5 ms·

What about it makes you wonder? It's not like Apple is a threat to Microsoft in the operating system market. Apple is a threat in the portable music player an

What about it makes you wonder? It's not like Apple is a threat to Microsoft in the operating system market. Apple is a threat in the portable music player and smartphone markets, but those are not core to Microsoft's business anyway. Microsoft had a chance to take over the smartphone market before Apple showed up, and blew it with a crappy interface and being slow to incorporate push e-mail natively into Exchange. The goodwill they engendered from this move was sorely needed at the time and surely that alone was worth the investment.

jacquesm 17y ago
Microsoft diagrees with you, they think windows mobile is definitely core business: They just launched a guide on how to port from the iphone to windows mobile: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-11wmmdeveloperspr.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-11wmm... and http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/microsoft-details-how-port-iphone-apps-windows-mobile-073 http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/microsoft-details-how-po... They may lose the battle (just like the zune has already lost the battle, I'm surprised they haven't cut it yet) but for now they're putting up a fight.
- philwelch 17y ago
  The fact that they're competing means Windows Mobile is a business, not that it's a core business. Something isn't a core business until it makes a significant fraction of the company's revenue, and WinMobile doesn't approach Windows/Office on that front. Microsoft's strategy is to have as many businesses as possible, and for each business to compete, in hopes that some of them become core businesses. Apple's strategy is to make almost everything a core business. I don't think "having tons of businesses that don't try to compete very hard" is even a strategy.
mcav 17y ago
> It's not like Apple is a threat to Microsoft in the operating system market. Apple's the primary threat to Microsoft in the operating systems department. Nothing else comes close.
- jbarciauskas 17y ago
  While it may be the most widely used alternative, it cannot be considered a "threat" when it's market share is orders of magnitude smaller, and not gaining ground very quickly http://marketshare.hitslink.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9 http://marketshare.hitslink.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9
  - briancooley 17y ago
    Year over year, Apple's market share has grown from 3.54% to 4.86%. That's 37% growth, FWIW. Seems like that would correspond to a pretty big jump in sales.

jacquesm 17y ago

Microsoft diagrees with you, they think windows mobile is definitely core business: They just launched a guide on how to port from the iphone to windows mobile: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-11wmmdeveloperspr.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/mar09/03-11wmm... and http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/microsoft-details-how-port-iphone-apps-windows-mobile-073 http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/microsoft-details-how-po... They may lose the battle (just like the zune has already lost the battle, I'm surprised they haven't cut it yet) but for now they're putting up a fight.

philwelch 17y ago
The fact that they're competing means Windows Mobile is a business, not that it's a core business. Something isn't a core business until it makes a significant fraction of the company's revenue, and WinMobile doesn't approach Windows/Office on that front. Microsoft's strategy is to have as many businesses as possible, and for each business to compete, in hopes that some of them become core businesses. Apple's strategy is to make almost everything a core business. I don't think "having tons of businesses that don't try to compete very hard" is even a strategy.

mcav 17y ago

> It's not like Apple is a threat to Microsoft in the operating system market. Apple's the primary threat to Microsoft in the operating systems department. Nothing else comes close.

jbarciauskas 17y ago
While it may be the most widely used alternative, it cannot be considered a "threat" when it's market share is orders of magnitude smaller, and not gaining ground very quickly http://marketshare.hitslink.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9 http://marketshare.hitslink.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9
- briancooley 17y ago
  Year over year, Apple's market share has grown from 3.54% to 4.86%. That's 37% growth, FWIW. Seems like that would correspond to a pretty big jump in sales.