Apple and Microsoft Developers Conferences Exhibit Companies’ Strengths, Weaknesses
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Apple and Microsoft Developers Conferences Exhibit Companies’ Strengths, Weaknesses
During the last few weeks we’ve had two developers conferences. First, there was Microsoft Build, and last week was Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). You’d think both events would be similar and focused on developers.
If you watch Satya Nadella’s keynote at Build, you’ll see a textbook example of how to do a developers conference keynote. He focuses on problems developers have, positions Microsoft’s solutions for those problems, and promotes sessions at the event that developers should attend. In contrast, Tim Cook spent only four minutes of a near two-hour keynote on developers. The rest of that keynote is a long ad for Apple’s products.
Don’t get me wrong, the advances in the Apple Watch alone were interesting, but for the most part, had nothing to do with developers. Apple traded off its developer focus to instead convince us to get excited about buying its new stuff. All in all, it was relatively inexpensive (if you don’t take into account the collateral damage of not doing the keynote properly), long, and reasonably well-done commercially.
I think both approaches to the developers’ conferences showcase the strengths and weaknesses of the two companies, so I figured it would be fun to talk about those differences this week. We’ll close with my product of the week, a new Thunderbolt Dock from HP that could be ideal for those who have an Intel laptop and are splitting work between home or travel and the office.
Form Over Function vs. Function Over Form
Apple mostly sells to end users and is highly vertically integrated, demonstrating what is arguably the best example of the model that existed and was championed by IBM back when it was formed. But like IBM did at the time, Apple has forgotten the one critical rule of the lock-in model which is “don’t take your customers for granted.”
However, unlike the corporate audience IBM sells to, which is generally forced to justify decisions financially, Apple sells to consumers who are more than willing to pay extra for non-tangible benefits like status. Apple still delivers status, and its lock-in model makes it incredibly difficult for an Apple customer to switch platforms. The other difference between old IBM and today’s Apple is that Apple has always been a form-over-function company.