The sleeping (MS) Giant has awakened...

[loby]

I am sorry to say that Microsoft is light years ahead of Apple in many ways.

I have to use Microsoft's 365 platform due to work and it is impressive. Apple's development now seems like kid's toy stuff. macOS, apps, very elementary in design now and looks ancient compared to the once stale and dry Microsoft....

Microsoft has been busy in development....Apple....wrist bands and toys...becoming 'Toys are Us..."

Once Microsoft finds a modern day 'Ive' to design modern day hardware, they will again be the dominate technology company. They took what works in the old Apple and now it may be too late for Apple to come back.

Microsoft is creating an ecosystem that is light years ahead of Apple. It is only a matter of time...they have more surprises coming....Apple....well...iphone is all they have now...but maybe for just a short time...

Microsoft is generating the necessity to be dependent on their online apps and services...

Eventually it will be too late for Apple (probably is already)...

The Empire has struck back...and there is more coming...

Once their OS is finalized in their recoding....'Windows' will not be the dog that it use to be...

It took a scare for Microsoft to wake up...Now Apple...what will it take?

 

[Pakaku]

MS is getting there, but their stuff still has a sort of corporate vibe that feels "trend-following" in a slightly mediocre way compared to what Apple used to be good at, and they keep doing shady things with Windows 10 that i'm not a fan of.

Apple's issue right now seems to be that they're too complacent, they don't feel endangered by any competition (whether true or delusional), so they feel less incentive to impress anyone and more incentive to see what they can get away with.

 

[loby]

MS is getting there, but their stuff still has a sort of corporate vibe that feels "trend-following" in a slightly mediocre way compared to what Apple used to be good at, and they keep doing shady things with Windows 10 that i'm not a fan of.

Apple's issue right now seems to be that they're too complacent, they don't feel endangered by any competition (whether true or delusional), so they feel less incentive to impress anyone and more incentive to see what they can get away with.

Yes, Microsoft has always had a corporate vibe, but now their design seems more mature compared to apple's offering currently (maybe just my opinion). I too am not a fan of Windows 10 and their proven 'behind the scenes' information gathering and other not challenged behavior. Apple does this too, but is not their primary focus right now (no need $) and does not have to compete with anyone currently. We see no challenges to all of Microsoft's invasion of privacy as it use to be, so that will not change (maybe the newer generation cares less about it-use to it and was taught not to care..i.e. Facebook etc.).

I believe there is more to Apple's complacent behavior, given if you follow their business decisions since Steve Jobs death, you can see typical patterns when a company becomes successful. Ive seems to be exiting and doing other things while the others who use to worked their ***off under Steve Jobs now are bathing and enjoying their cash, almost taking it easy and is well deserved. No reason to push anymore and most of the old Apple is ready for retirement and are aging...when you are at retirement age, $ seems to be the focus.. I think it is no longer exciting for them since Steve died (understandable).

Creative content Apple is slowly losing to Microsoft (Avid etc.) which was Apple's focus some years back. It is the small foxes that spoil the 'apple' vine. Apple's focus is more so it seems on trendy fashion items (iPhone, watches etc.) and areas where quick money is generated to appease shareholders close to the shareholder call and reports. I am not sure how long Apple can keep up the iPhone wave as their completion is or is caught up.

After last week's offerings from both Microsoft and Apple...we may be seeing a shift taking place. Apple fans will stay fans regardless (maybe), but Microsoft HAD to chance to stay alive.

I say this because many of us have to make business decisions soon about what direction to follow or continue...the road is currently foggy and hard to see...

 

[Partron22]

Apple's obsession with "no user facing file system" is killing them.
As is their obsession with touchscreen interfaces. That one hurt Microsoft for years.
At least Apple has yet to take a highdive for iBulbs, the internet of DDOS things.
Maybe, some day, Apple will make a real keyboard again, but they've got to kill this no filesystem bug first.
It is literally killing them in the marketplace.

 

[GuillaumeB]

Yeh well, not too sure. When they can't buy a company, they make a second class alternative (ie. Slack/Teams...). When they give you storage for pure marketing purpose, they take it back (ie. OneDrive). Took them 5 years to get universal apps. How many of those actually run on phone/PC/tablet/Xbox ?

Oh, and are we really all excited about a 3D version of... Paint ?

When they have a real interesting phone and some apps they can start chatting a bit, until then...

 

[MechaSpanky]

The Giant is sleep walking.....

 

[merkinmuffley]

Cook going away would be a good start for an answer to the "Now Apple...what will it take?"

Jobs was great at most of what he did, his people picking skills were not one of his better skills. Remember Sculley? Jobs handpicked him for the CEO slot, that one turned into a train wreck. Jobs picked Cook too, and his train is (hopefully) running out of track. Some of the decisions made since Cook took over have been abysmal.

 

[Bending Pixels]

Microsoft is light years ahead? You haven't really used Windows 10, have you?

 

[campyguy]

I like both companies' products, picking and choosing what I need for me and my small business while seeing hits and misses from both companies.

The OSes are both hits for me - solid, regularly updated. Win 10 took awhile to get "solid" - the Anniversary Update nailed a few things, the next update ought to make a few polished refinements to become a nicely refined tool, in that it's a platform that gets out of one's way, but it's taken over a year to get there. OS X is a mixed bag for the first few updates until a solid version comes out. I don't update my production machines until it's certified by my software producers (Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, Adobe and others) - that's my cue to update an OS.

About jumping the shark with software, "pro" software, I do use FCPX. It's been "meh" for sometime, but the latest version IMHO shouldn't have been a x.1 update but, rather, a new version altogether. The same goes for Motion. Both updates, for me, are in the "holy crap" (in a great way) category). MS has nothing to offer like the new video apps Apple just updated.

As to MS, relative to Office apps - I use the Office suite, and I own an Exchange Server license, and I use O365. The good: Word/Excel/Access for Windows are powerful apps - and I've been using and coding for those apps for over 25 years; Outlook for Windows is the most powerful and easy to use PIM I've ever used. The misses: Office apps on the Mac OS are frickin' joke, a glossed-over and identically-named suite with maybe 40% of the feature set of the Windows counterpart - I don't see how one can extoll MS for its suite on the Windows platform and not knock them for publishing (and charging the same coin) for the Mac suite; I can knock them for this farce of an office suite.

Another knock on MS, relative to their suite. They've missed on pricing IMHO. They built out a massive backbone. They offer a suite on Windows that includes so many offerings: Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Access/SharePoint/Publisher/email/file storage/communications - Skype/Yammer/Planner/Sway/Teams. All for less than $13 per month/user - and a big chunk of that for $4 per user/month. Meanwhile, Autodesk gets serious coin per year for individual apps in their suite like AutoCAD/Revit/Mudbox/etc./etc. and updates (or see Nemetschek or Dassault Systèmes for other SW providers I pay good money for), Adobe gets $50 per month/user for Creative Cloud. MS has IMHO seriously undervalued its provided services and IMHO it's going to lead to cuts and chopping of services in the future - I'd rather pay a few more bucks to ensure what I use gets supported. I'm seeing MS as a budget service provider now, and budget service providers lose money and go out of business or cut services.

For a few "premium" products that MS provides, pick MS Project. Nobody I know uses it anymore, it's too much of a dog. The big companies I work with use Primavera. Smaller companies - like mine - moved to free alternatives like ProjectLibre or (on OS X) I use Merlin, which is so much cheaper than Project.

I just don't see MS in the same light, OP. I see MS as a professional company with a veneer covering a crumbling backbone and good PR spin. I walk by a MS Store in Portland and see 2-3 people in it while I'm heading to the nearby Apple Store or my attorney's office - and see dozens of people in that Apple Store. The new products are pretty cool, but just about everybody I know who uses Windows is using Dell or ASUS PCs they bought on sale years ago at a Best Buy that's still running Win 7. MS is wasting money on those brick-and-mortar spaces - I've never, ever seen more than 2-3 people in one of those MS Stores.

The New Microsoft is the Old Microsoft with a new shade of lipstick on the same old pig, with a new marketing team dancing around a room in ads that are as confusing as the Apple ads from 8-10 years ago, from a marketing perspective. MS makes more money from Xbox, just like Apple makes more money from iPhones.

I do have Win 10 Pro available and use it. On my 3-year-old Mac, courtesy of Parallels Desktop. I've got a pretty large budget for new hardware to spend - I've told my accountant to couch that money until next year, since Apple and PC makers have nothing of note to buy this year. The good stuff, I hope, is coming next year... Cheers!

 

[Phil A.]

I think you're looking at the wrong target: Microsoft aren't going after Apple with Office 365 as Apple have never played in that sand pit.

It's Google they've in their sights after Google took a massive chunk of their customers with the Google Apps platform (or G Suite as it's now called)

I have to agree they've done a very good job with Office 365: I moved my company email, etc from Google Apps to O365 about a year ago and it's the best thing I ever did - they've moved it on immeasurably in the last few years and it is, in my opinion, the best business platform out there at the moment

 

[satcomer]

Microsoft is loosing it's strangling hold of networks! Most smaller businesses have switched to Linux servers and Mac desktops! They use Google email and documents and smart NAS (Synology or QNAP).

 

[loby]

Yes, both companies target segments may be different, but I think currently Microsoft has a better focus on what direction things are going for the near future anyway then Apple currently. Before Apple had the sight, but I think Microsoft has better sight now. Apple does not have to really, but where I believe they may error now is, like Microsoft did when they were on top of the game or food chain in money, they went to sleep and was slow to shift or get into upcoming segments. Apple seems to be following this common path.