rocketpig said:
It's hard to compare Apple to Nintendo anymore. Seven years ago? Maybe. But now they have profitable divisions in their Mac line, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes Store, and now they're going after school textbooks. Within the year, they're going to start pursuing the smart television market. That is beginning to turn into a pretty well-rounded set of offerings. Microsoft is definitely more diverse but much of that diversity struggles to earn them any money and a few divisions are giant moneypits. Their "real" money comes from Windows and Office with the Xbox line starting to come around. They're in more danger over the next ten years than Apple. Microsoft's main money makers (outside of Xbox) aren't only saturated, they're in decline. And they will face real competition from iOS/Android over the next few years. In short, if people stop buying computers and start replacing them with tablets (which Microsoft has ZERO stake in at this point), Microsoft could be royally and utterly fucked. Not that I think they will, but it is a real possibility. Best case scenario is that Microsoft's core businesses will remain stable in the next decade. There is almost zero space for growth. |
Really though that's all just a big 3 things that are fairly similarly connected (Itunes essentially being an extension) are they're big three though. Nintendo has a "big two" with consoles and handhelds, it's not as different as you'd think.
I agree that Microsoft has a lot of areas where it might face shrinkage, but it should still stay big, and profitable. Just a little less big.