Microsoft and Apple are competing with each other in a wide array of businesses, and they have always been considered fierce rivals in desktop, tablet and phone businesses. The hot and cold periods between Microsoft and Apple began in earnest in the 1980s. Back in the old days, when Jobs was ousted from Apple, Microsoft then went on to dominate the PC industry.
Microsoft and Apple long-distance dispute is very famous. In an interview, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Chris Capossela says that the old rivalry between the two companies is over, and this is a result of a cultural shift in the company.
Microsoft has transformed in the past few years, and the software giant wants to make its products and services available to customers regardless of the device they operate. One such recent example is Microsoft Edge, the company’s newest and default browser of Windows 10 operating system is now available on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
Microsoft’s product strategy involves bringing apps and services to Apple’s platform and as well as Google’s. It is also worth noting that the majority of Microsoft apps can be also installed on Apple devices.
“We’ve moved away from that competitive focus that I think we’ve had in the past We need to bring our products on the platforms that our customers are using. So Office on the iPad or iPhone, Minecraft on every platform, that’s just a natural thing for us to do,” Capossela explained.
Capossela says that Microsoft’s focus is on fans and not to go after rival. Basically, Microsoft is trying to improve the devices for fans as the fans will only recruit new people and talk about the company’s devices.
“We found out it’s far better for us to actually focus on our own fans. The fans are the ones that are going to talk about your stuff, the fans will recruit new people, the fans will tell you honestly what you need to do to fix your own products and make your own products much better,” he added. The new strategy certainly makes sense, and the idea to prioritize fans with improvements that are tailored for the devices is working as expected with Microsoft seeing a big growth in Surface and Xbox devices.
“So we’ve moved away from that sort of competitive focus that I think we’ve had in the past and now we’re focusing not just on our customers, but specifically on the people that use our stuff,” he continued.
Microsoft has however been criticized by its fans for bringing the exclusive apps to the rival platform and leaving its own platforms (Windows Phone) behind. While the company’s increased focus on rival platforms generated a huge criticism from the community, the large userbase of rival platforms helped Microsoft increase the revenue of products and services like Office 365.
