A strange idea popped into my head. A merger of Apple and Microsoft. Very strange but not stupid. If you lay out the strengths and weaknesses of the two companies and then line them up you find yourself looking at one fine company.I got this idea after Steve Jobs finished launching another salvo at Adobe and then announced that Microsoft was going to be able to do what Adobe wasn’t allowed to do, which is to develop iPhone apps using Microsoft technologies and in Windows to boot. Keep in mind it is Adobe who has been a huge friend to Apple users and probably kept Apple alive through their dark times. But also Microsoft bought something like 150 million worth of Apple to prop them up in years past. Microsoft also never pulled the plug on the Apple version of Office which would have been a body blow for Apple. So buried inside Microsoft are some Apple Fanboys. If Microsoft kept those shares then Microsoft already owns a good chunk of Apple. The to put icing on the cake Apple is apparently having Steve Balmer on center stage during their biggest conference of the year. That would normally be a joke article on April 1st.
One of the cores reasons of this insane merger would be the threat that Google potentially poses to every area of strength that both companies have; which I will now lay out:
Apple strengths:
- Snazzy operating system that is based upon BSD which should mean fewer man-hours required to keep it up.
- The iPhone. The strongest consumer smartphone around.
- The iPad. The medium will be the message here and the message will be sold through itunes and shown on iPads.
- iTunes. Needs work but is a media selling machine that will no doubt be pumping media to more and more devices for more and more people.
- Apple is the coolest kid on the block
Apple weaknesses:
- Very weak enterprise everything. Technicallly they have the xserver but I don’t know anyone who uses one.
- Steve Jobs is the plinth that this company rests on. I don’t see a replacement plinth around.
- Safari is an also ran probably not worth the effort to bring to the front.
Microsoft Strengths:
- Huge OS momentum with Windows.
- Huge Enterprise strength in almost every category of enterpriseness going. Especially Microsoft Office.
- Did I mention Microsoft Office?
- Huge developer base.
- Internet explorer dominates but is losing traction.
- Figuring out how to run the company without Bill Gates hand on the rudder.
- Bing is a distant second but might have a chance as part of a larger package.
Microsoft weaknesses:
- Losing traction in every category. Operating system, Office Suite, Servers, Web Browser.
- Their operating system is a herculean effort for every version.
- Mobile Operating efforts are going nowhere.
- Microsoft is very uncool.
Google strengths are two: Their search engine, and their ability to use their branding plus coding to hammer away at every single market that Apple and Microsoft presently dominate. An example would be Google’s Android not yet being an iPhone killer but Android is growing quickly. Google will need to replicate the iTunes success simultaneously to replicating the iPhone but there is nothing technologically difficult about that. It will be more of a marketing challenge combined with getting the usability right. It is the same with many of Google’s other probable targets.
So if you combine Apple and Microsoft you would give each of the two companies to cut their duds and focus on the winners you would have a company with a leading browser, huge developer base, huge installed base of users, a media powerhouse, a mobile powerhouse, a vast enterprise knowledge and enterprise customer base, a passable search engine and so on.With all that this single grouping would be able to keep leveraging their successes against their other successes to keep them individually unassailable as Microsoft has spent two decades perfecting.
I believe that the Windows style operating system is a huge dead end as well as a huge drain on microsoft. I think that Apple is losing interest in their desktop OS but have a great solution in that it is based upon BSD which is developed by zillions of outsiders at a much lower cost and would make an excellent basis for a microsoft server that would be able to hold its own against all things linux.
I would think an out and out merger would be presently forbidden by anti trust types and would also be a cultural horror show. But I suspect that over time you will see a hug, then some kissing, then they might find a room somewhere…