Comments on: Why did Microsoft beat Apple? And why Apple doesn’t care. https://dfarq.homeip.net/why-did-microsoft-beat-apple-and-why-apple-doesnt-care/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-did-microsoft-beat-apple-and-why-apple-doesnt-care David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:55:43 +0000 hourly 1 By: Glaurung https://dfarq.homeip.net/why-did-microsoft-beat-apple-and-why-apple-doesnt-care/#comment-51929 Mon, 08 Apr 2019 06:09:15 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=21445#comment-51929 On his return, Jobs redefined the game that Apple was trying to play. Instead of trying to compete against Windows in the entire PC market (which game Apple was losing badly), Apple would only compete in particular segments of the market where the Mac had a strong presence. Those segments were, basically, “creative professionals” (desktop publishing/photoshop/video editing/sound editing/etc), education, and home users.

Jobs reconfigured the company’s entire Mac lineup to cater only to those specific markets, jettisoning everything else, and he launched the “think different” ad campaign to tell the creative professionals in particular that Apple understood them and was their kind of company.

In those specific market segments, Apple then had a significantly higher market share than the 1 or 2% they had of the whole PC market… and today they have a much higher market share in the home and among creative professionals than the 10%-ish share they have of the whole PC market.

Just about every new headline feature of Mac hardware (high dpi displays, high colour gamut displays, etc) is targeted at keeping creative professionals invested in the Mac. Just about every new feature of MacOS is targeted at maintaining the “ease of use” edge that Apple has over Windows for home users (which nowadays translates as providing a seamless, well integrated mac/iphone/watch/smart home ecosystem).

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