I've often thought google and apple would make a good fit, esp now as vista is starting to roll out. The OS could open up a bit to present a reasonable option, google could enhance the IPod area (apples current cash cow, which earns much more than the computer division). I think the youtube/ipod/search combo could grow into a media powerhouse. Apple is bsd based which is also a fit, and now intel as well, which makes opening the OS much more feasible. Also the market cap would ballpark MS at that point (MSFT 286.26B, GOOG 147.20B, AAPL 78.00B).

The big thing though is without that MS can just pick them off slowly (or try to anyway) with unchallanged cash reserves. MS makes most of its money on OS and office, so a google/apple OS that comes with openOffice for very cheap could really hit them where it hurts. Also I think it could really redefine the whole desktop commputer experience, something long overdue frankly.

PS I'm no mac flag waver, I have one but have been very windows oriented since commodore : ). Just would be nice to see competition there for once...

Or are there reasons this wouldn't work (I'm no financial analyst of course).
-->