Why I think Apple is winning over Microsoft
It's fascinating to me that so many folks think I'm a total Mac Fanboy at times, but they don't realize that I fought for years with a dear friend over why Microsoft owns the market, and will continue to do so.
The funny thing is, Apple right now is winning that fight, and they have almost zero support for the enterprise, very expensive workstations, and a popular and well supported ecosystem. Microsoft has all these too, and it occurred to me today - and this is one where I'm going to solicit people's opinions too - because I'd like to hear what others think of this.
Here's my take on why Apple is winning:
1) Smart Packaging
2) Small Bites
Okay, so this will need some explaining of course, by packaging I mean, Apple controls the entire bundle - most PC manufacturers are limited by PC standards - the need to use industry standard interfaces, industry standard connectors, Etc. They need to build the full package, they need it to be slick, but they never get past the need to be able to use common components. Apple has deeply transcended this - stuff like the MacBook Air just isn't possible if you're using anything industry standard inside.
Now I did say MOST, but not all vendors have this limitation - the one vendor who has managed to avoid this is Sony. I did say Smart Packaging though, and Sony has been everything other than smart in the industry. And Sony has made some awesome packages, but not all of them are that good - some of them were pretty bad, and others, ill thought out. Worse yet, Sony has a tendency to under-configure their stuff.
Case in point - when Windows XP came out, computers that could run it could run with less than 512k of RAM. I have a neighbor who bought a Sony laptop, and it did well and lasted for years - but it had a hard limit of 512k of RAM. It couldn't support any more than that - oops. Sony does this time after time - it's nice that they aren't afraid to use custom connectors too - but even Apple concedes that the industry standard connectors should be on the outside - which is why most Mac's have SD card slots on them. Sony's insistence on using their own memory stick format is ill conceived in this day and age, but then again, we're talking about Sony. No surprise - they've had some potential, but failed to live up to it. Perhaps its a cultural difference of some sort?
Packaging also includes drivers - and this is one place where most manufactures have utterly failed - HP fails here, Lenovo, ASUS, Sony and Dell - plus any others I missed all fail on the driver front.
The reason I say this is because I've installed an Apple Boot Camp partition, and I've seen how it should be done, and the basic truth as I see it is this: Apple installed Windows is the best Windows ever. And now even Microsoft has stepped in to start selling "premium" installs - where they kill off all the crap that came with your computer's new install, and just baseline you with sweet fast windows only.
That Microsoft had to step up for this was nice, but that it's a $99 charge for what should be basically a free option, is yet another mistake (but I haven't gotten there yet.)
When I installed Boot Camp, it was smooth, fast, and complete - and Apple's drive disk, custom made for my Boot Camp install, installed with one click, ran and quit - and loaded drivers for everything that my Windows needed to know about - all my keyboard keys, video drivers, network and wifi drivers, Etc. all loaded instantly - and none of it stepped on Microsoft's control over the system. I didn't have some Apple Wifi gui, or some other mystery meats hanging around - it was just what I needed, nothing more.
Now packaging doesn't stop there - Apple you see has one other thing they do that Microsoft does not - and that is that they include a ton of features with the OS that you don't get in Windows without going to 20 different third parties. Apple basically hardens their OS so that most users don't need anti-virus - Microsoft has their Security Essentials too - but they don't roll it in, and it still appears as an add-on to the OS. This needs to be built in. Apple also includes a number of video enabled items, movie editing, music composition and editing, video chatting, and so on. Microsoft has none of this.
Smart Packaging would help Microsoft a lot, but I seriously doubt that they've embraced any of this in Windows 8. Should have made me the CEO I guess - I think I'd do better than Steve Balmer.
The next explanation is small bites.
This is easy - people paid for the computer already, in the case of Apple, so they own you. Just because you paid the premium price for the thing doesn't mean you have to keep on paying.
Apple gets this, Microsoft does not.
Case in point: Apple charged $20 for their OS upgrade. When I went from Snow Leopard to Lion, it was $20. Not $20 per computer, it was $20 for all the machines I have. And there's no license keys or activations in the OS either - Apple wants folks up to date - not calling in for support on versions that are years old.
The same carries true in the App Store as well. When I buy an app on my iPad, I buy it once - and if it can run on my iPhone, then I can use it there too - no additional charge. And my daughters iPad is on my account too, so she gets the app as well. One price.
Apple's philosophy has been an interesting one - and they've definitely taken the higher path - update at all costs, support the latest and greatest, keep folks informed, don't let licensing become a burden.
This also holds true on their office products as well. How much does MS Office cost? Apple's Mail client is pretty darn good for free, and $30 for Word (er, Pages), $30 for Excel (er, Numbers) and $30 for Powerpoint (er, Keynote) is nice. MS Office costs $200++ depending on who you are. Apple discounts students only.
All in all, it's clear to me now - Apple doesn't want to grab your wallet and go to town leaving you eating ramen because you updated and downloaded a couple apps, they want you to keep coming back because it doesn't cost more than $5 to $10 to keep the users happen each visit - and when millions of folks keep coming back, and keep tossing what is the equivalent of spare change at them, well, it's hard not to start counting money in the billions.
And Apple's share of the market isn't even that big yet - imagine what happens when 50% of households own an Apple computer?
The funny thing is, Apple right now is winning that fight, and they have almost zero support for the enterprise, very expensive workstations, and a popular and well supported ecosystem. Microsoft has all these too, and it occurred to me today - and this is one where I'm going to solicit people's opinions too - because I'd like to hear what others think of this.
Here's my take on why Apple is winning:
1) Smart Packaging
2) Small Bites
Okay, so this will need some explaining of course, by packaging I mean, Apple controls the entire bundle - most PC manufacturers are limited by PC standards - the need to use industry standard interfaces, industry standard connectors, Etc. They need to build the full package, they need it to be slick, but they never get past the need to be able to use common components. Apple has deeply transcended this - stuff like the MacBook Air just isn't possible if you're using anything industry standard inside.
Now I did say MOST, but not all vendors have this limitation - the one vendor who has managed to avoid this is Sony. I did say Smart Packaging though, and Sony has been everything other than smart in the industry. And Sony has made some awesome packages, but not all of them are that good - some of them were pretty bad, and others, ill thought out. Worse yet, Sony has a tendency to under-configure their stuff.
Case in point - when Windows XP came out, computers that could run it could run with less than 512k of RAM. I have a neighbor who bought a Sony laptop, and it did well and lasted for years - but it had a hard limit of 512k of RAM. It couldn't support any more than that - oops. Sony does this time after time - it's nice that they aren't afraid to use custom connectors too - but even Apple concedes that the industry standard connectors should be on the outside - which is why most Mac's have SD card slots on them. Sony's insistence on using their own memory stick format is ill conceived in this day and age, but then again, we're talking about Sony. No surprise - they've had some potential, but failed to live up to it. Perhaps its a cultural difference of some sort?
Packaging also includes drivers - and this is one place where most manufactures have utterly failed - HP fails here, Lenovo, ASUS, Sony and Dell - plus any others I missed all fail on the driver front.
The reason I say this is because I've installed an Apple Boot Camp partition, and I've seen how it should be done, and the basic truth as I see it is this: Apple installed Windows is the best Windows ever. And now even Microsoft has stepped in to start selling "premium" installs - where they kill off all the crap that came with your computer's new install, and just baseline you with sweet fast windows only.
That Microsoft had to step up for this was nice, but that it's a $99 charge for what should be basically a free option, is yet another mistake (but I haven't gotten there yet.)
When I installed Boot Camp, it was smooth, fast, and complete - and Apple's drive disk, custom made for my Boot Camp install, installed with one click, ran and quit - and loaded drivers for everything that my Windows needed to know about - all my keyboard keys, video drivers, network and wifi drivers, Etc. all loaded instantly - and none of it stepped on Microsoft's control over the system. I didn't have some Apple Wifi gui, or some other mystery meats hanging around - it was just what I needed, nothing more.
Now packaging doesn't stop there - Apple you see has one other thing they do that Microsoft does not - and that is that they include a ton of features with the OS that you don't get in Windows without going to 20 different third parties. Apple basically hardens their OS so that most users don't need anti-virus - Microsoft has their Security Essentials too - but they don't roll it in, and it still appears as an add-on to the OS. This needs to be built in. Apple also includes a number of video enabled items, movie editing, music composition and editing, video chatting, and so on. Microsoft has none of this.
Smart Packaging would help Microsoft a lot, but I seriously doubt that they've embraced any of this in Windows 8. Should have made me the CEO I guess - I think I'd do better than Steve Balmer.
The next explanation is small bites.
This is easy - people paid for the computer already, in the case of Apple, so they own you. Just because you paid the premium price for the thing doesn't mean you have to keep on paying.
Apple gets this, Microsoft does not.
Case in point: Apple charged $20 for their OS upgrade. When I went from Snow Leopard to Lion, it was $20. Not $20 per computer, it was $20 for all the machines I have. And there's no license keys or activations in the OS either - Apple wants folks up to date - not calling in for support on versions that are years old.
The same carries true in the App Store as well. When I buy an app on my iPad, I buy it once - and if it can run on my iPhone, then I can use it there too - no additional charge. And my daughters iPad is on my account too, so she gets the app as well. One price.
Apple's philosophy has been an interesting one - and they've definitely taken the higher path - update at all costs, support the latest and greatest, keep folks informed, don't let licensing become a burden.
This also holds true on their office products as well. How much does MS Office cost? Apple's Mail client is pretty darn good for free, and $30 for Word (er, Pages), $30 for Excel (er, Numbers) and $30 for Powerpoint (er, Keynote) is nice. MS Office costs $200++ depending on who you are. Apple discounts students only.
All in all, it's clear to me now - Apple doesn't want to grab your wallet and go to town leaving you eating ramen because you updated and downloaded a couple apps, they want you to keep coming back because it doesn't cost more than $5 to $10 to keep the users happen each visit - and when millions of folks keep coming back, and keep tossing what is the equivalent of spare change at them, well, it's hard not to start counting money in the billions.
And Apple's share of the market isn't even that big yet - imagine what happens when 50% of households own an Apple computer?
Comments