"We" companies, "They" companies, and Apple

A VC (that's the name of the blog) observes, "Apple survived the WinTel dominance in the PC business by becoming a "we" company. … But in the past couple months, Apple has made some very "they" company decisions." He outlines a few.

A commenter on that post responds,

As a long time Apple developer back in the early 80's, the common comment has always been, "Love the computers, hate the company" when it came to Apple. You might think that Apple switched from a "we" company to a "they" company, but those close to the company have always thought of it as a "they" company. … Apple's continued pursuit of the bloggers is a direct reflection of how Apple (Jobs) ISN'T in tune with their user base out in the real world. Apple has never understood the passion of it's users, though some employees over time have. (ie. Guy Kawasaki)

There's more. Have a look.

Meanwhile, Robert Scoble loathes the notion that Microsoft is a "they" company. His perception from inside the company is that they're not.

I've long felt that Microsoft was focused on itself and took an exploitative attitude toward its customers. But recently, I've encountered a remarkable counteragent to that perception in the form of the many bloggers at Microsoft. They help humanize this consumer's perception of an apparently monolithic corporation that wields great power over a great many consumers. I'm still skeptical of much of Microsoft's management and some of its tactics (I mean, come on — patenting storing word processor files in XML?), but it still helps to hear from developers about their genuine enthusiasm for putting tools in the hands of other developers and consumers.