4 ms·

You have to take quite a narrow view of the business world to say Apple and Microsoft aren't comparable. They might have different products, but it's not like A

You have to take quite a narrow view of the business world to say Apple and Microsoft aren't comparable. They might have different products, but it's not like Apple is a greengrocer.

fauxpause_ 3y ago
From a profit margin perspective they are wildly different. Amazon profits are mostly just AWS. Microsoft is, I think, driven by their enterprise software. Apple is, I think, more hardware and App Store. We shouldn’t expect them to have similar margins.
- cubefox 3y ago
  Nobody said we should, but they have.
  - safog 3y ago
    And so it's a meaningless correlation. Telsa has a 30% margin too. Do you want to lump them along with Apple and MSFT?
    - cubefox 3y ago
      This source says 15%: https://companiesmarketcap.com/tesla/operating-margin/ https://companiesmarketcap.com/tesla/operating-margin/
      - lotsofpulp 3y ago
        I have doubts that Tesla can convert that operating margin to profit margin, which puts them far behind MSFT and AAPL which are tried and true profit margin machines.
kgwgk 3y ago
80% of Apple’s revenue is from selling products and 20% from services. The gross margins on those segments are completely different - twice as large for services. Microsoft reports three segments with roughly the same size and similar margins.
ubermonkey 3y ago
Apple is a hardware company. Microsoft is almost entirely a software company.
- sleepybrett 3y ago
  xbox, surface, HID devices, hololens, ... microsoft is TRYING to be a hardware company, they just suck at it.
  - lmm 3y ago
    Most Microsoft hardware is excellent IME.
    - sleepybrett 3y ago
      is it? the new natural keyboard is literal landfill, the surfaces are great until they break, i don't think even MS can open them up for repair without destroying the damn things. The surface studio was apparently a technical dud and way too expensive to boot. The xbox 360 had such terrible heat dissipation problems that it got it's own moniker 'the red ring of death'. In the old days their HID device devision was solid, and was doing some interesting things. Back in the 90s-00s their keyboards and mice were pretty much best in class (if you wanted a membrane keyboard), the natural keyboard was a big step forward in ergonomics. On the gaming side they had solid mid range flight sticks that the rest of the industry lacked (it was either crazy high end or literal trash). Hell they even tried some coolish experimental devices that were at least interesting .. Specifically I'm thinking of the Sidewinder Strategic Commander. A kind of one handed keyboard that was sitting on top of a two axis sliding mechanism. In the 2010s they did some interesting devices (or branded some) like the kinect and the original surface tables (the ones that looked like cocktail style arcade machines)... and they started moving into compute devices like the 'second gen' surface branded tablets/convertables/laptops. Those seem less successful overall. I don't see too many enterprises giving people surfacebooks instead of lenovos...
      - lmm 3y ago

You have to take quite a narrow view of the business world to say Apple and Microsoft aren't comparable. They might have different products, but it's not like Apple is a greengrocer.

fauxpause_ 3y ago

From a profit margin perspective they are wildly different. Amazon profits are mostly just AWS. Microsoft is, I think, driven by their enterprise software. Apple is, I think, more hardware and App Store. We shouldn’t expect them to have similar margins.

cubefox 3y ago
Nobody said we should, but they have.
- safog 3y ago
  And so it's a meaningless correlation. Telsa has a 30% margin too. Do you want to lump them along with Apple and MSFT?
  - cubefox 3y ago
    This source says 15%: https://companiesmarketcap.com/tesla/operating-margin/ https://companiesmarketcap.com/tesla/operating-margin/
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      I have doubts that Tesla can convert that operating margin to profit margin, which puts them far behind MSFT and AAPL which are tried and true profit margin machines.

kgwgk 3y ago

80% of Apple’s revenue is from selling products and 20% from services. The gross margins on those segments are completely different - twice as large for services. Microsoft reports three segments with roughly the same size and similar margins.

ubermonkey 3y ago

Apple is a hardware company. Microsoft is almost entirely a software company.

sleepybrett 3y ago
xbox, surface, HID devices, hololens, ... microsoft is TRYING to be a hardware company, they just suck at it.
- lmm 3y ago
  Most Microsoft hardware is excellent IME.
  - sleepybrett 3y ago
    is it? the new natural keyboard is literal landfill, the surfaces are great until they break, i don't think even MS can open them up for repair without destroying the damn things. The surface studio was apparently a technical dud and way too expensive to boot. The xbox 360 had such terrible heat dissipation problems that it got it's own moniker 'the red ring of death'. In the old days their HID device devision was solid, and was doing some interesting things. Back in the 90s-00s their keyboards and mice were pretty much best in class (if you wanted a membrane keyboard), the natural keyboard was a big step forward in ergonomics. On the gaming side they had solid mid range flight sticks that the rest of the industry lacked (it was either crazy high end or literal trash). Hell they even tried some coolish experimental devices that were at least interesting .. Specifically I'm thinking of the Sidewinder Strategic Commander. A kind of one handed keyboard that was sitting on top of a two axis sliding mechanism. In the 2010s they did some interesting devices (or branded some) like the kinect and the original surface tables (the ones that looked like cocktail style arcade machines)... and they started moving into compute devices like the 'second gen' surface branded tablets/convertables/laptops. Those seem less successful overall. I don't see too many enterprises giving people surfacebooks instead of lenovos...
    - lmm 3y ago