Is Microsoft the new Apple?

Davey Winder
Saturday, 14 February 2009 16:04

IT Industry - Market

Apple users feel part of an extended family, the Apple Stores are more than just a shop front selling boxes, they are the wardrobe through which the consumer enters the Apple World of Narnia.

They sell more than products, they sell a lifestyle choice, a feeling on belonging to something bigger. They also provide damn fine support, right there in the shop. What I am getting at, I guess, is that Apple 'connects' with it's customers.

Microsoft, on the whole, lost that connection completely around the time of Vista coming out. Assuming it ever really had it in the first place, which is doubtful.

I applaud Microsoft for trying re-connect with the customer. But I worry that it is using some very expensive gaffer tape to bodge a repair rather than buying brand new cables, if you see what I mean.

And it will be expensive. Microsoft has yet to put a price on it, but considering that it is cutting costs and jobs elsewhere you do have to question the level of potential investment at a time when high streets all over the world are starting to look like war zones following recession fuelled closures.

So, back to the beginning: is Microsoft the new Apple? The answer would seem to be a firm no, but it sure would like to be.