It’s not who innovates first, it’s who delivers it to the customer

Paul Thurrott quotes a Seattle PI interview with Jim Allchin, where they discuss the perception that Apple is copying Longhorn innovations through features like Spotlight and fast user switching.

Allchin: …There is a question of how much we should show, so that they can try to copy again.

Q: Is that a concern?

Allchin: Oh, a little bit, a little bit.

I haven’t followed the debate – maybe Tiger is lifting a bunch of ideas from Longhorn, maybe not. I really don’t care, and I suspect 99% of the computer-buying public doesn’t either. The whole debate over who copied who is irrelevant. It’s about who can deliver those innovations to the customer.

I’ll be able to install Spotlight on my Mac at home next week, thanks to Tiger. I won’t be able to install Longhorn’s file search feature on my PC’s until sometime in 2006. That’s all that customers care about. Period.

Complaining (on both sides – this being a two-decades old argument between MSFT and Apple) about who copied who is useless, except in that it makes for juicy articles in the media and nice blog gossip.