Microsoft loves the Mac, hates Apple | Comments | McSolo by Ron McElfresh </head> <body id="comments"> <div id="wrapper_comments"> <a name="top" id="top"></a> <div id="wrapper_header"> <div id="region_header"> <div class="Leaderboard-Top-728x90"> <script type='text/javascript'></script> </div> <div id="logo"> <a href="http://mcsolo.com/" title="McSolo Home Page"><img src="http://mcsolo.com.s3.amazonaws.com/logo.png" alt="Logo" /></a> </div> </div> </div> <div id="wrapper_middle"> <div id="region_left"> <div class="region_pad"> <div id="navmenu"><ul class="buttons"> <li class="active"><a href="http://mcsolo.com/" title="McSolo Home Page">Home</a></li> <li><a href="http://mcsolo.com/mobile" title="McSolo Mobile Home for iPhone">Mobile</a></li> <li><a href="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/news/" title="News Links Archive">News Links</a></li> <li><a href="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/archive/" title="McSolo Article Archive">Articles</a></li> <li><a href="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/search/" title="Advanced Search">Search</a></li> <li><a href="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/about_mcsolo/" title="About McSolo">About</a></li> <li><a href="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo_projects/" title="New Projects">Projects</a></li> <li><a href="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/rss_atom/" title="McSolo RSS Atom Feed for Articles and News Links">RSS Feed</a></li> <li class="lastitem"><a href="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/contact/" onclick="window.open('http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/contact','popup','width=440,height=550,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false" title="How to Contact McSolo">Contact</a></li></ul></div> <div class="byline">By Ron McElfresh</div> </div> </div> <div id="region_main"> <div class="region_pad"> <div class="frame_article"> <h1>Microsoft loves the Mac, hates Apple</h1> <div class="date">Friday, February 12, 2010 | Articles | Read or Post a Comment</div> <p>As much as the 25 year rivalry between Microsoft and Apple gets the headlines—Windows vs. the Mac—I think Microsoft secretly loves the Mac and prospers handsomely from a resurgence in Mac sales and market share. Otherwise, Microsoft hates Apple. Here’s why. </p> <h2>Microsoft, The Competitor</h2><p> Outside of Windows, Office, and server tools, Microsoft hasn’t had much success, amid a number of high profile failures. MSN, Bing, XBox360 have lost billions of dollars. That’s not the case with Microsoft’s efforts to provide Office for the Mac.</p> <p>Microsoft is highly competitive in many product market segments. Apple, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, and soon, the iPad, a thorns in Microsoft’s collective butt. They compete with Apple on many fronts, but, where they compete head to head, only have a lead in operating system market share; Windows PCs vs. Macs.</p> <p>Why doesn’t Microsoft simply dump Office for Mac to put the skids on Apple’s flagship product? Two reasons: antitrust concerns (that nasty monopoly issue), and they make a lot of money on the Mac.</p> <h2>Numbers Don’t Lie</h2><p> Let me keep the numbers simple. Microsoft probably makes up to $50 in revenue for every Windows PC sold in the world. I think they make about the same for every Mac sold. </p> <p>Apple’s Mac sales rate is about 12-million per year. Microsoft Office retails for $150 to $500. Assume an average of about $250 per Microsoft Office for Mac sold. Also assume that Office goes on 20-percent of all Macs sold. That’s $50 in sales, on average, for every Mac sold; or nearly the same as Microsoft’s revenue per PC for Windows.</p> <p>Even if the percentages are off by double, and Office sales on the Mac are less, revenue could still reach $500-million. In other words, Microsoft makes plenty of money even when a Windows user switches to a Mac.</p> <h2>The Really Bad Numbers</h2><p> What about other numbers? iPod and iPhone? Microsoft cannot be too happy About Apple’s dominance in portable media players (iPod) and rapid ascension in the smart phone market.</p> <p>Consider this, the iPhone sells for an average of over $500. That’s Apple’s sales revenue per iPhone sold. Microsoft, on the other hand, receives about $25 for every version of Windows Mobile sold to a handset maker, whether Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Nokia or whomever.</p> <p>Apple’s iPhone unit sales and market share are now higher than Windows Mobile worldwide. That means Apple makes 20 times greater revenue for the iPhone than Microsoft does for Windows Mobile.</p> <p>For portable media players, Apple commands a 70-percent market share for both players (iPods) and online music sales (iTunes App Store). In barely 18 months, Apple’s App Store has surpassed Microsoft’s smart phone application store by tens of thousands of apps, sales, and downloads.</p> <p>To Microsoft, those are very, very bad numbers; so bad, that Microsoft may not be able to catch up ever—and if they do, it will be many years down the road. </p> </div>  <a name="read"></a> <div class="wrapper_comments"> <h3>Reader Comments</h3> <div class="frame_comments_one"> <p><strong>James Katt</strong> said:</p> <p>I wish Microsoft would smarten up.<br /> They can make HUGE money by riding the coattails of the Apple.</p> <p>First of all, Microsoft may make only $50 or less for every PC sold. But Microsoft can make at least $99 on every Mac sold by simply selling Microsoft Office to Mac Users. Thus, they make much more per Mac sold than for the average PC sold.</p> <p>Second, if Microsoft created a Microsoft Office for iPhone AND a separation version for iPad, Microsoft can MAKE A KILLING.</p> <p>There are 75 million iPhone and iPod Touch Owners. Apple is going to sell - easily - 10 million iPads a year - or more since it is going to be huge.</p> <p>A Microsoft Office for iPhone and a Microsoft Office for iPad can each sell for $50 EASILY. This creates a HUGE market for Microsoft’s software. Since these are two different platforms (given the screen size and organization), then Microsoft can potentially sell BOTH to every iPhone owner with an iPad - making nearly $100 each on those customers.</p> <p>When you look at the numbers, Microsoft can easily make $1 BILLION a year more simply by creating Microsoft Office for the iPhone and the iPad. It would create the STANDARD office software on the OS X platform. </p> <div class="posted">#1 | Friday, February 12, 2010</div> </div> <div class="paginate"> </div> </div> <a name="post"></a> <form id='comment_form' method="post" action="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/comments/microsoft_loves_the_mac_hates_apple/" > <div class='hiddenFields'> <input type="hidden" name="ACT" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="RET" value="http://mcsolo.com/index.php/mcsolo/comments/microsoft_loves_the_mac_hates_apple/" /> <input type="hidden" name="URI" value="/mcsolo/comments/microsoft_loves_the_mac_hates_apple/" /> <input type="hidden" name="PRV" value="mcsolo/preview" /> <input type="hidden" name="XID" value="ba0894832b798557cbb9cd610986c69ffceae9e9" /> <input type="hidden" name="entry_id" value="793" /> <input type="hidden" name="site_id" value="1" /> </div> <h3>Post A Comment</h3> <div class="frame_comments"> <p>Your name:</p> <input type="text" id="name" name="name" value="" size="40" /> <p>Your email address:</p> <input type="text" id="email" name="email" value="" size="40" /> <p>Your location:</p> <input type="text" id="location" name="location" value="" size="40" /> <p>Your home page:</p> <input type="text" id="url" name="url" value="http://" size="40" /> <p>Enter your comment below:</p> <textarea name="comment" cols="50" rows="10"></textarea> <p><input type="checkbox" class="buttons" name="save_info" value="yes" /> Remember my personal information! <br /> <input type="checkbox" class="buttons" name="notify_me" value="yes" /> Notify me of follow-up comments?</p> <p>Please enter the “Magic Word” from the image below:</p> <img src="http://pixobebo.com/images/captchas/1283670579.88.jpg" width="140" height="30" style="border:0;" alt=" " /> <br /> <input type="text" id="captcha" name="captcha" value="" maxlength="16" /> <br /> <input type="submit" id="post" name="submit" value="Post" /> <input type="submit" id="preview" name="preview" value="Preview" /> </div> </form>  <div class="search_box"> <form method="post" action="http://mcsolo.com/index.php" > <div class='hiddenFields'> <input type="hidden" name="ACT" value="19" /> <input type="hidden" name="XID" value="2e8060164f826805ab104107022d256b42ee3c04" /> <input type="hidden" name="RP" value="mcsolo/search_results" /> <input type="hidden" name="NRP" value="" /> <input type="hidden" name="RES" value="30" /> <input type="hidden" name="status" value="" /> <input type="hidden" name="weblog" value="mcsolo" /> <input type="hidden" name="search_in" value="everywhere" /> <input type="hidden" name="where" value="any" /> <input type="hidden" name="site_id" value="1" /> </div> <label for="keywords"></label> <input type="text" name="keywords" id="keywords" value="" size="40" maxlength="130" /> <input type="submit" id="gobutton" value="Search" class="submit" /> </form> </div> <div id="Feature-Rectangle"> <div class="Feature-Rectangle-336x280"> <script type='text/javascript'></script> </div> </div> <div class="backtotop"><a href="#top" class="anchorLink" title="Back to the Top of the Page">Back to Top</a></div> <div class="logo_small"></div> </div> </div> <div id="region_right"> <div class="Sidebar-Skyscraper-160x600"> <script type='text/javascript'></script> </div> <div class="region_pad"> </div> </div> </div> <div id="wrapper_copyright"><div id="region_copyright"><div class="region_pad"><p>Copyright © 2008 - 2010 <a href="http://mcsolo.com/" title="Ron McElfresh">Ron McElfresh</a>, Honolulu, HI. 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