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While Apple may be making loads of money from their lineup, their market share of computers is tiny in comparison to Windows.

Yes, OS X Desktop has a small overall marketshare because Apple doesn't play in the bargain computer niche. Apple instead plays in the high-end niche, where it rules. But if you want to talk in terms of most customers for your tool, Windows is it (well, remember, there are various target environments when programming for Windows, and choosing some can eliminate chunks of that population).

When it comes to smartphones and tablets, I wouldn’t target any one of them, since, it’s such a volatile market, and, what’s up today, could just as easily be down tomorrow

Then you'll miss the boat. The market settled on Android and iPhone a while back. It's been five years. Microsoft quit being a viable competitor not long after the iPhone came out, and Blackberry is now dying. Microsoft is about to give a third try at changing that. Third time's a charm?

My preferred approach is to “write once, run anywhere”.

Good luck. I got in on Java in the late 90s on that promise. It never delivered. It doesn't really deliver on the Web either, with all those desktop and mobile browsers that can't really do web-standard applications (and, no, Safari isn't in that list).

When it comes to the Windows phone market, it would be very foolish for anyone to discount the Microsoft entry, since, they’ve been known to come from behind and take over any market they insist is theirs to own, like they did with the XBox and the Office software market, and which they also did with computer OSes, and with web browsers

Let's see where we are with that. Office is doing well. Windows isn't doing very well. Millions are buying iPads instead of laptops nowdays. Windows on mobile is basically non-existent. IE is down around 15% now.

Microsoft already did their big-boy shove into the mobile space. It worked for a while, and Microsoft was actually putting out a competitive system. Then it died. Twice. What you are hoping is that Microsoft, no longer even being the big boy in town (Apple is bigger), can shove it through. But there is no monopoly power to leverage anymore -- Microsoft actually has to compete.

They’ve got the resources to compete better than any other company, and that includes Apple and Google, since, Microsoft has the biggest development staff, and the widest variety of experience.

Microsoft has talent. But as I've shown you, that talent is choked by incompetent management. They could have a thousand modern Wozniaks and Ives, but it won't do a damn bit of good when creativity is stifled. Even now, if you look at the larger picture, Windows 8 for ARM is a REACTION. Sure, it may end up being technically brilliant, but it's still a reaction to Apple's ingenuity. Apple showed them the way and management was forced by reality to allow the brilliant engineers to follow Apple's lead. But no more, they were not allowed to really innovate, do something all-new, market-changing. This is a reactionary move to protect the god Windows.

Remember, Microsoft management KILLED mobile touch-based computing when their own engineers tried to push it, years before Apple started work on the iPhone.

I can see WP8 being a major player within 2 years, and perhaps taking the lead shortly thereafter.

Here's the problem: You and I are thinking about the current market. Apple's probably already thought the next step ahead. While Microsoft was trying to figure out how to match the iPod, Apple came out with the iPhone. Then while Microsoft was trying to match that, Apple came out with the iPad. Now Microsoft is trying to match the iPad, and ... well, you see the pattern. So WP8 may actually get marketshare in the smart phone market as seen today, what's left of it at least.

And, btw, when it comes to the UI, that’s where your suggestions for breaking up the criteria screen would be most helpful, since those smartphone screens wouldn’t be able to accommodate so much data and so many boxes.

CSS is your friend here. If you write the page code right, you can create completely different pages just by substituting the CSS. To get an idea, check out the CSS Zen Garden. Every page there is actually the same exact HTML code, with the exception of which style sheet it points to.

Speaking of Wozniak:

"Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is excited about Microsoft.

Yes, even more excited than when he happened to wonder whether Microsoft had re-incarnated Steve Jobs in order to create its new Windows Phones."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57468917-71/woz-maybe-microsoft-is-a-different-company-now/?tag=nl.e019

Now, when it comes to targeting customers, I'm targeting the whole universe of media consumers, and not just those who use Windows. When I mention "write once, run anywhere", I'm not talking about a specific programming language; I'm talking about creating a system that can be used by all platforms, including all OSes and all browsers. With HTML5 and CSS3, I hope to make the application work well with all, or most, environments. My pages have already been using CSS2, and lately, CSS3. The only problem which I have, and which I'll have to tackle in the future, is the original language which I used to create the system, that being ASP 3, which is outdated and not as capable as the full-fledged ASP.Net using C#, and the scripting is also not as capable as the newer versions of JavaScript. I wrote most of the system about 6 years ago, when VBScript and Visual Basic were still somewhat popular. I had neglected the system for a few years, until recently, when I decided to try to revive the idea and system.

When it comes to Apple being "bigger", NO!, it's not! Microsoft is much larger, in the number of products and applications and usage and variety or products and services. Apple is "bigger" only in market cap, and a lot of that is due to all the hype surrounding Apple's current success. But, they're not a company that is well-positioned for the future, with basically, three major products, those being the iPhone and iPad and Macs; the iCloud and apps/iTunes stores are just support for those 3 products.

When it comes to the "high-end" market, yeah, they do have the "higher" priced products, but, not necessarily superior line of products. They look nice, and work quite well, but, they're not really any better than comparable products from other manufacturers that offer their products at much lower prices. High-end Apple products are just higher-priced, and not superior, like a Lexus might be considered superior to a Ford Focus.

When it comes to smartphones, I never stated that I will be skipping them. What I will be "skipping" is, targeting a specific smartphone platform, and the idea, which I already mentioned, is to try to "write once, run anywhere", with tweaking for specific platforms where necessary. As far as I can tell, writing applications for web servers is a very generic process, and, if the application works in one browser, it should work on all other browsers, even on the tiny screens.

Java never appealed to me, and neither have a lot of other languages. I've seen too many languages come and go, and so, I don't concentrate my work on any specific language. Unfortunately, with the internet, you have to go with whatever is popular at the moment, and a decade ago ago, it was Visual Basic and VBScript for web applications.

Also, as far as I know, IE is still, by far, the most used web browser on the market, even if at times, Chrome has had more traffic. But, Chrome, which now is apparently the number 2 browser, is still about half the user base as IE, and that 15% that you mentioned for IE is very far off the actual figures.

One thing which I didn't mention is that, my testing is done primarily using FF, and the pages which I did screencaps for, were all done from FF testing. IE is just another one of the browsers being targeted, and not my main browser for usage or even testing. BTW, during my testing with browsers, the one which I have the most problems with, is Safari, so I've put them off as a "future project", where I'll try to make my system play nicely in Safari. It was more problems than it was worth.

BTW, Apple may be selling many millions of iPads, but, laptops are still, by far, outselling all tablets combined. In fact, tablets may never overtake laptops in sales, especially when the laptops are becoming more tablet-like with ultrabooks, and tablets are becoming more laptop-like with added features. The iPad could become a thing of the past in a few years, when the ultrabooks make them redundant and impractical. Some people look at the Surface tablet as a tinier ultrabook, but with a lot more power than any tablet could ever hope to have.

And, what do you mean by "Windows isn't doing well"? Windows 7 just surpassed the 630 million licenses sold mark. If that isn't success, then you must be living on a different planet. Windows is still used around the world, and on about 1 1/2 to 2 billion computers. Windows is not just Windows 7, since, WinXP and Win2000 and even earlier versions are still in use. That is the most successful computer product in the history of man, and a refresh cycle is coming with Windows 8, which is going to be the most popular OS ever, especially with the upgrade prices of $40, which will be tempting to all of those still holding on to their XP and Win2000 OSes. So, I gotta keep scratching my head about what you meant by "Windows not doing well", since, it's still the most popular OS, by far, in the known universe.

Also, because MS did not do well in the mobile space in the past, is no reason to discount them in the future. Apple is not discounting them, and neither is Google, and the Surface and WP8 devices will be giving Apple and Google some big worries in the coming years. In fact, I expect that, the Surface tablets will overtake the iPads in the next 2 years, and that WP8 will become the number one smartphone OS in about 2-3 years.

The Intel-based Surface, is already getting a lot of corporate executives excited, and iPads in the business environment will be something that, only occurred in the absence of a real competitor, which the Surface is now.

When it comes to Apple thinking ahead, well, they're behind right now, with the Surface tablets scheduled to start eating Apple's lunch, and Apple still tweaking their iOS and not really doing much else, other than just tweaking their 3 basic products, and relaunching each tweak as a new sales cycle. Apple is NOT doing enough in research, and it will be proven in the next two years. Microsoft spends many times as much on research, and it's busy acquiring other companies which will add to it's products and services lineup. Apple has been, basically, standing still when it comes to product development, even as they continue to get great sales, and a huge market cap. That will, eventually, have an effect on their bottom line, and on their market cap.

You might think it's inconceivable, but, I see Apple as the RIM and the PALM of the next few years.

The only are where Apple outclasses Microsoft, is in marketing and hype. When it comes to products and services, and in the variety of those services and products, Microsoft outclasses Apple.