Microsoft's Shifting Strategy in Response to Apple

[camel jockey]

Zune Phone

I want the name and phone number of every born loser who buys a Zune phone, or, if given one, does not give it to the Salvation Army.

 

[Syrus28]

QFE

On topic, Microsoft, unlike Apple, can't really afford something entirely new. They cater for a lot of businesses, some of which have just made the leap to XP, and they care preciously little for wow effects and the like. I think Microsoft should write a whole new, entirely 64 bit OS for the consumer market, and continue with their relic OS's for their business customers, instead of trying to please both parties with the same OS.

Microsoft isn't changing anything, except for increased synergy between it and the hardware companies, something that can lead to nothing but good results... Businesses or consumers will have nothing to worry about.

 

[Beric]

I agree that they care about the number of customers they receive but they won't make much of a dent in that un-switched populace just from adding dedicated graphics to their MacBooks.

In the end it comes down to numbers and they are more likely to make a significant dent in the competitors' collective marketshare by focusing on user-experience right now rather than specifications. Sure, if they reach a major number on marketshare they'll have to start worrying about more specific computing desires (gaming, for example) and developing more machines toward that end but right now there's no money to be had by abandoning a philosophy that seems to be working rather well for them in order to satisfy a vast minority of their potential customers.

Maybe in the future your 13" with a Nvidia or ATI card will come to fruition but it's not likely to be while Apple still holds such a small marketshare and desires to capture significantly more.

But I think Apple already has a significant market share. Computer makers with less than half of Apple's market share have more options.

Apple just doesn't have the hardware selection people want. I shouldn't have to pay an extra $1000 to get a feature worth $200, like buying a MBP just for a dedicated GPU. I should be able to customize my Macbook online, add the dedicated GPU, and gulp an extra $200 for a MB, not an extra $1000 for a much larger MBP that does way more then I want or ever will need.

Or look at desktops. Some people like OS X, and yet don't care about the style of the iMac, that comes at the sacrifice of having more expensive laptop parts in a desktop. Some people want to run OS X without a stylish machine. And without paying $3000 for a Mac Pro that is upgradeable.

Apple just has so many holes in their lineup. Maybe it means more money for Apple, as less-than-wise customers spend lots of extra money just for one feature, while receiving tons of other features they don't need. But it just leaves people like me feeling unsatisfied.

 

[zacman]

Xbox 360 is good. Have they started making money on that yet ?

Yes.

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/17/microsoft-hits-profit-target-xbox-360-business

 

[i.mac]

But I think Apple already has a significant market share. Computer makers w

Apple just has so many holes in their lineup. ...

. But it just leaves people like me feeling unsatisfied.

very well then, feel free to buy a M$ badtop any day of the week.

 

[Syrus28]

Xbox 360 is good. Have they started making money on that yet ?

Zune's WiFi was and is CRIPPLED to the point that there really is no point to it.

The Input devices are usable, is that really an argument for anything ?

Office is very good, not always has been though...And was made first for a Mac

The Entertainment and Devices division has posted profits for the last 4 quarters and is in 2nd place in an $18 billion industry with record software attachment rates while the Zune's WiFi adds wireless syncing, something the iPhone could learn from.

There's a little fluff for you.

 

[Insulin Junkie]

I want the name and phone number of every born loser who buys a Zune phone, or, if given one, does not give it to the Salvation Army.

Come on... give Microsoft a chance and wait until they release it (if they ever do, and I seriously doubt it) until saying things like that

 

[Beric]

very well then, feel free to buy a M$ badtop any day of the week.

I'm willing to go there if I have to, but I don't want to. I want to run OSX with both the specs AND the OS I want. I want to buy from Apple, but Apple doesn't want me to buy from them.

 

[Syrus28]

very well then, feel free to buy a M$ badtop any day of the week.

Oh please, stop with the "buy a PC if you don't like it".. These are valid concerns which Apple will have to address if they want to have any significant market share. Should we just sit here and take anything Apple feeds us? We don't and that's why we are posting. If you don't like it, well free free to leave the discussion.

 

[i.mac]

Oh please, stop with the "buy a PC if you don't like it".. These are valid concerns which Apple will have to address if they want to have any significant market share. Should we just sit here and take anything Apple feeds us? We don't and that's why we are posting. If you don't like it, well free free to leave the discussion.

no, you do not have to sit there and take any thing that Apple feeds you. You could buy a Sun system, or perhaps a SI workstation? Run Linux if you must, there are choices.

As a matter of fact, get an Apple, put Solaris, Linux, BSD, etc. Run a VM and you'll have any second system that you want. You do not have to take what apple feeds you, be creative.

As you can see, 'your valid concerns' are worth... well not much.

Do not worry, I do not waste my time very much by answering these kinds of post. You should feel so good, this is one of the exception. Not that it matters any way.

I am going to drive my Prius with my brand new tennis shoes, call frinds on my iPhone, run M$ as a VM in my Pro machine, create some games in my apple machine, and sell them on the app store. Cheers.

 

[corywoolf]

Xbox 360 is good. Have they started making money on that yet ?

Zune's WiFi was and is CRIPPLED to the point that there really is no point to it.

The Input devices are usable, is that really an argument for anything ?

Office is very good, not always has been though...And was made first for a Mac

1. It's all long term, look at Sony's PS3, they are subsidizing as well. MS knew they had to lose money to gain market-share, they have done that pretty well. Now like you said, they need to start making it back quicker.

2. The Zune has a song sharing feature, I know it isn't perfect though. It at least shows some sign of innovation.

3. Peripherals are a big business. MS and Logitech dominate that market.

4. Office has always been good compared to the competition, it's just gotten better over the years. I had no idea that the first MS Office suite was made for the Mac OS, do you have something to back that up?

 

[queshy]

Meh, whatever. Microsoft lost me when I got my iMac.

I used to be excited about new MS technologies until I got into the whole Mac thing. Now, MS couldn't get me excited about their stuff even if they tried.

I really think it's about marketing. Apple has the best marketing ever, and my next computer purchase won't involve me choosing between Apple and MS.

Oh, and about the office, it sucks on the Mac. The interface is OK, it's just that it still feels trapped in the PPC days. No biggie, though, I just use Pages and it works fine for me. Whenever I send somebody a document, it's usually a PDF anyways.

 

[mangis]

Microsoft the claims to be the champion of choice?

ROGLMFAO.

I better check my shorts.

 

[BigD58]

Pshh ballmer....what a ****ing joke. Too bad microsoft got windows from stealing from apple. When will people realize that...

 

[cloudnine]

Pshh ballmer....what a ****ing joke. Too bad microsoft got windows from stealing from apple. When will people realize that...

At this point, does it really matter if people ever realize that? What benefit would that have for any party if people did realize that? How would that advance technology for either party involved?

Your misguided angst really has no place here and doesn't contribute anything to the conversation at hand. Keep it in your pants.

 

[sshrivastava]

I used to work at Microsoft. All Microsoft does is TALK about how it's going to innovate and do this and that, but in the end they just turn out more CRAP. This will never change because Microsoft is in love with itself, it thinks that everything it creates is wonderful.

There's a lot of kool-aid making the rounds at Redmond.

 

[Cormac]

Re: Microsoft's Shifting Strategy in Response to Apple

>Microsoft is already rumored to be working on a Zune phone to compete with the iPhone.

What's a Zune?

 

[Syrus28]

Pshh ballmer....what a ****ing joke. Too bad microsoft got windows from stealing from apple. When will people realize that...

Oh, really? Could you tell us how you came to that conclusion, you know, for us less intelligent people?

 

[pesos]

QFE

On topic, Microsoft, unlike Apple, can't really afford something entirely new. They cater for a lot of businesses, some of which have just made the leap to XP, and they care preciously little for wow effects and the like. I think Microsoft should write a whole new, entirely 64 bit OS for the consumer market, and continue with their relic OS's for their business customers, instead of trying to please both parties with the same OS.

Actually the rumor is that Windows 7 will shunt all backwards compatibility crap into a VM of sorts, much like Apple did with "classic" and os9 junk. I really hope this is the case because the current winsxs system is horrible.

 

[rdowns]

4. Office has always been good compared to the competition, it's just gotten better over the years. I had no idea that the first MS Office suite was made for the Mac OS, do you have something to back that up?

Microsoft Word is Microsoft's flagship word processing software. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems.[1][2][3] Versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), the Apple Macintosh (1984), SCO UNIX, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows (1989).

Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982, which was very popular on CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3. The first version of Excel was released for the Mac in 1985 and the first Windows version (numbered 2.05 to line-up with the Mac and bundled with a run-time Windows environment) was released in November 1987.

Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services, collectively referred to as an office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Office was introduced by Microsoft in 1989 on Mac OS,[1] with a version for Windows in 1990.[2]

All from Wikipedia

 

[Eraserhead]

-Xbox 360 (pioneered online console world, great user experience, lots of features that other companies were quick to copy)

But they didn't really capitalise on that initial success and they are being outsold by the PS3 and Wii in all major markets.

-Zune (while late to the game, it was one of the first WiFi portable media players, provided a pretty good user experience)

2. The Zune has a song sharing feature, I know it isn't perfect though. It at least shows some sign of innovation.

a) The Zune was very late to the game
b) The Zune didn't do anything good with WiFi
c) The Zune doesn't make a profit, and now the iPhone has been released and phones are going to start to take market share from MP3 players it basically never will.
d) The iPod Touch and iPhone are way more innovative.

-Office (hands down, best productivity suite out their for most users, extensive features that haven't been matched)

Agreed.

3. Peripherals are a big business. MS and Logitech dominate that market.

The peripherals are actually also in the Xbox division, if they really are very successful that is just masking the Xbox further meaning its more of a failure.

PlaysForSure was nothing more than a sticker (Now Certified for Windows Vista)... I'm sure Microsoft's partners were devastated...

Actually I think they probably were pissed off to be stabbed in the back.

Yes.

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/17/microsoft-hits-profit-target-xbox-360-business

Well sort of, but they aside from Halo they aren't doing well, just because the division made money doesn't mean Xbox did, 300 million came from Halo (so Xbox made money there) and 200 million came from Mac Office, and there are other things in that division as well (including peripherals) that probably also make money.

Microsoft also haven't explicitly said that the Xbox is making money, if it was they would have done so.

These are valid concerns which Apple will have to address if they want to have any significant market share.

Apple is a company so they care about profits (and share price) above all else. They are doing very well there.

All from Wikipedia

+1, that's what I learned from in History of Computing.

 

[HLdan]

Oh please, stop with the "buy a PC if you don't like it".. These are valid concerns which Apple will have to address if they want to have any significant market share. Should we just sit here and take anything Apple feeds us? We don't and that's why we are posting. If you don't like it, well free free to leave the discussion.

Actually, yes, you do have to sit and take what Apple feeds if you want to be a customer of theirs because it's their choice. They had dedicated GPU's in all of their computers before they went to Intel. The problem was nobody was buying the iBook for that reason.

Any company has the right to make their products the way they see fit. Telling your feelings on this forum shows US how you feel but Apple does not look at Macrumors and even if they did they are not making decisions based on what they read here. The title of this website is enough to keep them away as it is.
Apple actually has doubled it's marketshare in quite a very short time since they changed to Intel. I do agree that it would be much better if Apple gave more choices to customize your Mac when buying it online but at the moment they don't so you do have to accept it and if you don't like their business model then you do have to take the advice of some on this forum and that would be to buy a Windows PC and leave Apple alone if it bothers you that much.

The average Joe is not anyone on this forum because the average Joe doesn't post on online computer forums BUT the average Joe is a customer of Apple's and they certainly outweigh the number of people that post here.
The Macrumors forum members are less than 1% of Apple's customers.

 

[rdrr]

End to End MS?

If MS was to start taking control over the hardware part of the business and demand certain specs, I think it will put a Windows machine in the same high end price range that everyone complains that Apple lines are. Also for those hardware manufacturers that don't make the cut, it will give more room for Linux to take a foot hold into their market share.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that a Linux desktop is going to take a big piece of the pie. It will just give some one another option, who knows maybe force Linux to become more user friendly?

 

[Syrus28]

But they didn't really capitalise on that initial success and they are being outsold by the PS3 and Wii in all major markets.

They didn't capitalize? They went from the newcomer (original Xbox) to going head to head with the Playstation. As of now, the PS3 outsells the 360 no doubt due to MGS4, but things will settle down (think Halo 3 in September). Xbox Live has 10 million subscribers, and continues to be the leader in online experiences...

a) The Zune was very late to the game
b) The Zune didn't do anything good with WiFi
c) The Zune doesn't make a profit.
d) Have you heard of the iPod Touch, that's way more innovative.

a. And?
b. Wireless Syncing...
c. And you know this how?
d. And that has to do with the Zune how?

The peripherals are actually also in the Xbox division, if they really are very successful that is just masking the Xbox further meaning its more of a failure.

Microsoft attributes the profits to the Xbox 360

Actually I think they probably were pissed off to be stabbed in the back.

Very well, that's your opinion but there's no reason to believe they were "pissed off"

Well sort of, but they aside from Halo they aren't doing well, just because the division made money doesn't mean Xbox did, 300 million came from Halo (so Xbox made money there) and 200 million came from Mac Office, and there are other things in that division as well (including peripherals) that probably also make money.

Microsoft said the main reason for profit came the Xbox Division, so we don't need to speculate on whether it did or didn't. Halo, as you know, is part of the Xbox properties, so why are we separating it?

Apple is a company so they care about profits (and share price) above all else. They are doing very well there.

And they care about market share too.

 

[HLdan]

4. Office has always been good compared to the competition, it's just gotten better over the years. I had no idea that the first MS Office suite was made for the Mac OS, do you have something to back that up?

He's correct but it's well known, at least by the Mac community.

Here's your proof from Wiki. If you need deeper proof I'm sure somewhere on the web Microsoft has it on paper. Actually the wiki explains that the whole suite of apps came a year on Mac before Windows but Word came out first and was released on Mac years before that in 1984. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office