The Difference Between Apple and Microsoft
Posted on November 9, 2006
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In his latest Wall Street Journal article ‘Microsoft’s Zune Challenges iPod’ Walt Mossberg compares the iPod to Microsoft’s soon-to-be-offered audio player, the Zune. About 1/3 of the way down Mossberg hits square on the head the difference between Apple and Microsoft and, I think, the reason Apple has such fanatical customer loyalty and respect while Microsoft is generally the recipient of derision and scorn:
Even worse, to buy even a single 99-cent song from the Zune store, you have to purchase blocks of “points” from Microsoft, in increments of at least $5. You can’t just click and have the 99 cents deducted from a credit card, as you can with iTunes. You must first add points to your account, then buy songs with these points. So, even if you are buying only one song, you have to allow Microsoft, one of the world’s richest companies, to hold on to at least $4.01 of your money until you buy another. And the point system is deceptive. Songs are priced at 79 points, which some people might think means 79 cents. But 79 points actually cost 99 cents.
Right there, that last sentence: I think it all comes down to our feeling that the respect is not reciprocal, that deception is part and parcel for Microsoft whereas with Apple what you see is what you get: see a song priced for $0.99, pay $0.99.
Microsoft really does treat it’s users like idiots, but likely not entirely on purpose within the company as a whole. I have no doubt that large parts of that are driven from within the marketing departments. I can practically hear the conversation now:
Marketoid 1: “We can’t charge more than Apple but we also can’t charge less or the studios will never license to us. We can’t charge the same or everyone will just use Apple… what do we do?”
Marketoid 2: “Let’s charge the same but… I know, let’s not sell for money, we’ll sell for points and charge less points. It’ll work out the same for us but everyone will think we’re less!”
Marketoid 1: “Brilliant! And because they’re points we can get them to buy blocks for more money that most people will probably never use. I learned this in Marketoid 101, the gift certificate phenomenon.”
Marketoid 2: “Brilliant!”
At Apple I imagine the conversation going something like this:
Marketoid 1: “Our research shows that $1.25 is the most people will pay for digital music with x percent paying at that, diminishing returns resulting from increasing…”
Steve Jobs: “99 cents.”
Marketoid 2: “99 cents it is and we could then…”
Steve Jobs: “99 cents.”
Marketoids: “99 cents.”
Steve Jobs: “This click wheel needs more click. Where’s Ives?”
Microsoft can’t win as long as they’re making things more complicated and then using jargon and marketing speak to try and con people into thinking the opposite. Maybe people aren’t smart, maybe people really are as gullible as Microsoft seems to be hoping, maybe people take the Microsoft path just because it’s the one they’ve always taken, and likely Microsoft will make money from that.
But people have a pretty good sense about when we’re being conned in some way, even if we can’t put our finger on it, and there simmers the resentment. Until Microsoft stops trying to pull fast ones on it’s users, until Microsoft starts giving its users the respect we deserve as users, they’ll always be second rate to Apple.
Update: David Pogue at the New York Times has another review of the Zune in Trying Out the Zune that also provides examples that elucidate my point, for instance:
So now Microsoft is starting over. Never mind all the poor slobs who bought big PlaysForSure music collections. Never mind the PlaysForSure companies who now find themselves competing with their former leader. Their reward for buying into Microsoft’s original vision? A great big “So long, suckas!”
Quite frankly introducing a fee-based service that sells DRM-locked media to people and then leaving them in the cold when it gets inconvenient is a prime example of Microsoft’s abject distain for its users. And for those Linux/Mac users gloating right now, saying “it’s their own damned fault for using M$”, get over yourselves. Remember Tivo?
Pogue also points out:
To make matters worse, you can’t use Windows Media Player to load the Zune with music; you have to install a similar but less powerful Windows program just for the Zune. It’s a ridiculous duplication of effort by Microsoft, and a double learning curve for you.
which speaks directly to the “make it easy for people”. Or in Microsoft-parlance: “screw you, do it our way”. As cliched and tedious as this refrain is becoming, that my iPod just plugs into my Mac, interfaces with iTunes and updates my music with one click is exactly how it should be. Everywhere, for everyone, regardless of platform.
If you bought PlaysForSure I feel sorry for you, you got played by Microsoft. If you buy the Zune you’ll have done it to your own self.
(And if you’re the sort that’ll buy a Zune to spite Apple and the iPod - and you’re out there, you know who you are, posting on /. and raging in your basement - put the rifle down, go outside and take a walk. They’re MP3 players, not religions.)
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Have you heard they fired the “Mac guy” from the Mac vs. PC commercials? They say the “PC guy” will continue to be featured in the spots — alone.
Me, confused.
I had indeed and it doesn’t really surprise me all that much. John Hodgeman (PC guy) is genuinely funny and entertaining to watch whereas Mac became a bit of the thing PC users have always derided Mac users for being. As TechRepublic wrote: “the now old Mac Guy was too smug and resembled the typical Mac fanboy crowd that everyone hates….Most of the polls showed that the public actually liked the PC Guy better and felt bad for him for having to put up with the Mac Guy.”
I’d have to agree with that. PC people already have enough difficulties to put up with, us Mac people shouldn’t be making it harder for them