Apple (AAPL) recently announced its quarterly earnings reports for Q2 of 2017. As a business focussed person, my eyes were looking at their performance indicators and I found something rather interesting. Their ‘Services‘ business has been witnessing steady growth in the last year or so. Although I know there is more to the services business of Apple’s, I wonder if part of it is also marketing related services Apple is offering Microsoft towards rebranding Microsoft’s Surface line of devices. Given Microsoft’s history with backing Apple during its rough times. Microsoft had invested in Apple way back in 1997 (a deal of $150 million in non-voting shares), which if Microsoft had held until date, would have been worth approximately $5.32B and a whopping $21.86B back in 2014.
Enough of the boring numbers! Let’s get to the fun and interesting part of what this post is all about. As noted above, Apple’s ‘Services’ business has grown significantly in the last year and it coincides with the time around which Microsoft has been improving its marketing efforts. Makes me wonder if these two are in bed with each other, again! Is Apple helping Microsoft with its design services and charging them for it? Now, where did I get this impression from? I’m certainly not pulling one out of my ————–
ears! “I know what you were thinking there, dirty minds! Hahahahahah!”
Anyways, the reason I even began thinking on those lines is because I watched Microsoft’s new ‘Windows Surface‘ commercial and it struck me that there are so many similarities between this commercial and many of Apple’s iconic ‘MacBook Pro’ commercials in the past. Here is a collage of snapshots from their commercials. For convenience, I have noted in the caption of each image to indicate which image was from Apple’s ‘MacBook Pro’ and which ones are from Microsoft’s ‘Windows Surface’.
I would like you to be the judge and tell me if I’m even remotely justified in assuming this possibility. Having said this, I have to note that Microsoft has been improving its product portfolio, both hardware and software in the recent past. Its Surface line of devices has captured a lot of people’s imagination as a turnaround in Microsoft’s design thinking, starkly different from what they used to be known for, for the longest time.
Disclaimer: Everything mentioned and written in this blog post is a work of fiction and not to be construed as factual or representative of the above-mentioned brands or their parent companies. It is written purely for entertainment purposes and not with the intent to harm or belittle a brand or company.
The Gadget Obsessed! 