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Microsoft Says It Is Winning Its New War Against Macs (cultofmac.com)
Windows PCs are starting to chip away at Apple's strong grip of the high-end computer market, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said on an earnings call Thursday. From a report: Microsofts licensing business, which sells Windows to third-party PC makers, was up 5 percent last quarter, confirmed CFO Amy Hood during an earnings call on Thursday. The "non-pro" (consumer) market grew 5 percent, beating the overall decline of the PC industry. "Our partner ecosystem continued to see growth and share gains in the Windows premium device category," Hood continued. Those gains would have eaten into Apple's share of that market, which has been dominated by Macs until recently. There are other things that could have contributed to this, of course. Many long-time Mac users have been somewhat disappointed with Apple's most recent releases, which come with big changes that not everyone is willing to embrace.
Apple is self destructing. Minor difference, but it makes it sound like Microsoft is all of a sudden making better products. That would be a first, and probably not far off.
Had a mac since '84 and I think my current macbook is the last I'll buy.
Microsoft is only shooting itself in the foot while its opponents over at apple have somehow lodged their guns into their own rectums. Its not so much that microsoft is winning the battle, as apple is just failing worse.
All my friends have ditched Windows 10 and gone to MacOS.
Several have lost work due to updates and reboots. These aren't IT people.
The spying and constant messing around with the system were enough for them.
OSX/MacOS isn't perfect but for them it is a whole lot better for average users than W10.
...Windows PCs are starting to chip away at Apple's strong grip of the high-end computer market...
From my viewpoint, it looks as if Apple has abandoned the high-end computer market. The product line has been stagnating.
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Of course, leave it to Microsoft to declare itself winning over a competitor that has all but abandoned the particular marketspace.
What kind of trouble do *you* think they're in? I sure don't see it. For sure, I don't see them growing much any time soon, because the PC market is so mature, but I sure don't see them as being in any kind of "trouble" either.
PCs aren't going anywhere. You need them to do real work, which can't be done on phones or with phone OSes which are horribly limited (by design). Obviously, you (and many others) believe that Apple seems to be dropping the ball here, and sales numbers do seem to support that currently. However, there's no evidence that people are flocking to anything else either, in sufficient numbers to matter. As much as I'd like everyone to switch to desktop Linux, and have been hoping for that for 15+ years now, I've given up on it because I just don't see it happening. Luckily, desktop Linux is IMO completely usable and in fact superior, but that doesn't equate to mass adoption. People (and companies) are just too married to the Windows platform and its "ecosystem".
So AFAICT, MS can just sit back and milk the Windows/Office cash cow indefinitely. Again, this is not a company you should invest in if you're looking for a "growth" stock, but it absolutely should have reliable revenues.
I'll be hanging on to my retina mb pro for the foreseeable future [however short that is]. I like having the built in HDMI and SD card slots, along with the possibility of upgrading the internal storage. For a tru 'pro' Macbook, I would like to see Apple revive the old 2012 form factor, with single mini display port / thunderbolt 2 replacing the firewire port, 1 USB A & 2 USB C/thunderbolt 3 ports - and if possible both magsafe & hdmi ports. The old design's optical bay could hold either an optical drive, or extra battery, or extra storage - all user serviceable. The user should also be able to upgrade the RAM - up to 32 Gig.
Caution: Do not stare into laser with remaining eye.
If your enemy shoots themselves in the foot, that doesn't mean your aim has improved. Microsoft products still suck; they just suck a lot less relative to how much worse Apple products have become.
It may well be, but it's not because of anything Microsoft is doing.
Virtually every professional I know have all but given up on Apple thanks to the idiocy they've been pulling in recent years. At this point, it is so beyond glaringly obvious that they're now just taking the piss out of their customer base, that people no longer feel that that apple tax is worth it.
I just priced out a 13" MBP for myself. The MINIMUM viable product for my use is almost $3000. And this is minimum viable for my CURRENT needs, never mind what I might need a couple years from now. And of course, Apple forces me to plan ahead cause they solder everything onto the main board with no option for future upgrades. And this price doesn't count the bajillion dongles I'll have to buy (since the bajillion I already own are now useless), nor apple care.
The part that pisses me off the most is that they are very obviously gimping their lower priced products to force people to buy the more expensive stuff. For example, the base 13" MBP with a memory and storage bump would have been good enough for me.... EXCEPT IT ONLY HAS TWO TB3 PORTS AND ONE GETS USED FOR POWER. So you have literally ONE whole port to do *everything*.
And as of right now, there is literally NOT ONE single TB3 port replicator or hub available on the market to purchase (Yes, I've looked. Even OWC won't be available for at least a couple months from now at the soonest), so my options are to cobble together some ridiculous spaghetti mess of dongles, USB hubs and other nonsense just so I can use an external monitor and ethernet at the same time, or I spend the extra $700 to get their highest end model that graciously allows me to upgrade both ram and storage, AND has 4 TB-3 ports to use. (Their mid-range specifically does NOT give you the option to upgrade storage. You can have any size you want as long as it 256GB)
The currently generation of macbooks are flat out inexcusable.
While Apple has decided to roll over and die, Microsoft shoved a fork in their eye (Windows 8), shoved a fork in their other eye (Windows 8.1), then tried falling on their own sword (Windows 10) and finally are wiggling around the sword trying to hit a major organ, vein, or artery. (Anniversary Update)
Yes, I think Microsoft's OS is better, but they both seem to be trying to get the golden raspberry.
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.