A key difference between Apple and Microsoft

Michael Gartenberg | February 10, 2006, 02:09 PM

Way back when, I used to work in technical architecture and support at a Fortune 10 company. We were unusual since we were a pretty big Apple shop, something you didn't see a lot of in business and certainly not in a company our size. Apple in the mid 90s had no idea how to deal with a customer like myself. They never quite understood that I could by 1,000 high end Quadra 800s with a stroke of my pen as easily as a single consumer bought a color Classic or Performa. In fact, they treated me pretty much the same way. Dealing with Microsoft was totally different. They understood the business market well and made it easy for folks like me to deal with them. In the 21st century, the battle lines are different and the next big battle isn't for the boardroom but the living room. Machines there are bought one at a time. Apple knows how to sell to the consumer. Microsoft, , knows how to sell to business who buy a thousand PCs at a time. They don't yet know how to sell to a consumer who buys one at a time.