Horace Dediu wrote an a nice piece over at asymco entitled "Who's Knifing What?":

Apple has maintained its attention steadfastly on products while Microsoft has maintained unwavering focus on the distribution and control over value chains. During the 1990s one strategy worked and the other didn’t. During the following decade they changed places. The locus of the two strategies did not change. What seems to have changed is what the market values. What incenses me the most by Android/Google fans/apologists who hate Apple is that I feel Apple was the victim to Microsoft's bullying during the '90s. Apple managed to come back and win during the 00's by executing with superior products that succeeded because they were the best. They didn't use their monopoly to strong arm the industry into their business model, but instead they won by making a better product than everyone else. I believe Macs/iPhones/iPads are better products than any Android device that has came to market so far. I feel so many of these people have no appreciation for this history that Apple has had to go through to get where they are today.