Microsoft Is On Apple’s Side Now

Mike Elgan (1:44 pm PDT, Nov 04 2010)

When PC platforms were the central battlefield for technology, Microsoft was Apple’s big threat, hated enemy and all-purpose nemesis. But those days are gone.

Yet some Apple Faithful rage on against Redmond like abandoned Japanese soldiers on remote Pacific islands long after the end of WWII. It’s time for those Apple fans to come back to civilization understand what’s really happening now. Microsoft is more a friend than an enemy to Apple.

It’s true that Apple competes against Microsoft in a number of product areas. iPod competes against Zune. iPhone competes against Windows Phone 7 devices. Some believe iPads compete against Windows 7-based tablets. And, of course, Macs compete against Windows PCs.

But none of this competition threatens Apple.

While the Zune, Windows Phone 7 and the coming wave of Windows touch tablets may enjoy moderate success relative to other platforms and compared with past performance of Microsoft mobile platforms, none are likely to affect Apple’s dominance significantly. So while Apple’s iOS devices may be Microsoft’s White Whale, Microsoft is inconsequential to Apple in these markets.

None of Apple’s three iOS lines are threatened by anything Microsoft is doing or could conceivably do in the foreseeable future.

The iOS is under threat, but that threat is not coming from Microsoft.

In the PC space, Microsoft systems dominate, and Apple OS X devices are still in the minority. But even here, the position of Apple is enviable. Apple has grown not only total numbers, but market share year over year for quite a while. And Apple’s retail-store strategy and success of iOS devices will almost guarantee Apple’s continued high growth in the PC space.

And market-share numbers don’t tell the whole story. Apple’s OS X system owns the higher margin and recession-proof segments of the PC market. While many of those PC sales involve near zero or even lower-than-zero margins, Apple systems are healthily profitable, and growth continued right through the downturn.

When the outlook for continued growth is so bright — especially with a new version of OS X coming — it’s hard to view Microsoft as a threat or an enemy. Comparative Apple and Microsoft trend lines are all going Apple’s way.

On the whole, Microsoft’s products pose no threat to the continued fast-paced growth, high margins and general success of any Apple products.

And, of course, as always, Microsoft is an applications developer for Apple systems and users. And visa versa. Apple makes iTunes and Safari for Windows users. Microsoft benefits from Apple’s success, and Apple benefits from Microsoft’s.

Google, on the other hand, is a very serious threat.

Google competes with Apple’s tightly controlled, lovingly designed, fully “integrated” iOS devices with Android, which it gives away free to any company that wants to build a competitor to Apple.

Ultimately, Google is selling advertising. So Apple finds itself competing not against a computer company or even a software company but against an advertising company.

Everything Google does is designed to attract maximum eyeballs, so it can sell those views to advertisers. So to Apple, an iPhone is a product that it sells to customers. To Google, an Android phone is a honey pot that it uses to lure users. Those users are the product, which Google sells to advertisers.

And that’s why Google is such a threat. The company is taking its advertising billions and pouring them into any scheme it can come up with that will maximize the number of people who don’t use Apple products. At least that’s how it looks from Cupertino.

Meanwhile, where does Microsoft fit in to all this? Microsoft is in a better position to compete broadly against the Google model than Apple is.

It’s Microsoft that’s going after the Google jugular with Bing, Microsoft that’s spending its energy preventing Google from succeeding with Google Docs, Microsoft that’s working to provide an enterprise alternative to Android devices, and Microsoft that’s pushing hard to compete against Google’s advertising network with one of its own. The same goes for online e-mail, cloud-based services, browsers and more.

If Redmond, Washington were to be suddenly wiped out by a giant meteor, Google would double in size overnight — and use all those extra billions to apply even more pressure on Apple’s core businesses.

Google is the enemy now. And the company in the best position to help Apple fight the new threat is Microsoft.

So let’s stop living in the past and treating Microsoft like Apple’s enemy. Yes, Apple is fighting a bloody, existential war. But Microsoft is on Apple’s side.

DON'T MISS
Apple Mulling Dumping Google for Bing as Default iPhone Search

Apps you might like

31 comments »

Ismail Karim
loving the article :)
Luke
How true them words are..
Greenhouse
hilarious.

http://deoclicianocgiportfolio.wordpress.com Deocliciano Okssipin Vieira
Indeed!

http://www.cultofmac.com/microsoft-is-on-apples-side-now/67842#more-67842 Thomas
Loving the article. Like the fact that once upon a time apple and microsft were enemies then the big evil google monster came along and apple and Microsoft have to band together to fight it.
najib
this article is soo good, you should direct a movie out of it :P , apple and microsoft join forces to defeat the ugly monster Google ..
Alfred
The new ‘war’ will hot up once Chrome OS is released.
Google said it would be released in the “late fall” of 2010.
So it will be heating up soon.
Leo
Like many people, I run Windows within my Mac environment, so for me it’s not a question of Windows Mac – and with Windows 7, it helps that MS has imitated so many of Apple’s worst attributes. You literally can have your cake and it it too.
Darwin Hall
“Visa versa?” Vice-a-versa is wrong as it is.

Mike
the correct is vice-versa, not visa versa or vice-a-versa…

king
actually Microsoft is never a threat, simply because no one uses Microsoft by choice , it was always the only option to buy(except the 360, and we know all about the RROD’s)
When there was a choice, hardly people bought Zune over ipod or Windows 7 over iphone. How can it be a threat when the company is famous for its broken products that hardly works right.
Microsoft is direct competition to Apple, what changed is that Apple don’t care any more about Microsoft existence, now people know about them all over the world, they are on their feet, and expanding in many market other than personal computing is just 1 thing in their business , where before it used to be the ONLY thing.
iOS, itunes store, advertising, app store, ipods, iphones, ipads, . tell me one thing Microsoft is better than Apple in the things I previously mentioned?!
NONE…

Micke
Of course there is a choice… How can you say that there is no choice?
Microsoft Windows has way better compatibility for example, that is one thing they do better than Apple. Windows is better in many ways, and OS X is better in many other ways.
Microsoft has Xbox and Xbox Live, which Apple has nothing to compete with, so there you go, some things Microsoft does better.
There is always a choice. Since none of them are perfect I use products from both of them, that is fine for me.

Mike
Man, I would like to know what kind of pipe you are smoking… Hilarious article. Ipod competing with Zune? iPhone competing with Windows 7 phones? hahahaha the pipe you are smoking are giving you delusions.. ahahaha…
Not even Android competes with iPhone, simply because comparing Android with iPhone is like comparing 200 phones to one phone. You can not compare a system used by 200 phones with a phone. If you want to compare class of products then you must compare Android with iOS. Let me know who wins.
hilarious and delusional.

Micke
Well the thought is that they would compete, of course that is not an easy task, and it didn’t go so well for Zune, and probably wont go so well for Windows Phone 7 either. But they are competing.
Android competes with iOS-devices in the sense that they take customers from Apple, simple as that. It’s not relevant which OS is better, you do not seem to understand that.
It is Google that competes with iOS (Apple), not the hardware manufacturers.
Well also the manufacturer but that is not really relevant in this case either since Android is the real threat.

MasterMacNikon
What a brilliant side-step to the true issue that fuels the “war”. When you are dealing with the Masses, you must consider that you have to debase your assumptions into an LCD mode. LCD meaning Lowest Common Denominator. Yes, we are dealing with fractions again. This time, it is mindsets that are not whole.
When it comes down to it, in LCD, there are only two camps: Mac or Windows; i.e. Mac vs. PC. And if you seriously look on the macro view of the “arguments”, it is a mud-slinging game of trolls that truly don’t have an end in sight. As long as people will be able to make their ‘points’, the flame wars will never end. The purveyors of this instigation are commonly PC people. Granted there are some Mac people that have arrogance but the majority of trolling for ego/bragging/grandstanding/etc. will always come from PC people.
From here, Mac supporters have to defend themselves in a manner that is unbecoming of their ideals and have to sink to the level of their detractors. The best example of this is the era of OS 8 and 9 vs. Windows 95 and 98. The flames came out of these times would equal the heat of the sun multiple times over. Being a Macintosh user in those times meant suffering a form of prejudice. Similar to the concept of Racism. There is no comfortable alternate term for what was felt in those times.
I was a kid in those times and have felt the pain of this prejudice. There are still arguments that using such a term is horribly insensitive to the stigma of Racism. But that is just the point and why I use that term. For those of us whom grew up in the era of beige boxes and Intel vs. PowerPC, the memories of subjugation are still painful; but not as stinging. The term is the best description to what was dealt with.
As a ‘surviver’ of that era, I will never see Microsoft as a friend. They are the bully that beat us down and brought their friends into the mix because there was an opportunity for the bandwagon to get into the action and make themselves feel good. The idea of Microsoft/Windows/PCs as the ‘dominant’ System of computing is the fuel that the masses will feed upon to give justification to their methods. I have never accepted that a dominant ideal is the basis for true belief. Just because a common notion dictates something is “right” doesn’t always make it true. Another way to state this: correlation is not proof of fact.
I will only live an ideal when I can prove it to myself that it is the right one. Which is why I prefer Macintosh. I have used multiple Operating Systems and made my choice. When I have to defend my choice, I will never succumb to the whims of what the “common” belief is and their propaganda against it.
Until either Microsoft lives up to a true, denotative ideal of “innovation”–by actually ‘creating’ and not just finding new ways to market/sell copies of already established products–where they change the perception of what it means to be a computer person/Geek–by not having to distinguish a preference–or fades from existence (my personal dream), my acceptance of any friendship by Microsoft is impossible.
Mark
Too True! I really feel like a group hug right now!
miguel_a
So, if war is over, why Melinda Gates don’t allow iGadgets in her house?

Casper
The day I see the Gates have Apple products in their home, is the day I believe….

Micke
Well what businessmen would like to use their competitors products over their own?
It’s like saying that your own product isn’t as good… Would you have done that?
I don’t think so.

jordan
sweet article.
Lars Pallesen
I agree with the over all sentiment of Mr. Elgans article here, that Microsoft is no longer Apple’s primary enemy, Google is. How ever I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say, that Microsoft is “on Apple’s side now”. They’re not. Both Apple and Microsoft is fighting their own war with Google these days, but that doesn’t mean that Apple and Microsoft are allies. That would require that they are fighting for the same goal, and they’re not. Apple is fighting for Apple dominance in the field where they have conquered new territory over the last three and a half years (iOS vs. Android) while Microsoft is fighting for continued dominance on their old home turf, which is PC operating systems and office utility software suites (Windows + MS Office vs. Chrome OS + Google Docs).
imajoebob
Wow. As naive as it is simple. You might be able to argue that, in the case of Google, “the enemy of my enemy” rule could apply, but to say Apple and Microsoft are on the same side of anything is just ridiculous.
Microsoft may not have much in their product line that threatens Apple, except they seem to have EVERYTHING in Apple’s product lines. Back in 2003 when Apple really hit it’s stride with the DVI Powerbooks, the articulated iMac, and the iPod, everyone said they were no threat to Microsoft. Microsoft has enough products and enough cash that all they have to do is keep throwing stuff out there and hoping it will be a hit. Vista was their long awaited answer to OS X and it sucked. But in short order (exceptionally short for MS) they’ve rolled out Windows 7, which may not be as good, but it’s good enough that people respect the Windows OS again.
If you view this in product markets, not corporate rivals, Google and Android are the same competition to iPhone as Microsoft and Windows are to Macs. The big difference is that Apple is much stronger in phones. But the dynamic of the products is the same; the vertically integrated Apple versus the kitchen sink OS maker. Apple may be willing to use MS to tie up Google resources defending their other markets, but I doubt they view MS as anything other than a tool that they’ll shed as soon as they don’t need them.
Johanna
Did someone ever tell Steve Ballmer this?
The OS battle is for MS to fight alone… So is the Cloud battle..
In the Phone battle MS is not even in the same battlefield as the rest, so Apple should let them fend for themselves.
Will
Wait, I’ve heard this argument before…….
Oh yeah,.. the enemy of my enemy is my frenemy.
I mean come on.
Not buying the argument but do believe that Google is a major competitior for Apple and Micro$oft now.
Bob
lol and these companies will band with facebook as well. Imagine that Facebook, Apple and Microsoft on one side and google on the other. And guess what google will do well even then.
Steven
It’s not Microsofts products I am disgusted with, it’s the attitude that lingers with microfans and people associated with them….. Like the recent comments by Melinda herself.
Oh but this is supposed to be the 4th step in our 12 step program wear we take OUR OWN inventory, correct?
Skrogg
Domination without leadership has been MS approach for years. I mean leadership in the sense of innovation, creativity and being able to give customers what they want. They can dominate apple in the pc space despite Apple’s product quality leadership. Apple has to be careful Google doesnt do the same in the iGadget market…it can quickly get share with its me-too androids and deep pockets. Microsoft can be threatened by google too in pc software in future because it is too big and rich to bully…and its products actually work and people like them. I reckon Microsoft and Apple will co-operate with each other against this threat, even if its not done openly.
KonkW
Good Skrogg. Is that why they are helping each other with Office for Mac which 2011 seems like a decent attempt at a chimeric OfficeiWork thingi. And iWork is looking old, limited and neglected. Is Apple helping MS on this and has decided not to compete properly with its own effort?
http://derekwalter.com Derek
Great comments. Apple and Microsoft will always vigorously compete in some spaces, but when it comes to the hot technology area of mobile apps and devices Google is by far the biggest threat to Apple. If Microsoft were the enemy you wouldn’t be seeing Bing integration in Safari or the excellent Office 2011 for Mac.
http://GrowMap.com Gail Gardner
I don’t buy that any multi-national elite company is an “enemy” of any of the others. They are all collaborators and use the illusion of competition and controversy to keep market share away from all independent solutions.
Nicanor Babula
You’re almost right. This is how I see it:
Google is selling good and affordable products/services.
Apple is selling good but less affordable products/services.
There is no enemy/friend, they are companies that sell something I need.
Therefore, between an IPhone and a Nexus S (for example), I choose Nexus S because they both do the same thing, but the latter costs less. If there is someone who has to win that is the us customers, not a certain company.
Are you a fanboy?

About the author

Mike Elgan is a Silicon Valley-based columnist who writes about technology and culture. His work appears in a variety of publications, including Computerworld, Datamation, PC World, InfoWorld, MacWorld, ITWorld, CIO, the San Francisco Chronicle. Subscribe to Mike's e-mail newsletter, Mike's List, and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Digg and elsewhere by visiting http://elgan.com.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by Mike Elgan.

Posted in Apple, iOS, Opinions, Top stories |