Microsoft will “leave no stone unturned” in the competition with Apple. The corporation intends to compete in every segment of the market where the “apple” company is present. This was stated in an interview with CRN by Steve Ballmer, chief executive Officer of Microsoft.
In the fall, companies will face off not only in the “tablet” market. Later this month, the Mac OS X (Mountain Lion) operating system will be released, and in October, Windows 8 will debut after it. Moreover, by September-October, Apple’s iOS 6 mobile platform is expected to be released, which may appear simultaneously with Microsoft Windows Phone 8.
“We want to make it absolutely clear to you that we are not going to leave any area in which Apple is present,” Ballmer said. “I mean both consumer cloud technologies and innovations in the field of hardware and software.”
According to IDC, Apple currently owns approximately 60% of the global tablet market in quantitative terms (Microsoft – only a few percent) and about a quarter of the global smartphone market (against Microsoft’s several percent again). “Now we have thrown all our strength on the Microsoft Surface tablet. We’ll see what happens. As for the phone market, we have good partners in this area, including Nokia and HTC,” Ballmer comments.
It is worth noting that Microsoft and Apple are not only competitors, but also partners. Based on mutual benefit, Microsoft regularly releases new versions of the Office suite for Mac, and Apple consistently supports the Windows platform in its new products.