Yes, yes, we all know that there is nothing on this planet that wouldn't be better if Kintaro invented it.
How about not calling removing a feature invention. Apple didn't invent the one button mouse, they reduced the usability of the mouse. All Apple really do is make user interfaces stupider and in this post-modern aesthetic dark age morons consider lower usability a value because its 'neater.' Thankfully not all of us are this thick.
Xerox invented the mouse, Xerox invented the icon based GUI among many other things in this area and everyone copied them. All these companies went totally freetard and copied the legacy Xerox had left. Sun, Microsoft, Apple, Amiga, Atari, and so on all produced graphical workstations that copied lessons learned from Xerox. Rather than sneering at them as thieves however it makes more sense to look at what these companies put Xeroxes lessons on top of. Microsoft made a VM and called Windows and even abstracted hardware in 3.x.x meanwhile Apple had this dodgy system where programs often talked directly to hardware though a ROM library or an emulation from it. Despite being built on top of DOS, it was MacOS that was made in the Dark Ages. To top that off, by the time Apple had finally developed OS/X for the consumer market Microsoft had NT which had been in the corporate market for a decade before dumping 9x which was total crap and replacing it with XP around the times of MacOSX.
XP attracted more developers than MacOSX because overall for a developer Windows is the better system. The main reason for this is that writing software for it was very much the same as Windows 98 for a developer. The same couldn't be said about Apple, who had kept a totally shitty system for so long (MacOS) that a lot had to be dumped in terms of the API. Microsoft have been able to retain not only its customers but third parties, the main reason we are stuck with them is because of companies like Apple and others digging themselves into a giant pit in terms of technology adoption. Linux and UNIX systems have the advantage Microsoft have, for the longest time the interfaces for writing services for Linux has remained a constant. The only thing OSX had going for it is that it inherited a small part of this UNIX heritage and will keep it. While OSX as a system has remained much the same since XP, Windows Vista was introduced to start shifting paradigms and Windows 7 has completed that shift.
In terms of innovation at the moment the only system that has had significant changes in its structure is the Windows 6.x family. Linux is still the same old Linux, Apple is much the same, and Windows is expanding as it always does through third parties. The biggest obstacle Microsoft are going to have will be that as Microsoft maintain the current strategy with Windows they could lose developers the same way they used to gain them which is through everyone elses major transitions and paradigm changes. Eventually it will probably start being easier to maintain your product for Linux and Apple OSes instead of Windows with all the changes to Windows they are working on.
Apple seem obsessed with being the gods of small devices. They really are but when it comes to actual software development, OSX is always the last to have new essential developments like adequate stack protection (when you lag by years behind Microsoft in security, the focus clearly is lacking). Surely, if I ever want an MP3 player I'll get an iPod, and if I ever want a useless panel that reduces my words per minute by 75%... I'll buy an iPad.
Yet if I want an OS for my computer I buy Windows 7 because it brings over developers that were writing software in the 90s in a very similar way. Windows has all the developers in the world through commitment alone, and Apple can never match that. It doesn't matter how many silly iPhone apps I can buy, Windows has all the real ones.
