5 ms·

Because Apple has about 10,000 non-retail employees, while Microsoft has about 90,000.

by boucher 17y ago

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
berntb 17y ago
Wow, I hadn't really thought about this... vertigo. 10K people designs and builds both hardware and software which the 90K people software company needs to copy -- for decades?! There are some explaining factors, of course. The 90K company has a monopoly strategy, so they need to build their O/S so complex that it will be hard/impossible for competitors to make a bug-compatible implementation. But I still get dizzy. Edit: This went down fast. :-) Down vote if you think it is low quality/unsuitable -- but please add some argument why this isn't a really surprising case? Are there examples in other industries? Edit 2: Yes, Microsoft does make some applications that Apple doesn't. There should be at most 5000-7000 people at Apple doing software? Do Yahoo's search (and other Bing competitors) have 20K people... each? Hardly. (And isn't it extra shocking that Microsoft copies, despite having Microsoft Research?)
- sp332 17y ago
  Apple doesn't make office suites. The Me service isn't as big as Live. Apple doesn't have a search engine. Apple isn't trying to build computing clusters large enough to break into the Top100. Apple doesn't have an equivalent to Microsoft Research. Apple doesn't have a gaming platform. I know, I know, don't feed the trolls.
  - rimantas 17y ago
    Apple does have iWork (yep, far cry from MS Office, but nonetheless… and good enough for me). There is also iLife, Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio, Aperture. Mobile Me may be not as big as Live, but ITMS takes some effort to run I suppose.
    - sp332 17y ago
      Man, I totally blanked on iWork.
  - berntb 17y ago
    If I were a troll (or just trying to be funny), I would have had noted that Microsoft didn't have people to develop IE for years... (And yes yes, I know that was to slow the moving of functionality to the net.) As it is, I can't really see why there is a need for tens of thousands of software people? But then, I don't know much about leveraging a monopoly into other areas.

Because Apple has about 10,000 non-retail employees, while Microsoft has about 90,000.

by boucher 17y ago

Because Apple has about 10,000 non-retail employees, while Microsoft has about 90,000.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

berntb 17y ago

Wow, I hadn't really thought about this... vertigo. 10K people designs and builds both hardware and software which the 90K people software company needs to copy -- for decades?! There are some explaining factors, of course. The 90K company has a monopoly strategy, so they need to build their O/S so complex that it will be hard/impossible for competitors to make a bug-compatible implementation. But I still get dizzy. Edit: This went down fast. :-) Down vote if you think it is low quality/unsuitable -- but please add some argument why this isn't a really surprising case? Are there examples in other industries? Edit 2: Yes, Microsoft does make some applications that Apple doesn't. There should be at most 5000-7000 people at Apple doing software? Do Yahoo's search (and other Bing competitors) have 20K people... each? Hardly. (And isn't it extra shocking that Microsoft copies, despite having Microsoft Research?)

sp332 17y ago
Apple doesn't make office suites. The Me service isn't as big as Live. Apple doesn't have a search engine. Apple isn't trying to build computing clusters large enough to break into the Top100. Apple doesn't have an equivalent to Microsoft Research. Apple doesn't have a gaming platform. I know, I know, don't feed the trolls.
- rimantas 17y ago
  Apple does have iWork (yep, far cry from MS Office, but nonetheless… and good enough for me). There is also iLife, Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio, Aperture. Mobile Me may be not as big as Live, but ITMS takes some effort to run I suppose.
  - sp332 17y ago
    Man, I totally blanked on iWork.
- berntb 17y ago
  If I were a troll (or just trying to be funny), I would have had noted that Microsoft didn't have people to develop IE for years... (And yes yes, I know that was to slow the moving of functionality to the net.) As it is, I can't really see why there is a need for tens of thousands of software people? But then, I don't know much about leveraging a monopoly into other areas.