Mac vs Microsoft Part 1 of 2- Mac
For a very long time now, the home personal computer has been dominated by the battle of Macintosh run on the Leopard (now Snow Leopard) OS X and computers run on the Microsoft Company’s operating system Windows. Beyond the hardware, the software, the practical uses for the computer, and the feud between creators Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, there is the marketing. Both companies had an excellent marketing campaign, although you may not know it by market share. Microsoft owns about 90% of the market share, where as Apple has somewhere between 4-6%. It seems baffling right? Unfortunately it’s true, and I say unfortunately because I believe that Apple has had some very good campaigns in the past. I’m going to try to focus on each one individually while I examine their marketing strategies, market share, flaws, and benefits.
I’m going to start with Apple
I decided to start with Apple because I am the least familiar with it. I’ve personally been a PC user and Windows operator for my entire life, save 3 years in my middle school when they adopted apples into the computer room and I was forced to use them. Apples are magnificent machines as far as computers go, regardless of what kind of work you are in to. However, if you happen to focus in study in an art, graphic design, music, or something along those lines major, then Mac is absolutely perfect for you. Other than that, if you’re just looking for a cool looking computer, to have something different than everybody else, or something you don’t have to worry about viruses, then Mac is good for you too.
I’m going to come back to the virus topic in a little while, but for now I’m going to focus on the marketing. Macintosh has been famous for bashing on PC’s and PC users for awhile now. It’s a major part of their entire campaign, and it’s how they’ve developed their clientele base. If you examine the people who are buying Mac users (if they don’t fall into the categories that I mentioned earlier) they tend to be people who just think that the computers are better because 1) they look cooler (which they do) and 2) they’re more expensive. The general consensus of an uneducated consumer is that if the cost is higher, the product must be better. It’s true that Apple spends more money to use economically friendly parts and subcontracts parts to one country in Asia and sells their software and computers themselves. That does an important thing in marketing, it makes Mac’s an exclusive product. If you want a Mac, you’re very limited on who you’re buying it from and how you’re buying it. Customization is still available, but almost always directly through Apple. I’ve never understood this part, since the general sentiment about Apple is to not look at them as this corporate conglomerate that they really are; they do this on purpose to capitalize on your purchases. In no way am I saying that Microsoft doesn’t do the exact same thing; they’ll both suck you dry and then some. I’m just saying that Apple doesn’t deserve to be put up on a pedestal. Macintosh has a strong image around the world with its logo(apparently strong enough for people to pay about $500 more for their computers)that is easily recognized, its product line which is unique and stylish, and its operating system which is known for being efficient and fast. All important factors in the home computer industry.
The marketing share for Mac has been small for a long time because of some pretty basic things. Mostly, Microsoft doesn’t allow other operating systems or computers to take off that far and has beaten down its competition over the years. Although strangely enough Microsoft is the only reason that Apple still exists; in 1997 Microsoft and Apple made a deal to provide Microsoft Office products in the future for Apple computers, and invested in shares of Apple to make sure it wasn’t going to go bankrupt. The deal also included Microsoft start to develop software for Apple computers, which is still going on today. The market shares have been bought back by Apple (at quite a profit for Microsoft) but it’s something that a lot of Mac haters like to use against them; don’t let it fool you. What is true, however, is that Windows and Apple do have joint ventures in many different things. I need to get back to market share however. As I mentioned earlier, Microsoft has about a 00% market share of the home PC market. However there is now a new market where Apple has about 80% of the market locked down tight, and that is the portable music device. The IPod was not the first portable MP3 player, but they had the best marketing campaign. One important principle in marketing is that if your product can’t be the first on the shelf then you should make sure that it is the first one that people think of in their minds. Apple was extremely successful with this. Today, the IPod is unrivaled in the industry. Microsoft introduced the Zune with moderate success, however not even close to the IPod. With the introduction of the IPhone, now apple extends its dominance in this market. The IPad will also eventually consume its own market share as well. A word to the giants however, they’re dangerously close to over extending their brand. The idea of the Apple TV might be going too far…they’re relying on their image and their name to sell these products, and eventually this will run dry. People buying IPhone’s aren’t going to buy IPod’s, or IPad’s, and overall it will decrease shares. I think that the best part is that if you do some research, you’ll find that the Zune has been proven better in tests than the IPod. Does that mean that I’m going out to buy a Zune today? No. In my mind, there is nothing better than the IPod, no matter what anyone says. ITunes is a simple program (although it has its own flaws) that is easy to use with the IPod. Truthfully, with a little bit of research and time I could learn to use a better program (Songbird, for example) but why would I when Apple has made it so easy for me? It’s the best part of all of their products; non computer savvy people can use it easily and not have to worry about viruses, and computer savvy people can use its power to take things to the next level.
I’m going to go back to the virus part now because this has everything to do with market share. As I said with the home computer marketing, Apple only has 4% of the market share roughly. People say that Mac’s don’t get viruses because of their superior operating system; and there is some degree of truth to that, the operating system is designed so you don’t need anti-virus software, and so that someone who doesn’t know how to safely navigate the internet doesn’t have to worry about that. The truth however is cruder and more boring than that; because they own such a small share, nobody has really cared to make viruses for them. Mac viruses have existed; a few big ones are noteworthy. The first was in 1994 and was called the INIT-29-B virus. This virus caused random programs to crash, though there were no specific targets on which programs it would do this too. The virus wasn’t that dangerous, however it could definitely get extremely annoying. Then there was the “pickle” virus. The pickle virus was really a virus that affected your HyperCard stacks. What this would cause was your computer to freeze, and in the error message it would mention the word “pickle”. In 1998 there was the Hong Kong virus, which generally just overwrote files with random characters. It wasn’t until 2008 when a really malicious virus was introduced to Mac that infected pirated copies of iWork and Adobe Photoshop called the iBotNet virus. This would infiltrate the computer and steal the owner’s password as well as launching denial of service attack, basically rendering the computer almost impossible to fix. New Mac viruses have been played with, mostly by Apple themselves, but rest assured that the fabrication of Mac’s not getting viruses will not exist for much longer; as Mac’s become more significant, the viruses will exist, and people will find ways to do more than just change a few file names on your computer.
Flaws in Apple come few and far between but they exist. The newest problem with Apple technology is with the IPhone 4 that was just released. I’m not talking about Steve Jobs unveiling of it when the internet crapped out either; I’m talking about its problems with reception and dropped calls due to a physical design flaw. Apple is facing law suits over it because it has been proven that they knew about this design flaw and did nothing to fix it. This is a conflict in the eyes of a marketer because they follow one law but break another. Sometimes it’s more important to get a product out than to have the best product on the market, but in this case I think Apple may have misused this rule. Apple already owns a strong part of this market share, and I think they don’t know how to deal with it. They’re used to having the small market share where they can produce the best of the best in products. Now they’re seeing what Microsoft has dealt with for years; being on top and having to stay on top. They can’t afford to fall from the top, because that would cause Apple’s stock shares to fall, and then stockholders would be displeased. This is a totally new sentiment for the Apple corporation. It is because of this that Apple experienced the problems with their latest products, be it the IPad or the IPhone 4. The design flaw is that a small corner on the Phone, when covered by a finger, causes signal loss and calls are dropped. Apples solution to the problem is to release a new version, and selling a separate case for $30 that covers up the spot and solves the problem. I believe this is a poor choice, at least the latter. The new version of the phone is clearly needed since this design flaw has affected a good amount of users, but if they wanted to stop customer dissatisfaction they should’ve been ready to give out these cases for free. I don’t think Microsoft would’ve done that either however, so once again I am not saying that Microsoft is any better than Apple, but I believe that Apple is making a mistake in mishandling this situation and they are in danger of losing some respect with their customers. Then again, there will always be blind followers of any company, and those will still exist with Apple.
Tomorrow I’m going to compare all of this to Windows and Microsoft, but below were some great videos that I’ve watched doing some research and some just fun I think you might enjoy. See you all tomorrow!
For the record, personal opinion here, Bill Gates did not give Steve Jobs the idea for the IPad…he’s been developing it for years, don’t let this video fool you. They’re just both talking about the eventual demise of personal computers (that includes both types) and how tablets are the future. I also don’t necessarily agree with that…but they’re sure trying.
