The Apple Channel

December 06, 2007

It's been an interesting year in the PC space. Microsoft, of course, is still the dominant player. But in a lot of ways, Microsoft is starting to look a bit like the underdog. And in the long run, that could be the worm in the comeback story of Apple.

By all accounts, 2007 was Apple's year. And it was largely due to the iPhone. Early in 2007 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft unveiled its plans for Windows Home Server, by all means an interesting product. But Redmond's proud announcement was drowned out by Steve Jobs' unveiling of the planned iPhone at MacWorld in San Francisco.

LARRY HOOPER Can be reached via e-mail at lrhooper@cmp.com.

I have to admit that back then it was fun to watch Apple steal a little thunder from the behemoth that is Microsoft. But as the year progressed and Apple rolled out its PC vs. Mac commercials, something started to change.

The underdog started sounding a lot more like the top dog. The iPod is the undisputed leader in music players, and the iPhone's launch will go down in history as one of the most successful product launches in technology. Now Apple reports that Mac sales are surging and the Leopard upgrade to its operating system saw a brisk uptake.

The company is still no match for Microsoft, but with its success has come increasing attention—both from critics and from hackers. This year saw more security issues with the Mac than in recent memory, and the iPhone has faced several attacks.

Last week, just 10 days after an Apple QuickTime Player vulnerability was identified, researchers detected exploits that could allow attackers to crash an entire system or execute arbitrary code by tricking the user into visiting a malicious Web site. Granted, that's not as fast as exploits are appearing for Microsoft vulnerabilities these days, but it is one of the shortest windows I have seen for an exploit to show up once an Apple vulnerability is identified.

Apple's success brings up a lot of questions. Apple has largely been spared the constant barrage of attacks because it wasn't as appealing a target. But will Apple's newfound dominance of mind share, if not market share, lead to further attention from hordes of hackers attacking Microsoft's operating system and applications every day? A more important question: Can Apple withstand the attacks?

The coming year will likely provide the answers.

Do you think apple is more vulnerable?