> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://spyglass.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Majorana's Mask - URL: https://spyglass.org/microsoft-majorana/ - Published: 2025-02-20T14:45:29.000Z - Updated: 2025-03-04T17:38:24.000Z - Description: A tale of two trillion-dollar companies... - Author: M.G. Siegler - Tags: quantum computing, microsoft, apple, tech, iphone, satya nadella, tim cook, #nodate ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/2025/02/two-1.png) Spooky action at a distance... It was an interesting superposition for tech news. Yesterday, *at the exact same time*, the embargo lifted on two stories from two $3T companies. [Apple's news?](https://www.techmeme.com/250219/p29?ref=spyglass.org#a250219p29) A new iPhone. [Microsoft's news?](https://www.techmeme.com/250219/p32?ref=spyglass.org#a250219p32) A new form of matter. Historically, the biggest mistake you can make in PR is failing to navigate around an Apple announcement. Such things tend to suck out all of the oxygen in the press room. But this seemed like a rather brilliant bit of counter-programming by Microsoft. Not only because the news could not be any more different, but because of how trivial it made Apple's announcement seem. Many immediately jumped on this humorous dichotomy. [Martin Peers highlighted](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-outdoes-apple-in-ambition?rc=lsmcir&ref=spyglass.org) the sentiment well in his *Information* briefing: > Yes, while Microsoft is trying to change the very nature of computing, Apple is reinventing cellular modems so that one day it won’t have to pay the industry leader, Qualcomm, to use its state-of-the-art modems. That’s what counts for ambition in Cupertino, Calif., nowadays. Is that fair? I mean yes and no. First and foremost, while Microsoft's stated breakthroughs in quantum computing [*sound*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4xCR20Dh1E&ab%5Fchannel=Microsoft&ref=spyglass.org) incredible – [topological qubits!](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/technology/microsoft-quantum-computing-topological-qubit.html?ref=spyglass.org) [Majorana fermions!](https://www.ft.com/content/a60f44f5-81ca-4e66-8193-64c956b09820?ref=spyglass.org) – every story is also quick to couch the news with some skepticism or, at least, caution. After all, Microsoft has made promises in this realm before only to have [to backtrack](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03373-x?ref=spyglass.org)... At best, this is an "end of decade" thing, in terms of being put to practical use, even by Microsoft's own admission.[1](#one) If it's not exactly science fiction, it's not entirely science fact either. Not yet anyway. On the other hand, if Microsoft is correct in their approach to quantum computing, which is more of a hybrid approach leveraging semi *and* superconductors versus the more "pure" efforts of others, the path may be paved for the next multi-billion (trillion?) dollar business. The next big thing after the current big thing, AI, where Microsoft also made a prescient early bet in the form of the OpenAI partnership. Even if there's just a small chance that they're right here, it's worth the bet every time. And it's why Google and others are also placing bets in the space, obviously. Apple, meanwhile, is living in the present. They famously don't do science projects – at least not publicly! And this insulates them from vaporware.[2](#two) The iPhone is the best business in the world – [perhaps the best *ever*](https://spyglass.org/apples-amazing-iphone-problem/). It's still really all that matters to Apple's bottom-line and so releasing a new iPhone, no matter how muted, is always a big deal. And it's shipping not in a decade, but next week. While announcing the two projects at the same time certainly pales the iPhone in comparison, let's not get too high and mighty about being above announcing *actual* products, no matter how iterative. At the same time, Apple does seem to be [in a bit of a rut](https://spyglass.org/over-oiled-apple/). As much of a rut as you can be in as the most valuable company on the planet. Their most-recent earnings were record-breaking, [but still somehow underwhelming](https://spyglass.org/apple-earnings-q1-2025/). Part of that was the aforementioned iPhone business slipping a bit (and a big part of that was China), but it's also because what has clearly proven to be the Next Big Thing™ for Apple is not another product [like the Vision Pro](https://spyglass.org/vision-pro-launch-disaster/), but instead [their *Services* business](https://spyglass.org/apple-services-services-services-services/). Essentially, they're milking the cash cow. That's what *you-know-who* was doing for years under Steve Ballmer! I mean, is *that* fair? Not entirely. Apple still creates and ships great products. And [the Apple Watch line in particular](https://spyglass.org/tim-cooks-clock/) is doing some great things in health, which are truly profound. But directionally, Apple just [*feels*](https://spyglass.org/apple-needs-an-editor-series-2/) to many as less innovative and more iterative. And the current AI boom has just exacerbated [this feeling](https://spyglass.org/the-ai-will-come-out-tomorrow/). Apple may actually and ultimately be correct in taking [a slow and steady approach](https://spyglass.org/apple-ai-is-here-kinda/) to the technology, but it certainly [doesn't feel](https://spyglass.org/is-apple-intelligence-ready/) that way right now. It [feels like](https://spyglass.org/wake-up-apple/) they're behind. Certainly with Siri, [comically so](https://spyglass.org/apple-bad-siri/). Back to Peers: > The diverging ambitions of these two icons of tech, both born in the mid-1970s, is striking. Microsoft isn’t the first company to claim a major advance with quantum computing—Google [had a similar announcement](https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/5404ba?rc=9byxri&ref=spyglass.org) in December. We have no idea which of these advances, if any, will end up doing anything practical. Still, it’s refreshing to see a tech CEO like [Satya Nadella nerding out](https://x.com/satyanadella/status/1892242895094313420?ref=spyglass.org) about the potential of quantum computing, after years of hearing Apple CEO Tim Cook talking breathlessly about infinitesimal improvements in each new iPhone. No question, the quantum computing talk is refreshing and inspiring. The iPhone 16e? It's the "most affordable" iPhone – which is decidedly less affordable than the model it is replacing. [Not inspiring stuff.](https://spyglass.org/apple-sherlocks-the-iphone-16/) While there has been no chatter about Apple investigating quantum computing,[3](#three) perhaps that's the prudent thing. Still, [it feels like](https://spyglass.org/the-ipad-macbook-pro/) the company needs *something* to inspire the masses again. It won't be [a thin iPhone](https://spyglass.org/iphone-air-foldable-ibook/), but it *could* be a robot that evokes joy and a more emotional response out of users. [That's my hope, at least.](https://spyglass.org/apple-pixar-lamp-robot/) **One more parallel universe** for these two companies: [by one account](https://www.theverge.com/news/614205/microsoft-quantum-computing-majorana-1-processor?ref=spyglass.org), this quantum breakthrough has been *17 years in the making* for Microsoft. Guess which product Apple was busy shipping 17 years ago... So in a way, the iPhone 16e has also been 17 years in the making! [Apple Invents a Laptop with a TouchscreenThe new iPad Pro is awesome. And a bit silly.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/icon/Spyglass-Rings---Multi-437.png)SpyglassM.G. Siegler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/thumbnail/ipad3.png)](https://spyglass.org/the-ipad-macbook-pro/) [Apple Admits the ObviousThere’s no topping the iPhone. As a business, there may never be.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/icon/Spyglass-Rings---Multi-439.png)SpyglassM.G. Siegler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/thumbnail/mgs22_watercolor_painting_of_an_iPhone_ascending_to_heaven_--_ee0d6b40-b12d-46e5-ac2a-c5d59f2bda11_1-6.png)](https://spyglass.org/apples-amazing-iphone-problem/) [Apple’s Elegantly Expressive Pixar LampForget glasses, Apple’s Next Big Thing™ may be a robot…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/icon/Spyglass-Rings---Multi-438.png)SpyglassM.G. Siegler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/thumbnail/lam-2-3.png)](https://spyglass.org/apple-pixar-lamp-robot/) --- **Update**: More on the skepticism around Microsoft's claims below. [Microsoft claims quantum-computing breakthrough — but some physicists are scepticalThe tech giant aims to make ‘topological’ quantum computers that will reach useful scales faster than competing technologies.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon-f39cb19454.png)NatureDavide Castelvecchi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/thumbnail/d41586-025-00527-z_50658714.jpg)](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00527-z?ref=spyglass.org) --- 1 Though this certainly beats [Jensen Huang's 20 year time horizon](https://uk.pcmag.com/processors/156201/nvidia-ceo-quantum-computers-wont-be-very-useful-for-another-20-years?ref=spyglass.org) for the technology (of course, he has his own biases there)... 2 The most famous example of Apple's announcing something that never shipped may be [AirPower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPower%5F%28Apple%29?ref=spyglass.org). They were [clearly close](https://www.ifixit.com/News/14883/what-finally-killed-airpower?ref=spyglass.org), but couldn't get the product to their standards. So [they killed it](https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/29/apple-cancels-airpower-product-citing-inability-to-meet-its-high-standards-for-hardware/?ref=spyglass.org). Though the stakes, obviously, were far lower. 3 They are, of course, very secretive. And they do, of course, have one of the best chip teams in the world. Still, quanum is *clearly* a very different beast...