With Redmond on the rise, and with the dawn of an entirely new platform near, we look at 5 reasons why you should watch Microsoft over Apple.
Less than 5 years ago, Microsoft was an ailing giant. Following nearly a decade under Steve Ballmer (by that point), the company itself was actually a financial success, which had managed to triple its revenue following the departure of Bill Gates as CEO in 2000. However, when pitted against the company’s greatest rival – Apple – Microsoft’s successes paled in comparison, delivering meandering successes with Xbox and Windows sales while Apple enjoyed runaway success with the iPod, iPhone, and later, iPad. In that time, there hasn’t been much reason to root for Microsoft over Apple.
For those years, Microsoft was a largely reactive company, working frivolously to outdo Apple in spheres where the Cupertino behemoth was seen by the public as the great innovator. The pitfalls the company reached with it’s Zune media player and the release of Windows Vista were seen by many as the company’s darkest period.
However, following Ballmer’s retirement and Satya Nadella’s rise to the helm, Microsoft has turned over a new leaf as a proactive company which – as it loves to note – is finally listening to its consumer base. Here are five reasons why you should rather be looking to Microsoft, rather than Apple, to lead consumers into an exciting and innovative future:
1) Windows 10 is coming – and it’s free
All truths be told, Microsoft’s move to release Windows 10 as a free upgrade wasn’t particular surprising, considering that Apple has released its iterant updates for free nearly three entire versions ago. What the move represents – outside the Apple paradigm – however looks most appealing. Microsoft seems ardent to finally solve its fragmentation issues and grant consumers one operating system with broad flexibility.
One of the major reasons Windows 8 didn’t attract sufficient gravitas were the fears in users in personal capacities or in enterprise that the new Live Tiles and metro design language was either far too radical a leap, or wouldn’t be conducive to productivity work. Microsoft, with Windows 10, has been careful to state that different devices, while running the new OS, will adapt differently and feature the new design language to greater or lesser degrees. Through this, Microsoft can maintain their kingpin status by producing software for hardcore productivity desktops, while appealing to the wider metro design-loving lifestyle demographic that it tried and failed to attract with the release of Windows 8.
This equals one operating system, a unified ecosystem, and plenty of satisfied users across many different expectations for a Windows PC.
2) Lumia devices, priced for everyone
Wisely, Microsoft hasn’t stopped the buck at ensuring everyone has a need for Windows 10. The company, following its acquisition of Nokia, has produced Windows 8 handsets which offer a ubiquitous experience at a multitude of different price ranges and specifications.
Leveraging this, the company hopes to punt their Lumia line as the companion phone to Windows 10 – and it will do this by selecting specifically priced and specced Windows phones for different geographic locales, depending on the income and average wealth of the area. For instance, the company has made available the newly released Lumia 535 (a sub R2000 Windows Phone) to South Africa and India – both regions where the migration from dumb phones to smartphones is rapidly growing.
This will ensure that every consumer will be able to afford a true companion device for their Windows 10 PC – in many ways, if Windows mobile can attract enough of a following and succeed, it’s the ultimate answer to Apple’s premium iPhone – a product that is designed to exist within an ecosystem which is grossly unaffordable to many. In the eyes of the many, people will likely gravitate to Microsoft over Apple.
3) A cloud-first strategy
Have you tried OneDrive recently? While cloud services are indeed a dime a dozen, Microsoft has been making strong overtures and bets that the cloud is bound to be the future of both mobile and desktop computers. The company’s decision to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumers is just the start.
OneDrive, if you’ve not used it before, boasts excellent compatibility with Microsoft’s web apps, such as Office and Outlook. It also offers a great interface for organising photos to the cloud. If this sounds a little too close to a promotion, let’s remember that OneDrive is the means through which the entire Windows ecosystem is going to be glued together – if it were terrible, the system wouldn’t work. And, in comparison, Apple’s iCloud hasn’t always been the most popular cloud service around – not mentioning the prices charged for additional storage beyond a courtesy 5GB. It’s clear in regards to the Cloud war, many would prefer to choose Microsoft over Apple.
OneDrive will further reduce the company’s fragmentation problem by making files and media accessible over an enormous variety of computers – even if they’re not running Windows 10. The means to access this became greatly more attractive, as well, as Microsoft is set to kill off the bum-joke-of-all-browsers, Internet Explorer, in favour of a new modern contender presently dubbed Project Spartan.
4) Cortana
While we’re on the topic of Spartans and Halo rings, it’s worthwhile to peg Cortana on this list simply because of her cross-platform presence. Siri, which exists solely in the mobile world, has been the begging point of Mac users since the intelligent assistant’s release on the iPhone 4s. Google Now, Google’s assistant, exists on mobile devices as well, and can be brought to the desktop to showcase notifications (only) through the company’s Chrome browser.
While Cortana and Google Now share a similar approach by maintaining a small database of specific information about a consumer, it’s Cortana that’s the most personable, making use of Jen Taylor’s (the actress behind Cortana in the Halo series) voice. Her presence, beyond Windows mobile and soon in Windows 10, is set to take her to a wider stage than either Siri or Google Now currently enjoy. Let us not also forget that if rumours are true, Cortana could be the first mobile digital assistant to make it into your living room through Microsoft’s Xbox One console.
Cortana is the most easily the most interesting of the three services, simply because Microsoft has invested in her personality – while writing this article, she’s the only service I can even feel comfortable about ascribing a gender. With luck, the company will invest as much time improving her capabilities across devices as they have punting her character in demo videos. We may yet see Microsoft over Apple in the digital assistant wars to come.
5) Projects outside of the box
Microsoft’s HoloLens shook up the internet not long ago, and for good reason – it’s one of the first novel applications of holographic technology in the home that will also be available to all Windows 10 consumers. To many, the concept – nevermind the intent to sell the product – robbed Apple of its ‘innovation’ buzzword for at least several days.
HoloLens runs through a virtual reality headset which projects Windows 10 components across real surfaces, such as walls, doors, and even intangibly in mid-air. It’s arguably one of the first real projects by a major corporate power intending to augment reality, rather than substitute it with glitzy video or gaming material. With the Xbox brand under its belt, gamers can continue to look to Microsoft over Apple.
The future applications of the technology are enticing – from making a Skype call to playing an augmented-reality version of Minecraft, it’s a novel approach over the screen-projection fantasies wrought by the Oculus VR, for instance. HoloLens represents Microsoft’s newfound confidence to deliver a product with which it has little precedence – a move, which under Ballmer’s Microsoft, would likely have never happened.
What’re your thoughts on Microsoft’s direction? Has the company bridged a dark period to bring us some exciting new products, or will the Redmond firm’s new exploits fall as flat as Windows Vista? Would you choose Microsoft over Apple? Let us know in the comments below!
Follow Bryan on Twitter: @bryansmith1138
