Who are the competitors Microsoft company?

Answer 1

According to CEO Steve Ballmer Microsoft's main competitors are:

• Google
• Apple
• Oracle
• VMware
• open source (Linux, Firefox)

So let's take a look at why each of those companies is a main competitor:

Google

This is the big kahuna. Google is a serious threat because not only does it have its hand in multiple markets, it has the ability to jump in and quickly grab significant market share.

Web search/online advertising is one thing Google dominates, and Bing (soon to be paired with Yahoo) is scraping away at its market share. But Bing is not, despite what Ballmer may hope, one of Microsoft's biggest products. At least it's not making much, if any, money.

Gmail went public only about three years ago, but already it's the third-largest webmail service behind Hotmail and Yahoo. Google Apps is up-and-coming, having won a few key contracts in the enterprise market. Microsoft's release of Office Web Apps shows the company is worried about Google, which is touting apps as an easy-to-use-from-anywhere service with an easier and less expensive business model.

Android has accomplished a heckuva feat, jumping from nearly no market share a year ago to being the platform of choice for about 10 percent of new smart phones sold. Chrome has been consistently eating away at internet Explorer since its launch nearly two years ago. And with App Engine, Google has been making a push in the cloud-platform space to which Microsoft, with Windows Azure, just showed up this winter.

And then there's Chrome OS, the browser-based operating system that Google is expected to launch by late autumn. It's unknown how successful the novel idea will be, especially with the incoming tablet market, but considering Google's success in other sectors it could very well grab netbooks away from Windows.

AppleThe company, which was nearly dead 10 years ago, has surged back to pass up Microsoft in market capitalization. And Apple did it with consumers.

When you're talking competition between Microsoft and Apple, you're mainly talking about hand-held devices. Windows is still on more than 90 percent of computers and Safari, Apple's Web browser, essentially has the same market share as Macintosh computers - though that line is now being blurred.

Because the iPhone has turned into, well, the iPhone. It's a sensation. Apple is leading the charge for mobile computing. And as Google can attest, there's plenty of room in the market to capitalize. Microsoft, for its part, has not been able to do that lately. As Apple and Android surge in popularity, Windows Mobile hemorrhages market share. Microsoft must deliver a knock-out hit with Windows Phone 7 this holiday season.

And then there's the iPad - don't even get me started on tablets. Apple has succeeded where others, namely Microsoft, tried 10 years ago. Apple has opened the door for a potentially huge new market, but Microsoft must step it up if it wants Windows on the hottest slates.

Oracle

Ah, enterprise software. Microsoft is a household - or perhaps, officehold? - name in the sector. But so is Oracle.

And so was, as it happens, Sun Microsystems - which Oracle bought last year. Now Oracle offers not just software, but an entire line of hardware, as well. Oracle's new slogan, "Software. Hardware. Complete.," highlights for the enterprise sector the same reason Apple's products have dominated the consumer business: hardware plus software, built by the same company, working elegantly together as a package.

Of course, Microsoft doesn't produce hardware. (Well, nothing significant - mice and keyboards and webcams don't count.) Its enterprise products - Windows Server, SQL Server, Office - are well known in the sector, and so is Microsoft's competition there with Oracle. Java, Linux/Solaris, Siebel CRM, MySQL, Open Office, virtualization? Yeah, Oracle is a main competitor, for sure.

VMware

And here's where things get interesting. VMware represents the future of Microsoft's enterprise competition: virtualization and cloud computing. Microsoft, arguably late to the game, launched its Windows Azure cloud platform just this past winter. VMware, with vCloud, has already found its place in the sector.

But Microsoft has the legacy - it's Windows and .NET programming languages - to immediately make a splash. Besides, the Redmond company has already offered cloud solutions for some time, just not with the metered payment model of a platform/infrastructure like Windows Azure.

Virtualization has changed enterprise computing by reducing the number of physical servers a company or data center needs. And virtualization is VMware's bread and butter. With Hyper-V, Microsoft could take a chunk out of VMware's ESX.

As cloud computing becomes more the norm for the enterprise, we'll see how the market shakes down. Because in that sector, VMware's not by far the only company Microsoft must think about. How about Salesforce, Amazon, Google, Rackspace, GoGrid and Oracle?

Answer 2

Well, this must be one of the better Apple Inc questions. In recent years, it could be argued that most PC manufacturers were rivals to Apple, like Dell, Alienware, Gateway etc. but of course you can also factor in Microsoft as a rival to their Operating System (OS X/XP). But in recent years they have branched out considerably, into online media (iTunes, MobileMe, iPhone) so you can factor in Napster and other legal music download sites, Hotmail and Gmail, and Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry and alike. Also, they rival in the server markets with HP, Sun, SGI and IBM with regards to High Performance Computing, Webserving, Centralised storage (which also brings further rivals like Brocade and Sanrad). There's also networking, the Airport lines now rival Cisco, Netgear and alike. So, they now have a very diverse range of products, and there are many rivals that are fighting with Apple in those markets.

Answer 3

Google has so many different business interests you have to specify which one you're asking about. If you're asking about their original entry into the commercial world it would be the search engine. Bing and Yahoo are Google's main search engine competitors.

Answer 4

Apple has a number of competitors. These include Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry, as well as Palm. In addition, there are many computer brands that are competitors of Apple.

Answer 5

Its main competitors are Apple and Linux.

Answer 6

Bing, Ask, and yahoo.

Answer 7

Facebook and even google.