Astroturfing
Astroturfing - Microsoft are the Astroturf Kings, Apple just get 'someone' like the Guardian on board, to promote their products. Either way their synergies are the same. Without the AppStore, Apple and Microsoft would have pretty bland products, 4 years from launch.
Microsoft still don't realise the 'Surface', is just the shop front, to its currently empty bland hypermarket store behind, people visit the shop front, but find nothing behind the facia. Apple on the other hand has a very pretty, though now similar shop front with a teaming shopping arcade sitting behind it, from boutique to hypermarkets, in terms of Apps/Media.
It's not about the hardware anymore, the competition have caught up on that front, it's all about providing the conduit to each of their paid worlds, and communicating that best they can.