Apple vs Microsoft – The winner is ….
Published May 1, 2015 by Robert Biggs Guest Blogger
Rivalries are mostly a contest between mutual opposition. Yet the antagonism between both technology giants, Microsoft and Apple, goes back decades. As a PC geek for the last thirty something years, I am now a strong proponent of Apple culture and innovations. Why the change you may ask? Let me explain.
At one of the local malls in the metro Detroit area, you will find both an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store. A visit to each provides a very different shopping experience.
Inside the Apple Store ,the staff can be found wearing the customary blue emblem uniform t-shirts with the Apple logo. I’ve found, that no matter what time of day I go, it’s always loaded staff members, and shoppers as well. A recent trip to the store provided warm greetings by the staff, and as usual, I was able to browse the entire store without fear of being approached by a pushy salesperson. The store was filled with various models of their product line that I could test and work on myself. The staff is very knowledgeable about each of their product lines. And as I asked several questions beyond the technical specifications of a product, I was most often provided an answer.
My visit to the Microsoft Store provided a completely different experience. The store was filled with a flashy diversity of products, but unlike the Apple store, The Microsoft store had a 10:1 ratio of customers to staff. As I was browsing the different Surface models I was approached three times by eager staff. However, when I found myself in need of more technical specifications on the unit, the device was blocked, with the message, “for administrator only”. Now, when I found myself actually needing a member of the sales staff, it took nearly five minutes before I could finally flag down a Microsoft representative. It was clear, Apple had clearly provided me with a better customer experience than Microsoft.
I’m not a mathematician, and I will let the numbers speak for themselves.Sourced from an actual Apple Press Release “Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 second quarter ending March 28, 2015. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $58 billion and quarterly net profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $45.6 billion and net profit of $10.2 billion, or $1.66 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter”. Sources from Microsoft Investor Relations stated “Microsoft Corp. revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 grew to $21.7 billion. Gross margin,operating income, and diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) for the quarter were $14.6 billion, $6.6 billion, and $0.61 per share, respectively.”
While you are who you choose to be, Microsoft may have the monopoly on inexpensive PC’s, but I believe that Apple has the upper hand when it comes to the retail experience, customer service and end user loyalty.
One could easily say, “but the real world runs on PC’s Not Apples. My answer:
“That’s only now my friend, that’s only now.”
