Apple was a computer company until they brought out the iPod.No, they was an integrated computer/os company (some even call it an "computing experience" company). Selling (or buying) hardware was never the whole point of an Apple, just the one with higher margins.
I believe that about 80% of their income now comes from non-computer products - with an emphasis on entertainment.
And I believe that if you call the iPhone or the iPad an "entertainment" device, you are missing like 80% of the big picture. A phone is an indispensable everyday tool, not to mention a business tool, for the majority of the population. And the iPad has elements of what computers for the general public (including professionals) will look like, ten years on. Like this one: 1/4 of European doctors use an iPad for work: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-57379622-243/study-euro...
Even if it's 1/10 or 1/20, it's a mighty impressive trend, from a market segment that was a tiny 1/1000 niche before the iPad.
Actually, Apple made MORE inroads into the enterprise with the iPhone and the iPad than they ever did with the Mac.
Running windows was critical to Apple's acceptance at the time they switch from power pc to intel processors because of Microsoft's dominance of the computer market.
No, it was not. Actually Bootcamp, and the running windows capability, came much after the switch from power pc to intel, a year or more after. For quite some time there was no option to run Windows on an Intel Mac.
Bootcamp allowed Apple to sell into the PC space - without which they would not have been able to overshadow Microsoft.
They haven't "overshadowed" Microsoft. Apple's share went from 5% to 10-12%. Microsoft still have 7-8 times that much.
And, since Mac's share was in an upwards trend (from 2% when Jobs come aboard), even before the switch to Intel, no one can say how much this switch influenced the market share increase.
Where Apple DID overshadow MS is in the media player, phone and tablet space. And there it doesn't run on Intel, it runs on ARM.
