Apple, Microsoft Will Team Up Again -- and Compete
By: Jamie Corsi
Technology rivals Bill Gates and Steve Jobs shared the stage Wednesday night, at the annual tech conference run by The Wall Street Journal. On “Squawk on the Street,” Harry Blount, IT hardware & storage network analyst at Lehman Brothers, discussed how far Jobs' Apple can go and the future of its relationship with Gates' Microsoft.
Blount believes that the two companies are heading in directions that will collide again. “Cleary Microsoft is much stronger in the enterprise space and Apple has really carved out a strong niche in the digital space. But, I find it interesting that Microsoft is increasingly becoming a hardware company,” said Blount.
Apple’s stock is at a 52-week high and is up nearly 42% for the year. “If you take a look at Apple’s recent market share data, they’ve started to gain some share back in the enterprise market. So, I do think that these two companies will collaborate at some levels but also be very competitive in a lot of other respects,” said Blount.
Apple is continuing to gain a lot of market share in the PC space. It is up nearly 36% year-over-year in the last quarter, which is nearly triple the industry average.
