty sure still second in server.... heck the only place where apple is leader is the tablet market... even in phones they have concretely 15% of the market.... the company also turns less on the dollar than MS does..... nah the stock is high because lots of people evaluate less risk with apple right now but MS has a long time ahead before they fall second... heck a lot of prevision put them back close or in front of iOS in the phone division by 2015.... so yeah the fact that the fruit company got a lot if front page time... they never actually claimed any really factual throne.... and i use to despise MS (until the XBox) pretty much.... but apple makes them look like saints when it comes to effing up customers as hard as they can... where apple top them is they succeed at making those A hole come back for more with a smile on their face walking backwards.... it is disgusting.... So yeah MS doesn't just look like better in my book they are by a long shot.... and we are not even talking about MS R&D Vs apple...

I think a lot of people have really high hopes for the future of Apple. It is all about the outlook. Personally, I don't think Apple will get much bigger than it is now. Don't get me wrong, Apple is HUGE, but I have the feeling that the innovations are not happening for the past years. Yeah the iPhone got better, the iPad became better, but nothing "OH MY GOOOD!"-like happened like when they introduced the iPhone or iPod.

And Apple fails for non portable devices compared to their portable ones. Look at Apple TV.

that and we are talking about a single company being able to produce enough hardware to replace the 100 of company that have PC running MS soft or Linux distros 

plus i doubt lg samsung or other would keep giving them their good tech if they start eating the entire market.... people bitch about MS but as a software company they gives freedom of choice on the hardware side for a lot of stuff... compare to apple... so customer and OEMs and other high profile brands(sony, dell, phone comps, samsung, hardware brands in general for a wide range of electronic devices) will always beneficiate of the ecosystem MS or android and open source offer way more than with apple....  its simply not in the best interest of the market for anybody..... and probably not even feasable in terms of output capacity.... from apple

my friend got his credit card info stolen on his xbox his account was hacked.

that's why I have change my views on hacking and piracy.... because even if i see the point i also believe that it comes  back bite the customer in the ass.... the more illegal DL and ID theft or other harmful attacks happen the more invasive the counter measures.... plus quality of the entertainement degraded for that too... because if their main titles for film music or games are pirated like spanish gallions in the tortugas.... they have more incentive to do crappy titles less likely to be DLed but with a better profit margin because targeted at computer illeterate mom and pops or teenagers or else... or DLC so you have less chance of effing them all the way....

even though ilike the idea of chapter games with micro transaction and dlc especially if all digital is the path they chose and kill the second hand market... cause i can see myself pay 30 bucks for the first couple chapters and then pay 10 bucks for the extension packs... so i can try more games day 1 and just decide when and if i want to play the rest and what i want to spend on it (multiplayers packs, class oriented packs, special occasion, side content or main content, weapons etc you get the picture) and keep an steady flow of "deal of the week" and discount over time like they do now after a while... and i think i'll end up spending no more than i do with the day 1 and second hand market today if done right.... and won't have to bother as much with space and care for discs, and where to buy and sell them if it's still worth selling... plus then they won't have incentive to do shitty stuff people won't dl crappy content... so more care put on what people are willing to pay for...

that's for my 2 cents on piracy and consequence relation for the entertainement business...

for the rest it is hurting mostly the open source world more than supporting it.... every time open source software or code or free host site etc is used to dl or harm it's not exactly serving the cause.... 

IE isnt bad as people think... its a great browser actually but i rather use Chrome.

Firefox, Chrome and IE are all great right now, fast and simple all of them but for some odd reason on my Pc i have to install Flash separete from IE and that fuck Youtube on Chrome so i just deleted IE for completely.

I use IE as my main browser.