The story.

DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) was one of the titans of the computer industry in the 70-ies. Hoards of programmers were writing applications to run on their famed PDP and VAX platforms. Any application one may think of was available. What went wrong and why DEC was sold for cheap to Compaq (part of HP now)? Corporate greed and arrogance among other things. DEC became so big and powerful at the time that they have refused to follow the standards and decided to set their own. They have encapsulated themselves in their own cocoon which led to their demise later.

The repetition

Apple has hoards of programmers writing applications for their famed iPhone OS. Hundreds of thousands are available. Practically any application one can think of is most probably written and available. Of course Apple is not a stranger to corporate greed and arrogance. Their system is closed, proprietary and they twist the hands of their programmers and consumers alike. They do not respect de-facto standards and try to set their own. We know how it ends. Steve Jobs, the history tends to repeat itself sometimes as a comedy and sometimes as a tragedy.

The repetition