Google is this era's transformational computing platform and could be about to unseat Microsoft from its throne,

Even before Microsoft, there was the idea of having a homegrown PC platform, and over the years there have been a number of attempts at this.

Microsoft is really going back to its roots here.

Watson represents merely a step in the development of smart machines. Its answering prowess, so formidable on a winter afternoon in 2011, will no doubt seem quaint in a surprisingly short time.

I'm a bit frantic but I have to try and unseat an octogenarian

We haven't been quite as enthralled with Sun's applications as we are with its platform. We don't want to get our hands dirty trying to offer custom business application Ð we just don't have the manpower.