I have no sourness. My job at Microsoft was to develop new audio and video technologies. I did that. We created WMA, WMV and VC-1. They are billions of devices that use them putting aside Windows. I got even our fiercest enemies such as Sony with its PlayStation and PSP to support it. So if you are saying that about me, it is not an issue. My job wasn't to sell boxes.
What I did however, was to always look for win-win situations and long-term view. I think whether these companies are going to be around 5, 10, 15 and 20 years and if so, then I don't do a sweet deal now favoring myself and screwing the other party. Unfortunately, traditional school of business in US says do as Apple does. We are taught that to a sign of a good deal is how good it can be for you and how much you can squeeze the other guy. I think this bad policy. I believe long term relationships matter. I can't tell you how much I have benefited from this over the years.
Years ago, when I was working for Sony, we were looking for a magnesium alloy case for a laptop. Very few companies make magnesium castings as it can be pretty challenging. So we went to a remote area outside of Yokohoma, Japan and get out of the cars in the farmland. My mechanical engineer was with me who used to work for Apple. Apple had used a bit of magnesium in their first laptops and he could only find a couple of places in US around Chicago that could produce the parts. The president of the Japanese company greets us and gives us the tour of the factory. He opens the doors and my mechanical engineer nearly passes out. I ask him why. He points to the dozen machines the guy has and how he not seen more than one or two at US plants. The machines cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and he could not fathom how the guy in the middle of nowhere could afford to have so many.
So I ask the president of the Japanese factory how they can afford the gear. He says that they do 80% of their business with Panasonic and that Panasonic helped them substantially to buy the equipment and that whenever there is a downturn, they help them along so that they stay in business and can serve them in the future. Don't know about you but this makes sense to me. Take care of your suppliers and they take care of you.
I can tell you that probably every day someone at a record company wakes up thinking how they could even up the score with Apple. Maybe one day, they hire a Warren Lieberfarb and we or our children talk about a different story about Apple. And maybe they don't and they practically go out of business and we are left with consequences that sitting here don't appreciate.
In the words of Matt Damon in the movie Good Will Hunting, "I don't know much... But I know this!"