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Apple Brand on the Rise, Microsoft on the Decline

I've never really gotten into wireless mice. Maybe it is time for me to venture forth and get one for my new MBP.

I have always liked how light USB mice are.

I have to admit, I am one to hold on to what I'm used to. It was very difficult for me to give up my LogiTech "FirstMouse"...it was PS/2 and had the ball and everything, but I have never found a mouse I liked as much as that one. I resisted the laser mice for quite some time until I couldn't get a replacement for my again "FirstMouse"
 
Joke survey alert! I mean 2,000 people, 74% of whom are marketeers the majority of which live in the US (yes, I know it says 107 countries but most of them do)?

LOL!

As for the other survey where MS has dropped to number 59, it's interesting because Apple doesn't appear at all on it. However, the one that really counts is this one:

http://www.interbrand.com/surveys.asp Best Global Brands 2007

It measure global brand worth and is one of the top financial measurements in the world. So, no, I don't think Redmond will be worried.
 
Is it Official....

...that microsoft really sucks. I prefer to say micro...t!

The decline. Well lets not get over confident. Yep I love my Macs and I've recommended to all and sundry I've encountered at a rate of 10 to 2 (in favour of purchasing a Mac). Hard work mind when you've still got some die hard windoze crazies around especially in Pile of C..p (PC) World and department stores.

However can it be more than just the Apple impact? I mean lets look at the uninspiring ape at the helm of Micro...t. It does look pretty awful for them in terms of marketing and then there's the Vista disaster, the latter makes the Leopard problem look more like a hiccup in comparison. Oh and who can forget the entrance of Ballmer at some Mico...t conference to Miami Sound Machine (available to view on You Tube-excruciatingly painful for windoze fans but a really great laugh for the rest of us) just priceless. I bet share price was screwed that day!

Then there's the smooth Mr Jobs. If you're jo public its a question of who you want to be associated with, which products would you wish to be associated with and it also comes down the company you want to be associated with and this association extends to the CEO, either with a dude who spends his time throwing chairs when hearing about one of his employees going to a rival company or a guy who delivers awesome products that just work.

Hmmm?
 
Which is sad because as far as I'm concerned Apple's quality has been on the slip for years now and Microsoft is finally waking up and understanding that they need to make their crap better then they have in the past. Vista with SP1 and a good machine IS better then XP as far as I'm concerned. My 3 gripes with Vista is their predatory activation crap, which sadly I think Apple is destined to follow. The feature gap between Home Premium and Business which can only be obtained by buying Ultimate which is stupid. And a few stupid GUI decisions. Beyond that the only other thing I'm not happy to see is that it looks...repeat looks like MS may be trying to push a subscription model on users. But considering the people jumping ship from Windows I can't see them forcing this down user's throats....who does MS think they are with forcing things on their users? Apple?
Seriously I'm watching things switch between MS and Apple and in most cases this isn't a good thing. Apple is easily turning into the Microsoft of the 1990's and this is definitely not a good thing.

Seriously though the only thing MS needs is a good marketing department or someone who can generate a RDF...even if its 1/10th the strength of Jobs's....If MS can do that they will be fine. Personally I would like to see the market sit at 50% MS, 40% OS X, 10% Linux or some other variant of *nix. What does this do...simple....developers would have to conform to open standards and make their wares cross platform compatible, which in turn would usher in a golden age in computing. It would no longer be about the OS but about the apps because you could run whatever app you want on whatever platform. But there will always be ***hats like Apple who refuse to allow a handful of apps on everyone else's system. Unlike Windows where you can Virtualize and get pretty much everything Apple will continue to be ***hats and I hope it bits them in the butt someday. But it won't because their fanbase will never snub their nose at anything Apple says or does.
 
glad to see this, even though i kinda already thought this was true, but it's nice to see others agree.

and it's not like i hate microsoft. but i just like apple much better
 
SiliconAddict said:
Which is sad because as far as I'm concerned Apple's quality has been on the slip for years now and Microsoft is finally waking up and understanding that they need to make their crap better then they have in the past. Vista with SP1 and a good machine IS better then XP as far as I'm concerned. My 3 gripes with Vista is their predatory activation crap, which sadly I think Apple is destined to follow. The feature gap between Home Premium and Business which can only be obtained by buying Ultimate which is stupid. And a few stupid GUI decisions. Beyond that the only other thing I'm not happy to see is that it looks...repeat looks like MS may be trying to push a subscription model on users. But considering the people jumping ship from Windows I can't see them forcing this down user's throats....who does MS think they are with forcing things on their users? Apple?
Seriously I'm watching things switch between MS and Apple and in most cases this isn't a good thing. Apple is easily turning into the Microsoft of the 1990's and this is definitely not a good thing.

Seriously though the only thing MS needs is a good marketing department or someone who can generate a RDF...even if its 1/10th the strength of Jobs's....If MS can do that they will be fine. Personally I would like to see the market sit at 50% MS, 40% OS X, 10% Linux or some other variant of *nix. What does this do...simple....developers would have to conform to open standards and make their wares cross platform compatible, which in turn would usher in a golden age in computing. It would no longer be about the OS but about the apps because you could run whatever app you want on whatever platform. But there will always be ***hats like Apple who refuse to allow a handful of apps on everyone else's system. Unlike Windows where you can Virtualize and get pretty much everything Apple will continue to be ***hats and I hope it bits them in the butt someday. But it won't because their fanbase will never snub their nose at anything Apple says or does.
Click to expand...

I have to agree, the apple quality is sinking. My first Apple product (12" powerbook) was flawless. Every product i've ordered since then has had something wrong with it. Even the Macbook Pro I just got 2 weeks ago has a cracked key on it. How does a key get cracked?

Anyway, I'm not even worrying about it. Its a minor flaw and I can't part with the computer for 4 days to let them fix it. Got too much work to do on my iPhone app :p
 
Life Is Good On A Mac 

I've been saying it and I'll continue to say it, clearly an era of Apple dominance is upon us. With a projected market share of 12% by 2011, the world is finally waking up and coming to the light. :D
 
Macintosh Man said:
I've been saying it and I'll continue to say it, clearly an era of Apple dominance is upon us. With a projected market share of 12% by 2011, the world is finally waking up and coming to the light. :D
Click to expand...

Apple's global market share is about 3% and may rise to 5%. The world mostly doesn't care.
 
BongoBanger said:
Apple's global market share is about 3% and may rise to 5%. The world mostly doesn't care.
Click to expand...

Who cares about the worldwide figure?

Its all about the software and frankly hardware sales outside of the US/Canada/EU/Japan/Asian Tigers/Australia/New Zealand are irrelevant as virtually no-one else buys any software.
 
Eraserhead said:
Who cares about the worldwide figure?
Click to expand...

I used the word 'global' that's quite different from 'worldwide' in a market segment sense.

Its all about the software and frankly hardware sales outside of the US/Canada/EU/Japan/Asian Tigers/Australia/New Zealand are irrelevant as virtually no-one else buys any software.
Click to expand...

Uh... that's pretty much the global market except you missed out the Middle East and Africa - the three biggest markets are, in order, EMEA, Asia-Pacific and the US.

Even Gartner's rash 'doubling of market share' only refers to the US and Western Europe. The actual global figure is projected to stay around 3-4% which means half the biggest market (EMEA) and all of the second biggest (Asia-Pacific) project little or no growth for Apple.
 
MacRumors said:


A recent survey of nearly 2000 professionals and students have named Apple has the most inspiring brand and one that respondents could not live without.

The results come in the wake of another poll of about 12,000 U.S. business decision-makers which indicate that Microsoft has dropped from the number 12 ranking of most powerful U.S. company brands in 2004, down to number 59 this past year. Further underscoring the trend, Microsoft previously ranked #1 in a similar brand survey in 1996. The fall in rank reflects a drop in the following ratings: overall reputation, perception of management, and investment potential


Though the survey had no specifics about the nature of the decline, CEO of CoreBrand speculates that Vista's poor reception as well as Apple's "Get a Mac" television ads may have both contributed to the decline.


Article Link
Click to expand...

Isn't this an Apple-Insider article?
 
BongoBanger said:
Uh... that's pretty much the global market except you missed out the Middle East and Africa - the three biggest markets are, in order, EMEA, Asia-Pacific and the US.
Click to expand...

And SE Asia, China, India, South America and Eastern Europe, all of which do have computers ;).

Apples machines are fairly expensive, so most people who buy they are well off, and can afford to buy software.
 
SiliconAddict said:
...My 3 gripes with Vista is their predatory activation crap, which sadly I think Apple is destined to follow...
Click to expand...

I'm curious, what evidence do you have that Apple is following Microsoft in the whole aggressive activation area?

Everything (as far as I know) is serial number based. What's wrong with that?

Logic used to have to have a USB dongle mounted to run, now they got rid of that (IIRC).

I see no ways in which Apple is becoming too aggressive about activations. Apple products don't even have any type of 'activation.' If I am wrong, please let me know. It never hurts to learn. :)
 
Eraserhead said:
And SE Asia, China, India, South America and Eastern Europe, all of which do have computers ;).

Apples machines are fairly expensive, so most people who buy they are well off, and can afford to buy software.
Click to expand...

SE Asia, China and India are part of the Asia-Pacific segment - which excludes Japan. Eastern Europe is part of the EMEA segment. South America is part of the Latin American segment. The other main one is Canada.

Since Japan accounts for 8%, Latin America for 7% and Canada for 3% they are minor markets compared to the 20-30+% boasted by the other three segments.

The comparison is valid. It is total nonsense to suggest the Asia-Pacific segment can't afford Apple products or software, for example.
 
truth to be told, since when Microsoft has been a prominent "brand"?

MSFT isn't working the same path as apple, they don't do "microsoft" brand, you get zune, you get xbox, you get windows, those are all brands.

To compare "microsoft" and "apple", IMHO, is pointless.

And some people need to stop locking themselves in a tiny apple box.
 
BongoBanger said:
SE Asia, China and India are part of the Asia-Pacific segment
Click to expand...

Fine, in terms of this arbitrarily splitting up of the world yes, but not in terms of how much they spent on software. For example Microsoft is reported to only have sold 244 copies of Vista in the whole of China.

The only countries in that segment I would expect to have a significant software market are Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, the others not so much.
 
Eraserhead said:
Fine, in terms of this arbitrarily splitting up of the world yes
Click to expand...

Actually these are the regions used by the analysts. Here's Gartner's 2006 figures demonstrating this

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=492265

but not in terms of how much they spent on software. For example Microsoft is reported to only have sold 244 copies of Vista in the whole of China.
Click to expand...

The article is over a year old and refers to sales two weeks after launch. MS slashed their prices in response which kick started sales.

I agree China doesn't have the mass disposable income that the US or Europe does, however Asia pacific includes Australia, New Zealand and India - increasingly so - who do.

The only countries in that segment I would expect to have a significant software market are Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, the others not so much.
Click to expand...

Disagree. See above - I think the Indian and Chinese markets will expand rapidly.

One thing though - how would the software market benefit Apple with their hardware limited offerings? Hardware I could understand to a degree but not sure where you're going with software?
 
Hahahahaha....

But seriously, the MSNNBC quoted brandchannel which is a very good and reputable source it does represent fairly and impartially for results.

Also I think my monitor is broken because everything is black and white.
 
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