Note to Apple: Be more like Microsoft

The question is...

Can Apple (and its stock price) survive when Steve Jobs leaves?

Not a knock against his health, but simply put he has to give up the position at some point and we all saw what happened the first time he left.

Alexander forged the greatest Empire of all time and on his death, his Generals fought each other trying to replace him. The Empire fell.

Market share

This article title is funny at first read, be more like Microsoft, really? Should Apple be more like a convicted monopolist? Of course the article is a bit off and ignores a lot.

You can't find a group like Windows has, for one big reason:

Apple Mac marketshare: 7.40% (source Wikipedia, based on web client estimates, which no doubt are high Windows will have lots more because many windows boxes - servers, etc - won't ever run a web browser on the open web)

Windows marketshare: 80.73%

There is a lot more to go around. Apple doesn't even have a relevant server sector anymore, so of course there will be more Windows jobs.

In mobile space, there's the app developers (whom Apple just transferred over $2 billion in just 2 1/2 years), there's the accessories makers - not just cases, but stuff like batteries, storage, docks and Airplay (Denon,B&W, etc) - and there's the mobile networks who who suddenly saw their profits surge on the back of the smartphones. Plenty of partners getting enriched there.

In the Apple economy, only one company gets richer: Apple.

I'm sure Apple will be delighted to hear it. Send them a copy.

How is it not obvious?

Apple is a hardware company, Microsoft is a software company. Microsoft does't make anything that is of any use without it's partners products. Without Dell & HP Windows 7 is just a shiny piece of polymer. Without HTC Windows Phone is, well, nothing. XBox could be considered a standalone product but it doesn't really do much until you take advantage of Microsoft's partners.

If you eliminate all of the Apple partners that consumers know by name tomorrow Apple would carry on just fine. If you do the same on the MS side Windows would cease to exists. Fortunately for MS Office it runs on Macs.

Comparing apples with oranges

Apple is a hardware company first and a software company second.

Microsoft is almost 100% software except for XBox 360 and some failed attempts at an iPod competitor.

Totally different outlook.

Added 300,000 jobs to the workforce

So all those admins you need to baby-sit exchange.

Needing two people to do an office job because they spend half their time rebooting windows.

All those people writing add-in utils to get around Windows deficiencies

Those are all part of a benevolent MSFT plan for full employment?

300 000 burger-flipping jobs

"Going further, IDC pegged Windows 7–related employment at 19 percent of total IT employment by the end of 2010, adding 300,000 new jobs to the workforce."

That would be because it's WIndows and needs to be reinstalled, anti-virused etc. on a regular basis.

Supporting Windows is the IT equivalent of burger flipping, it's something you do while waiting for a real job. And if that has resulted in 300000 extra jobs the implication is that Windows 7 takes more effort to support than its predecessors (although given the Vista train-wreck that is hard to believe).

What other kind of jobs (other than training) would a new OS release generate?

It's about the user experience

Apple are where they are because they focus obsessively on the user experience, above all else. To do that they have to own and control much more of the 'ecosystem' than any other company even tries to do. It makes their products rigid and very expensive but a lot of people really, really like it. I'm not one of them but I understand those who are.

When you allow other companies to own and control parts of the user experience, something has to give. Either they have lower standards than you, looking for a quick buck rather than a long term vision, or things just fall through the cracks between companies. It's very hard to co-ordinate seamless user experiences across the boundaries between different organisations.

Interesting article

Interesting viewpoint about Apple being a whole industry in itself. It can't be true though. In manufacturing kit, Apple must be using machines made by machine companies, made up of tools and parts from other companies, and so on. The components in the phone are likewise produced by third and fourth parties. Then there are the raw materials too. Apple are not making stuff directly from sand.

Perhaps the article is true but only on the software side ? iTunes us great, but relies heavily on internet switchgear, and thus puts demand in to that industry. Any way you look at it, Apple is affecting/enriching other companies, just not through obvious, explicit agreements like that between Microsoft and Intel.

One company is not an ecosystem

> One (astronomically successful) company is not an ecosystem

Apple isn't an "ecosystem" it is a very stressful company, and why would they emulate Microsoft. And Microsoft isn't an ecosystem it's a virtual monopoly that has distorted the market through unethical practices directed towards the OEMs and its own partners. Where MS doesn't have such influence it's just another mediocre player. It's a shame to see Matt Asay jump on the knock Apple bandwagon ..

> Microsoft has long enriched its partners while enriching itself, with as much as 97 per cent of its own revenue coming through its partner channel ..

There's a graveyard somewhere littered with former Microsoft partners ..

> A Microsoft-sponsored IDC report suggests that for every $1 Microsoft makes from Windows 7, other companies earn $18.52.

Oh, for f**k sake ... !!!!

Who enriched who?

Are we sure it isn't a case of Microsoft partners, beginning with IBM, enriching Microsoft?

solid advice

I'm sure the Apple executives are taking this article to heart while lounging around in their olympic-sized swimming pool full of $1K notes, hookers and blow.

Apple will change its business practices when it suits Apple. Face it, Apple's current business practices suit them just fine.

Little wonder

It wasn't so very long ago that anybody wanted to help Apple. Apple's suppliers and software makers turfed the company aside and left them along the roadside for dead. Can't really blame Apple for only wanting to rely on itself.