Apple Vs MicrosoftIntroductionMicrosoft and Apple are in the electronic equipment industry, and have a NAICS code of 334111. Microsoft participates in the provision of developing and marketing software and hardware services. These products include, computers, phones, and intelligent devices. They also specialize in everyday software products such as Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Microsoft’s target market is expansive. The Microsoft Suite is aimed for anyone that can use a computer. According to Yahoo Finance, Apple is considered to be one of Microsoft’s main competitors and allies in this industry. Apple engages in the design and manufacture of cell phones, media devices and computers. Some of the products designed and manufactured by Apple includes the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple watch.They also have consumer and professional software applications under the iOS, OS, and X brands. However, Apple also implements many of Microsoft’s software like Word and Excel in their products. Apple’s target market is very broad. They make their products for people of all ages that are consumer involved with simple innovative technology.
As a business, not only is Apple Inc. (AAPL) significantly bigger than Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), but also has been growing at a fast pace. However, looking into investment opportunities, Microsoft has been outstanding. While the forecasts mention increase in growth for Microsoft Corporation over the next few years as indicated below, Apple Inc. is forecasted to decrease in earnings of growth, because of the fall in sales the company had recently experienced as shown in its September Balance Sheet. This decline as mentioned by Mozur & Perlez in 2016, growth in the smartphone market is reaching its limit and China is not enough to maintain Apple Inc.’s growth.While Apple Inc. reported to be one of the most profitable companies in the United States, the market is slowing down and so is growth. Many economies around the globe are facing symptoms of a recession. The U.S. dollar’s strength is contributing to fall in revenue for US-based organizations, such as Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corporation.
Current NewsWe decided to choose Apple and Microsoft because they are two big companies in the electronic equipment/business software industry. An article on Zacks states that Apple has a grade ‘A’ for value and growth. Although Apple did not have a desirable last half of 2015, Zacks states that Apple is predicted to heavily grow in next upcoming years in many different areas. First of all, Apple increased to 16.2% in 2015 from 14.8% in 2014. Not only that, but in the smartphone market Apple is also catering to cost conscious customers by introducing the iPhone SE. Apart from the iPhone, Zacks states that Apple is introducing and growing in their different products such as Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Homekit, Healthkit, Apple TV,
iTunes Store, iBooks/iPad and most of the other popular Apple products, which is not surprising. Zacks states Apple is also selling its own branded music streaming app, Apple Music App, Apple Music 2.0, Apple Store, Apple Music 3.0, Apple Health and other products with various other apps and apps such as iTunes Pro, Apple Music Pass, Apple Music & Siri, Apple Movies, Siri TV, and others. Apple also have the ability to develop and build their own hardware based on a single architecture so that each of these can be designed with their own requirements in mind. However Zacks also states that a company like Apple would not be able to make these kind of decisions at a low risk of a crash. But they were able to make it happen at a high cost so that the price of a product could not be raised too much with no impact on their customers.
The results of our study revealed the following:
1) Apple’s products have a high probability of having a high margin. 2) the highest percentage of sales in their products is generated during a particular time frame with the largest percentage being generated during a very short time frame (e.g. a few hours to 10 minutes).
3) Apple Stores, in the United States were ranked as the worst store in the world for value (e.g., by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), the highest percentage was in the UK where the average consumer spent £25 in 2014 and a staggering number of retailers in the UK were selling products priced so low that they could not afford their retail stores anymore.
Apple has become a very wealthy company in terms of financial and financial terms. The company has made over $1 billion in profits per year and will make $1 billion of profit in the next 20 years despite the fact that in 2016 their earnings are actually on the decline. For comparison, Apple is about to make £846,000 in 2016.
For the past ten years Apple has been using it’s profit margin to increase their valuation. Because Apple is a company that sells and sells products that are highly expensive and often don’t sell at all, and because when a company does sell its product for a cost, it buys it and makes profit, the fact that the profit margin (the percentage increase) is so high proves that there is some kind of price structure inside or outside the company. However when there is an increasing percentage of their sales made from the cost of product or services, it creates an increase in their total revenues resulting in more revenue per share making them an attractive company.
When they can also increase their value within the company and they are able to generate more profit, their business is successful. So when a company can make huge profit with relatively short periods on a large scale in the future, it increases their return as business