Compare and Contrast Essay

Microsoft Versus Apple: The Eternal Battle

Microsoft and Apple, the two current technological giants in this era. When thinking about great and worldwide rivals, Microsoft and Apple immediately appear, since for the last 40 years, both have been in a battle of developing the best products for the market (Williams, 2015, para 1). Microsoft and Apple take place as two of the most innovator companies nowadays which develop competitive operating systems and devices, both present massive fan bases, but the cost of their products may vary depending on the kind of device.

The development of operating systems and devices that both companies present has some similarities, but much more differences. Microsoft Corporation not only is a groundbreaking of software and hardware, but also distributes its software with other technology companies (Annual report, 2014, p. 6). Microsoft builds up operating systems and devices, and it also lays out hardware with other companies, which allows the corporation to embrace such a big area of business. Apple Company encompasses also both business; it manufactures software and creates hardware (Linzmayer, 1999, as cited in Whittington, 2008, p.113). Apple as well as Microsoft unrolls operating system and devices, with the difference that it does not distribute software to other companies. These two corporations create their products but only Microsoft sells some of them to other enterprises.

These companies count with massive and loyal fan bases. But according to a recent study, Apple presents a score of 28 in custom loyalty whereas Microsoft got a score of just 8 (Williams, 2015, para 4). And in customer satisfaction, Apple got 41% not the same for Microsoft with only 19% (Williams, 2015, para 4). These results reflect that even though the products of Microsoft are competitive, Apple presents a bigger amount of loyal consumers. In the case of customer satisfaction, Apple is the winner again, and its products satisfied much more consumers than Microsoft. Everyday both Microsoft and Apple gain a bigger fan base, but with these statistics reverberate that Apple has more loyal buyers.

The cost of the products of each company has lots of variations. Taking into account that these companies distribute a wild diversity of products, a netbook from Apple bears an average cost of 1,499 US dollars (MacBook Pro, 2015, para 2), a tablet costs around 599 US dollars (iPad Air 2, 2015, para 2), and a cellphone is about 649 US dollars (iPhone 6S, 2015, para 1). On the other hand, a Microsoft`s laptop is about 1,999 US dollars (Microsoft store, 2015, para 2), a tablet has an average cost of 499 US dollars (Microsoft store, 2015, para 2), and a cellphone costs around 249 US dollars (Offers, 2015, para 1). As the previous information shows, Microsoft has more accessible prices in all its products, whereas Apple prices are higher in every category such as laptops, tablets and cellphones. A bigger amount of population is able to get a Microsoft device than an Apple one, and this happens because Apple`s devices present a higher cost than Microsoft ones.

Both companies Microsoft and Apple are creators and developers of software and hardware, both also possess lots of consumers and fans, and both have variation on the cost of their products. The two enterprises design operating systems and devices, but only Microsoft has relations and sells its software to other companies, otherwise Apple produces software for its own hardware. The Apple`s fandom base happens to be more loyal than Microsoft`s; and the products that Apple brings out to the market cost more than Microsoft ones. These companies have a lot of variations between them and just a few similarities, but the two of them are in a constant evolution and development, and their principal purpose is to offer to buyers the best product in the market.


References

Annual report. (2014). Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved form https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=http://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar14/docs/2014_Annual_Report.docx

iPad Air 2. (2015). Apple. Retrieved from
http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-ipad/ipad-air-2

iPhone 6s. (2015). Apple. Retrieved form
http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone6s 

MacBook Pro. (2015). Apple. Retrieved from
http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro

Microsoft store. (2015). Microsoft. Retrieved from http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/list/categoryID.69404900?icid=PC_Category_ModG_Laptops_05202015&sortby=ranking%20ascending&filters=samsung

Microsoft store. (2015). Microsoft. Retrieved from http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/list/categoryID.69404900?icid=PC_Category_ModG_Laptops_05202015&sortby=ranking%20ascending&filters=microsoft

Offers. Find the best up-to-the-minute offers directly from our partners. (2015). Microsoft. Retrieved form
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/phone/lumia640-xl/offers/

Whittington, R. (2008). What is strategy - and how does it matter? London, England: Cengage Learning EMEA. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.mx/books?hl=es&lr=&id=PP6IMSkbYWoC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=what+is+the+strategy+and+how+does+it+matter&ots=_nKwh49nkK&sig=IyjP00z55jIovWFaWmfSPRXJjxs#v=onepage&q=what%20is%20the%20strategy%20and%20how%20does%20it%20matter&f=false

Williams, W. (2015). Microsoft vs. Apple - Which has the most loyal and satisfied customers? Retrieved from http://betanews.com/2015/04/07/microsoft-vs-apple-which-has-the-most-loyal-and-satisfied-customers/