I keep hearing folks in the blogosphere talk about how Apple is better and how Microsoft can't ship software.

Then I read Robert Scoble get on a roll here and here talking about the great software Microsoft is shipping today. So far, most of the comments and feedback are negative.  Robert must feel lonely.

I remember working at a company with a mixture of Macs, PCs and Sun Sparcs back in 1997.  The word around the geek water cooler then was Apple was dead, irrelevant and Microsoft was much better.  I remember thinking I should buy Apple stock, since it was trading for less than $5 for most of the year and never peaked above $7.  My thoughts were perhaps those few, lonesome souls saying 'Apple still matters' know something I don't.

Alas, I didn't buy.

A $1,000 investment in Apple stock at its maximum price in 1997 ($6.703) would be worth over $6,500 today.  The same $1,000 investment at the lowest price in 1997 ($3.422) would be worth over $12,500 today.

According to USA Today, Microsoft stock is trading at 16 times earnings while the average for the software industry is at 24 times earnings.  Do I work for a below-average company?  I don't think so.

I'm choosing to be lonesome with Scoble this time around.