No Apples for Gates

You may have heard that Apple products are forbidden fruit in la casa de Bill Gates: Mrs. Gates, the Gates children, or  Bill himself – neither are allowed to bring home Apple gear.  Are the Gates family members allowed to use Apple products outside of their home?  That much is not clear.  But that is not the point: the real issue here has been flying below the radar, and it’s quite a serious one at that.

I think it’s safe to infer from this tid-bit of news that this no-Apple policy comes from Bill himself: there is some sort of deep-rooted hostility towards all things Apple in Bill.. as there should be – his company seems to have been falling flat on its face recently (in the face of the public, anyway) compared to Apple: just do an opinion poll of iPod vs. Zune, or Vista vs. Mac.  How is it a problem that the Gates family is not allowed to use Apple products?  Simple: if one hasn’t experienced Apple products, he hasn’t experienced the best.

No matter whether you use an Apple product or not, there is no denying that Apple is the tech company that does marketing best.  Apple knows everything there is to know about its customers, whether current or potential.  The company has delivered hit after hit in every product category – if not in market share then definitely in desirability: from personal computers represented by the Mac line, the masterfully-polished software that adorns these PCs (or should I say Macs?), to making the cell phone that every company in the industry aspires to copy, Apple’s got it covered.  And I won’t even mention the legendary iPod… since the iPod goes without mention.  So when it gets out that Apple products are forbidden in the Gates family, a little window is opened (no pun intended) as to why Microsoft products seem so… “blah” compared to their Apple counterparts.

What, exactly, am I talking about here?  This is a simple question of marketing – also known as “know your competition.”  If Bill denies his family the pleasure of using Apple products (even if it’s using the far-superior iTunes for Windows instead of Windows Media Player), I can only imagine what kind of an anti-Apple policy he has instituted at Microsoft.  Now, I realize that Bill might be a bit less obsessed over control than his nemesis at Apple.  Whatever the case may be, would it be a big stretch to carry over Gates’ “Apple-the-forbidden-fruit” policy to Microsoft?  Perhaps the main reason why Microsoft products not so much as suck, but lack in fit, finish, sex appeal, and polish compared to their Apple counterparts – is because Microsoft employees haven’t had a good chance to examine Apple gadgetry.

By now you must be ready to roll up your sleeves, open your email clients, and start writing emails to me with what are probably some very good reasons as to why that simply can’t be the case.  I’m sure that one of such emails will be something along the lines of:

“That simply can’t be the case because what Bill does at home doesn’t necessarily reflect what he does at work.  I’m sure that the people at Microsoft responsible for the Zune, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Mobile (for starters) have examined their Apple competition quite closely and know exactly what it is that they are up against.”

And I would agree.  But not completely.  I understand that Microsoft is a world-class high-tech company that has tremendous respect with the legions of people who use the company’s products – even if these people don’t love using them.  But I have to wonder why the company has failed to put out a product in any of the aforementioned markets that beats the Apple competition by all means.  To beat Apple and its super-polished product portfolio, Microsoft does not need to “match” the Apple.  No, Microsoft needs to beat it on all fronts and in all areas: whether it’s in functionality, feature-set, sleekness, or sex appeal: Microsoft needs to go above and beyond to convince Apple buyers to go so far as to take a second look at its products, let alone purchase them over Apple’s.

But Microsoft is the leader, it can care less about that tiny fraction of defiant Apple buyers.  If you think that, you’re flat out wrong: Microsoft wants those sales.  It has always been the goal of Steve Ballmer to be #1 (market share-wise) in everything the company does.

So, is it possible that the reason Microsoft doesn’t seem to be able to put out products that beat those produced by Apple is that the the tech giant’s employees in Redmond are prevented to closely examine Apple’s products?  I realize it’s a stretch, but is it a possibility?  If I were a shareholder in Microsoft, I’d be a little concerned and start asking some questions if that were the case!  Wouldn’t you?

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Posted in Apple, Bill Gates, Business, Decisions, Marketing, Microsoft