Who is the toughest competitor for Microsoft?

[Raghunath Waltz]

Hi guys!
It is not a new thing but an obvious one to be asked about Microsoft's competitive space.

Be it Windows phone, Xbox, Laptop, Desktop, Softwares and many other things of Windows platform, Microsoft has always had a tough fight to register in the consumer space (or precisely "Enterprise space"). While sometimes it had an edge over its competitors, many times it had to go through hardships.

Sony, Google (both Android and Chrome), Apple (iPhone, iPad, iMac and all sorts of 'i' {how selfish}),
Amazon and all others gave Microsoft the hell of times. Against all these odds MS is steadily marching towards a steady future.

But who fought viciously against Microsoft the most?
Whom to give the top spot

 

[kaktus1389]

Overall I'd say Apple as if we're honest Bill Gates stole the idea for GUI from Steve Jobs and they burried old Windows Mobile platform with the iPhone.

 

[gourav mopidevi]

Microsoft it self.

 

[Mattemt294]

I would say apple is the biggest competitor. I think this is more of a cultural issue though. apple successfully marketed themselves as the cool and trendy product along with being simple. that appeals to those who aren't as enthusiastic about tech and what it can do. if more people were interested in learning new things and exploring features then Microsoft wouldn't struggle as much against them.

 

[Willie Swart]

Salesforce

 

[Bob Hanson]

Amazon in the cloud

 

[aerosidinc]

since Microsoft is becoming next IBM, I would say IBM is the biggest rival.

 

[Manus Imperceptus]

Alphabet/Google. Certainly not Apple; a company that insists on keeping the hardware aspect in-house will never be able to reign supreme. Simple monopoly law will keep them from it, if nothing else. But the sheer price level will keep Apple from gaining much more traction, and the lowest common denominator, for lack of a better word, will keep Windows and Office ahead.

Google's OS and office programs/apps is a different story. As has been mentioned many times on WC, if you can get into the heads of the school generation, as the go-to system for work, you could have them cornered for life! The thing is, Google is only really making it's presence felt in the US, and unlike what MS seems to think, the US is not the life and the death of the party; there are about 5 billion of the rest of us, and at least 2 of those have money to spare!

 

[naddy6969]

Mobile. The whole world has gone mobile computing, and Microsoft has nothing to offer in this space. Yet another Windows 10 tablet (Now With LTE!) is not going to change anything.

 

[Cbarnhorst]

Google/Android

 

[bobsentell]

From a straight up competitor aspect, I'd say Google. More of Google's businesses overlap Microsoft's than Apple. But you could argue Amazon and Oracle are more dangerous to Microsoft.

 

[garak0410]

I'd say Google from my own experience. At one time, I was all in with Microsoft at the height of Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1. Windows, Windows Phone, Windows Media Center, Zune/XBOX Music/Groove. With the demise of Windows Phone and Windows Media Center, I've moved on to a Google Heavy ecosystem (Pixel Phones, Pixelbook, Google Home (Mini/Home/Max), YouTube Red, YouTube TV, Google Music, Google Drive.)

I still use my main Windows machine for File/Media Serving, PLEX and gaming. I also have a Surface Book and actively use Office 365. And at work, we are a Microsoft Shop.

I've embraced and am enjoying the Google Ecosystem. I'd say Google is a big threat to Microsoft.

 

[BanditoTR]

Dude they have a lot of rivals because that company is too diverse.

They have a rival with Google and Apple due to mobile OS (which they don't have).

Then there's Sony with their gaming section

Google with the ads/ search revenue vs Bing. People forget Bing while having a small piece of the pie it is still the second biggest search provider by a lot. Bing ads is big too.

Cloud well their biggest one would be Amazon.

Business wise IBM and Oracle are their biggest rivals. Those two companies are seldom talked about here but they have a huge piece of the pie and they spend a lot of money on research that could go against Microsoft in the future.

In AI Google has a huge advantage vs Microsoft 's product. Not as much as people think though

Their biggest rivals in computers OS would be Apple with the Macs but the rivalry here is a joke at best.

 

[BanditoTR]

"stole" lol.

That meme has to die. All he supposedly stole was the design of the trash bin. Also Windows GUI at the time worked just better than Apple's version.

 

[R0bR]

I would say since Azure is Microsoft's most profitable by a long shot and losing out in the cloud would cause the biggest impact, Amazon is their biggest rival by far.

BTW, Steve Jobs stole the GUI and mouse from Xerox.

 

[ButchTheGreat]

I would agree with most, in that it depends on which part of the company offerings you are looking at.

For cloud it is definitely Amazon, in the UK most companies I have worked for either choose one or the other.

For desktop productivity I would say Google.

For console gaming it would be Sony

Their biggest issue is having no proper mobile platform. I was forced to move to Android having been a happy Windows Phone user and as devices get more powerful people are using their mobiles more and more for productivity. With the market share of Google this should be a serious concern for them.

For their office packages I would say the only competition would be again, Google.

 

[Akram Eleyan]

There is no single company is competing with Microsoft, Microsoft is large Tech Firm with many services and business portfolios under its sleeves. So to simplify it this way:
1) Hardware, Apple.
2) Desktop/Laptop operating systems. Linux and Apple.
3) Cloud Services. Amazon.
4) Desktop apps. Linux.
5) Mobile apps: Apple and Google.
6) Enterprise services. It is all over the place, Oracle, IBM, DELL, HP ... etc.
7) Mobile. MS is out of the space as of now.

 

[asteng88]

Totally agree. They can be their own worst enemy. Love the products though...a lot

 

[Finn Shadow]

Unix-based operating systems. Their much better then windows-like operating systems. Apple uses unix for it's operating systems (BSD). Google uses Linux for it's operating systems. Microsoft is almost the only major company not to use Unix. So, they will fall.

 

[TRON0314]

Themselves.

All they do is shoot themselves in the foot. Come out with something great and half-baked. Let everyone else leap frog them.