Is there actually a department where MS makes more money than its direct competitor?

[worldspy99]

They may not be #1 in anything besides OS and Office but in other business categories they are growing and bringing in revenue and also earning profit. Just being #1 isn't the only goal. If that were the case there should only be Intel processors powering all the PCs in the world, AMD can throw in the towel and go home.

I bet that the C-Suite guys at Microsoft don't look at their entire 90+ billion dollar business with the mentality that "hey we are losing to all of these other players so let's just stop doing what we are doing and double down on what we are successful". There are plenty of other metrics, and there is a reason to diversify the portfolio into multiple segments/divisions so if one is slowing down (actually the OS and Office business) others are picking up (Azure).

 

[Chintan Gohel]

When there are decathlon athletes and someone like Usain Bolt, who is more successful? How will you compare the two? MS has a big portfolio, maybe they aren't the top in each sector but combined they are a powerful and successful company

 

[Dinu Noroc]

As Ballmer not once said, the most important thing is making money, which at the end of the day is the only important thing about any business, so someone can be considered a winner. Leaving aside market share, as a developer I also consider the quality of a product to be an important point when picking a winner. Is there actually a department where MS makes more money than its direct competitor? Let's examine:

Windows Server vs Linux -> we all know Linux is used in more of the most secured and important facilities and organizations on the planet, where even bringin the name Windows is considered a joke -> Linux wins
Xbox vs PS -> Sony makes more money
Azure vs AWS -> Amazon makes more money
Phones vs iPhone -> Apple makes more money, Android wins by market share
Surface Line vs respective Apple line -> Apple makes more money
Bing vs Google Search -> Google usage is a distant winner, Google makes more money
C# vs Java -> Java devs make more money (look average salary wherever you want), also Java is more widely used than .NET in buisness (StackOverflow statistics for reference)
Dynamics vs SAP ERP -> SAP makes more money
Skype vs any other chat client -> Skype is a distant #n in usage and capabilities compared to others like Whatsapp, Messenger, Viber and so on (and declining) -> Skype is not a winner definitely
Visual Studio Code vs Sublime (for example) -> Sublime (for example) wins by a mile
Mice and keyboards vs Logitech (for example) -> Logitech makes more money
Outlook vs Gmail -> user base says it all -> Google wins
OneDrive vs Dropbox/Gdrive -> GDrive wins

Looks like Microsoft is battling on every front and lose on every front from someone else. This is pretty sad.

Now think About Apple, Google and others and make a list in your mind like you did for MS, you will be amassed. Every Company has one or two strong products (winners), and the rest is average at most.

MS doesn't need to win at everything they do, they need a few winners, and they have Windows, Office (and O356) and Surface line.

 

[orlbuckeye]

MS hold 90% of the PC OS market with Windows. MS has the industry leading suite. Outlook is a paid product and Gmail is free. Well according to a head hunter for computer jobs java programmers are a dime a dozen and .NET developers are hard to find. The issue with java is it's multi-platform and .Net isn't. MS is the 2nd or 3rd most valuable tech company so they aren't doing so bad.

 

[Devan Hammack]

Haha, I love how OP continued (for a while at least) to fight the good fight and support his original blabbering, despite facts being thrown at his face.
That was some good stuff.