Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
The Windows 8 tablet is showing a lot of promise. They just need to hurry the hell up with bringing them out.
 

AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Oct 20, 2011
12,699
10,566
Austin, TX

Nope.

12% is still much smaller than the windows share. When you consider now that Apple is the in product, 12% against is still a strong showing for the Windows status quo.

Microsoft Office is far and away the top Professional Suite. Bar-none.

Windows 7 has been adopted heavily in the enterprise segment.

Microsoft is doing some fantastic things with the X-Box. Seriously, it's crazy.

And the surface hasn't even been released yet.

Now I'm no Microsoft enthusiast, Ballmer is a quack, and I personally only own office for mac, but I also don't fool myself into thinking that Microsoft is in any real danger.
 

G51989

macrumors 68030
Feb 25, 2012
2,530
10
NYC NY/Pittsburgh PA
Yes, I'm sure their only real OS competitor gaining a little ground after a big product launch is making them freak.

Or they might be swimming in pools full of money, seeing as microsoft is still a very profitable company that's worth about 250 billion + cash reserves ( 65 billion last time I looked )

A lil smaller than apple. But still doing just fine ;)
 

BaldiMac

macrumors G3
Jan 24, 2008
9,014
11,194
I read somewhere recently that Windows will likely be the third most popular OS in the world by the end of 2012 by new activations (behind Android and iOS). That's shocking. Something that was almost inconceivable 5 years ago.
 

smoledman

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 17, 2011
1,943
364
I read somewhere recently that Windows will likely be the third most popular OS in the world by the end of 2012 by new activations (behind Android and iOS). That's shocking. Something that was almost inconceivable 5 years ago.

That's if you lump ARM-based OSse in with x86 OSes.
 

boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,382
7,631
MSFT will have to do a lot wrong before they have to worry about Apple cutting away their market share. They're under no threat currently.
 

mischief

macrumors 68030
Aug 1, 2001
2,921
1
Santa Cruz Ca
No sweat from the giant.

The retina MBP is a disaster inside from a hardware-repair/upgrade perspective and Mac OS Mountainlion is yet another step towards Mac OS simply being "iOS Pro". Meanwhile Apple's employee turnover is helping every competitor they have including M$.... which is why Windows is getting less lame by the day and Droid OS devices are getting more durable by the day.
 

smoledman

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 17, 2011
1,943
364
The retina MBP is a disaster inside from a hardware-repair/upgrade perspective and Mac OS Mountainlion is yet another step towards Mac OS simply being "iOS Pro". Meanwhile Apple's employee turnover is helping every competitor they have including M$.... which is why Windows is getting less lame by the day and Droid OS devices are getting more durable by the day.

Cites?
 

BaldiMac

macrumors G3
Jan 24, 2008
9,014
11,194
MSFT will have to do a lot wrong before they have to worry about Apple cutting away their market share. They're under no threat currently.

Apple has been cutting away their market share every quarter for 6 straight years. At what point do they worry about it?
 

boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,382
7,631
Apple has been cutting away their market share every quarter for 6 straight years. At what point do they worry about it?

When Apple gains a decent percentage of that marketshare. MSFT is still the biggest player by miles.
 

BaldiMac

macrumors G3
Jan 24, 2008
9,014
11,194
They already have, but it's not like MSFT is broke.

The market share game, I thought that was fairly obvious since it's the only thing I was talking about.

Okay. I'm pretty sure that Microsoft is worried about OS X and iOS based on market share. Slashing prices of your signature product by 60% for the most (first?) significant price cut in two decades in reaction to your competitors is a sign of worry.
 

G51989

macrumors 68030
Feb 25, 2012
2,530
10
NYC NY/Pittsburgh PA
Okay. I'm pretty sure that Microsoft is worried about OS X and iOS based on market share. Slashing prices of your signature product by 60% for the most (first?) significant price cut in two decades in reaction to your competitors is a sign of worry.
Its not a sign of worry. Its a sign of " holy **** we still have more xp users than 7 users ".

Its more microsoft attempting to move people people off xp than anything.

Btw that's 40 dollars for an upgrade. A standalone copy will probably still run 100-200.

Because they are making the windows 8 phone, and surface tablet, as wellas oems.

Methinks they are trying to get as many people on 8 as possible so they can get that " ecosystem " thing going.

They still are the kingpin of the consumer desktop/ laptop market. And expect for some nix niche stuff, they hold a monoply in the enterprise market. Microsoft supports the enterprise market, because again, expect for some niche nix stuff, no one else wants to.

Its not worry, its planning for the future.
 

BaldiMac

macrumors G3
Jan 24, 2008
9,014
11,194
Its not a sign of worry. Its a sign of " holy **** we still have more xp users than 7 users ".

Its not worry, its planning for the future.

Windows 7 passed Windows XP recently. If your theory were correct, wouldn't it make sense to have discounted Windows 7?

I doubt that consumer upgrades are a huge percentage of Microsoft's Windows sales. I think this is a clear reaction to Apple's growing dominance of the consumer space.
 

snberk103

macrumors 603
Oct 22, 2007
5,503
91
An Island in the Salish Sea
I don't thing MS is worried at all about numbers of Macs sold. In fact, it might even be good for MS. A very large number of those Macs are going to buy a Windows. The difference is that they are going to buy that license directly from MS as a download or from a retailer at full retail price. MS either gets the entire markup, or shares the full markup with the retailer. My understanding is that an OEM's Windows license, that come with PC hardware, has been bought by the OEM at a huge discount. MS doesn't get much more than a few dollars licence, and counts on the huge volumes to make their money. I'm guessing that the Windows licenses MS sells to that 12% marketshare of Macs more than makes up for the licenses they would have sold to the OEMs otherwise.

Same thing for Office. A hefty portion of those Macs are buying Office licenses at full retail price. In this case they are also buying discounted licenses through school and work, but they would have access to that pricing regardless of the platform. What the Mac owners are not getting are the heavily discounted OEM Office pricing deals. So again, I would argue, MS is probably making more money off the Office sales to those Macs than they would have otherwise.


Where MS needs to be worried is in the tablet market. At the moment they don't have much of anything (if anything at all, yet) to sell that runs on iOS. Every tablet Apple sells is, in this case, a totally lost sale for MS. I think we will see a huge push for the Surface in the next while. MS has to reclaim some of its total marketshare that it is losing to the tablets. At the moment, my feeling is that MS is totally irrelevant in the tablet market - and it has to become a player, or else it will suffer hugely.
 

smoledman

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 17, 2011
1,943
364
It will be another Holy S*it moment on July 24th when Apple announces a $17 billion EBITA with 20 million iPads sold.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.