One has to wonder why now and not much earlier like back around Sonar 3 and 4 days when the MAC was more than a legit platform if not dominate.
 
I would forward this:
 
Microsoft would love to have Windows devices boot from NVRAM and run a subscription version of windows from the cloud. Azure is already wildly successful where devs can login to an azure account and create out of thin air, any server array they should need without a boxes and power supplies. Oh and those pesky hard drives.
 
If MS does this, then the world at large won't notice. We can already "print back" to local printers from a far away server based windows rdp sessions. A bunch of bedroom producers with their low latency audio setups are not part of the big picture at Microsoft. Not when they can get whatever they think they can get from the trillions of regular folks monthly, weekly or by the minute, money from those who run little more that Quickbooks and maybe office today. Both of which are fine in a virtual space.
 
Cakewalk MUST be aware of this potential doom on the horizon and so now, OSX
 
Onward and upward bakers.
 

Apple was almost dead not so long time ago (may be not so visible in US, but outside).
DEC and SUN was evaporated.
Microsoft has made several mistakes (Windows Vista, Windows Phones 7)
 
Currently Apple has got its place, many years all concurrents was behind shiny iPhones, iPads and iBooks. But at the moment they are in big danger again. As "one hardware" company, they have to compete with the rest of the world. And the world is big. Recent Android phones and tablets are at least at the level of iPhones in all parameters (including the price... but there are variants when you scarify not so much and pay 3-5 times less!). I think Windows Tablets and notebooks are "back in game" with Windows 10 and recent Intel processors, you can run Sonar on $200 tablet, that is completely different experience compare to the "old" cheap netbooks under Windows 7. I do not have any statistic, but I guess the most popular OS (the number of used devices under it) in the world is.... Linux. Count not only Linux "pure" PCs and servers (that statistic exists), but also all Andorid devices and most important all devices with embedded Linux (TV, routers, NAS, etc.).
 
What will happened as next? We do not have the crystal ball. But we know that:
* Apple was and is "one hardware" company. There are benefits and there are consequences. One of the consequences: they can not dominate the market by definition of the strategy. There are many other hardware producers which want there place in the market, too many of them to fight for any single company.
* Android can not replace "real OS". It is just a Java machine with all consequences.
* Linux is just a core, it is not a complete OS. GNU/BSD software has to be "polished" by a strong company to be useful for end consumers
* Windows (MS) has no reason to not dominate. They have made several mistakes in the past, but they have recently shown the flexibility, the ability to recognize mistakes and fix them.

Oh no..... we're doomed.
 
Hey bitman, if you're soooooo smart and have it figured out, why are you posting here? You should be out taking financial advantage of your expert knowledge.
 
I keed/I keed.
 

I think we need a new sub-forum: "Unfounded Business Speculation".

I have shares in both Apple and Microsoft.
By the time I retire I will have enough money to buy a iPad.

Cactus Music
I have shares in both Apple and Microsoft.
By the time I retire I will have enough money to buy a iPad.

hahaha! Too true

Yeah, If you think recording studio OS most of the world says Apple and to a greater or lesser degree this is true. The studio installed base is more "industrial" when it comes to Mac and so Apple is unlikely to abandon it by running to the cloud. M.S. is, and perhaps rightly so, acting like a cornered wounded animal forcing win 10 on people now without permission as if Microsoft's life depended on it.
 
I might buy a mac - did I say that or just think it?
 

bitman
M.S. is, and perhaps rightly so, acting like a cornered wounded animal forcing win 10 on people now without permission as if Microsoft's life depended on it.
 

Microsoft has a cash reserve of over 90 billion dollars.

bitman
Yeah, If you think recording studio OS most of the world says Apple and to a greater or lesser degree this is true. The studio installed base is more "industrial" when it comes to Mac and so Apple is unlikely to abandon it by running to the cloud. M.S. is, and perhaps rightly so, acting like a cornered wounded animal forcing win 10 on people now without permission as if Microsoft's life depended on it.
 
I might buy a mac - did I say that or just think it?
 

This doesn't only apply to the recording industry.  
There are thousands of Windows based business software/applications that wouldn't be able to run on an cloud OS.
Oh yeah, that's right...all these major companies will be forced to re-write their softwares...or even better, release a Mac version instead.
MS will release a cloud OS at some point, for sure...but local installs will remain for a long time.

There are lots of parts of the world where a cloud OS and cloud applications would be non-starters.

No twisted wire telecom networks, never mind fibre. Internet access comes via the mobile telecoms networks, so 4G speeds if you're lucky and often very low data allowances.

Any company that pushed down the "cloud for everything" route would be handing most of Africa and a large part of the rural Middle East and Asia to any rival that did things "the old fashioned way."

Editted because I can't soell.