Microsoft is a better company than Apple

I'll provide my positive case this round then rebut next round.We're comparing superior products between Apple and Microsoft only in markets that they're participating in. We wouldn't compare brand X that makes toasters and refrigerators to brand Y that only makes toasters and consider the brand that only makes toasters inferior just because they aren't in the refrigerator market. We're comparing two brands with each other to see who makes superior consumer products. The only way to make a fair comparison is to see which product is better in whatever market that they're participating in. If Apple doesn't make laptops for gaming, gaming laptops aren't a factor of comparison. Reasons why Apple makes superior consumer products.ValueThe cost that you pay up front is the acquisition cost. The true cost of owning the computer is the residual value - acquisition cost. The difference really tells you what your computer costs to own. Macs retain much higher residual value in comparison to a Windows PC which more than makes up for the difference in the higher acquisition cost. Since Macs have a higher residual value - acquisition cost than windows computers do, Macs are the better value. Let’s compare today’s value of a 2011 Macbook with a 2011 windows computer on Amazon. Amazon is the largest internet based retailer in the US and has extremely competitive rates on prices. A Macbook Pro from 2011, a 4 year old computer, was $1,199 upon release and currently sells for $499 used from Amazon. If you were to sell the computer today, $499 would be the amount you could get by selling it to a private party. Amazon will give you a $424 giftcard to trade it in. Compare this with a windows $1,199 ZenBook UX21E, CNET’s “best laptop of 2011”, which doesn’t sell used on Amazon anymore. It's likely that there is very little to no demand for this product anymore so selling to a private party would be very difficult. Amazon offers a $256 giftcard if you trade it in.Amazon offers 60% more trade in value for the Macbook Pro. It's the same story, time after time, regardless of what Microsoft laptop is pitted against an Apple one. It’s well known that Macbooks and other Apple products retain much higher resale values than Windows computers or other brands in general. As such, they retain a higher value.Consumer reviewsLaptopsWhat better way to evaluate a superior consumer product than to hear from the consumers themselves? I'll use Amazon again because of the large sample size of consumer reviews. These are comparable laptops.2011Windows: CNET's "best laptop of 2011" Asus Zenbook UX21 ($1,199) has 3.1/5 stars on Amazon with 29 customer reviews. http://www.cnet.com...http://www.amazon.com...Apple: The Macbook Pro 2011 model ($1,199) has 4.5/5 stars on Amazon with 455 customer reviews.2012:Apple: The Macbook air mid-2012 model ($1,199) has 4.4/5 stars on Amazon with 415 customer reviews.Windows: The Samsung Series 9 ($1,400) , one of Gizmodo's best windows laptops of 2012, has 3.8/5 stars on Amazon with 77 customer reviews.http://www.amazon.com...2013:Apple: Macbook air mid-2013 model ($1,099) has 4.4/5 stars on Amazon with 264 customer reviews.Windows: Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A ($1,199), 2nd place (to Apple) on pcmag's best ultraportables of 2013, has 3.9/5 stars on Amazon with 37 customer reviews.2014-2015:Windows: The Dell XPS13 ($1,199) 2015 model is currently regarded by professional reviewers as one of the best windows ultraportable laptops and has 3.8/5 stars on Amazon with 77 customer reviews. Apple: The Apple Macbook Pro ($1,299) 2015 model has 4.6/5 stars on Amazon with 89 customer reviews.Year after year, Apple laptops consistently score higher with consumers vs. windows laptops. The whole crux of this debate is on whether Apple or Windows makes better *consumer products* so this is a very big win in my corner because the consumers are the best ones to ask.Now, you might think that I've selectively chosen low consumer scoring but high professionally scoring windows laptops to match up against Apple laptops to prove my point. I haven't done this. It's way, way too time consuming to even find comparably priced Windows laptops (by year) to pit against Apples - mainly because windows computers have many different versions of their laptops without changing the product name so I have to do my research and make sure I'm looking at the correct year version. Go ahead and pit different windows computers against Apples and see how the consumers review it. Apple consistently scores higher with the consumers. Best Laptop BrandLaptopMag.com rates brands from best to worst by examining "all the biggest notebook makers each year, taking a hard look at laptop quality, technical support, value and selection, and other criteria". Apple has won 1st place from 2011-2015 beating out Windows OS computers Dell, HP, MSI, Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, Toshiba, and Acer year after year.http://blog.laptopmag.com...According to another review website it's the same story with no close second.http://www.rankingthebrands.com...;Smart Phones Apple IOS iPhones have dominated Windows in the smartphone market. Just googling "best smartphone 2015" will show a plethora of current Android and Apple IOS devices but windows phones are nowhere to be found. CNET doesn't have any windows phones considered the best of 2015 whereas the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus are both listed. "http://www.cnet.com...Techradar made a list of the 10 best smartphones in the US and none of those phones listed used the Windows OS. The Apple iPhone 6 and 6 plus made the list.http://www.techradar.com...From 2012-2015 marketshare for Windows smartphones has fluctated between 2.0-3.2% whereas marketshare for Apple in the smartphone market has been between 15.2-22.9%. In comparison between Apple and Microsoft, Apple has larger demand from consumers. This is correlated with having a superior consumer product.http://www.idc.com...TabletsApple scores higher with professional reviewers as well as consumers in the tablet market vs. windows OS tablets as well. 2015PCMAG rates Apple iPad Air 1st, Apple iPad Air 2 2nd, and the Asus Transformer book (using Windows OS) 3rd.http://www.pcmag.com...The Asus Transformer book has a 3.7/5 on Amazon with 274 customer reviews.The Apple iPad Air has 4.6/5 stars on Amazon with 2,614 customer reviews. The Apple iPad Air 2 has 4.7/5 stars with 1,462 customer reviews. It's the same story, year after year, since the tablet market has ever existed. Apple's ratings consistently outperform Microsoft both professionally and at the consumer level. Apple OS vs Windows OSIn comparison to Windows OS, IOS is better because it has:- More streamlined and intuitive UI- IOS has a lack of viruses, spyware, and malware in comparison to Windows PC's- iCloud syncs all of your devices and gives you an extra storage option.- Microsoft uses their software with third-party brands making customer service issues more difficult. Apple doesn't.- Apple makes upgrading to a different version of IOS easier than Windows make its users upgrading to a different version of their OS.- Wndows can run on a Mac anyway using third party programs.https://www.powermax.com...Brand LoyaltyApple and Samsung are neck in neck in brand loyalty, Apple winning last year but lagging slightly behind Samsung this year. Microsoft's brand loyalty was so bad this year that it deserved a dishonorable mention."SurveyMonkey likes to define industry benchmarks to help companies and human beings judge where brands stand. Samsung scored a 35 for customer loyalty, while Apple managed a 28. Both scores were above the industry benchmark of 19. Where Apple did better, however, was in customer service satisfaction. There, it scored a 41 percent positive rating, while Samsung managed only 25. Both companies may still have much to do. The industry benchmark for customer service satisfaction is 75 percent. ...One brand that doesn't come out of it at all well is Microsoft. For customer loyalty it scored a staggeringly hellish -8. That's the sort of score you might expect from Comcast and Time Warner . . . Microsoft fared slightly better in customer service satisfaction. It managed a 19 percent score there."http://www.cnet.com... Music playersApple and Microsoft competed in the portable music player industry until 2011 when Microsoft's Zune brand was killed off by the iPod touch. "[The Zune HD] ran apps—but since Microsoft had no overall mobile strategy, there were no apps. And it had a browser, but since Microsoft had no overall mobile strategy, it was a lame browser. It was an evolutionary dead end. And it had to die. The iPod touch, on the other hand, is part of a coherent, well-connected ecosystem. It runs the same OS as the iPhone; later, the iPad joined the crowd. Apple's commitment to iOS has never been questioned. the iPod touch is a device in which people can have faith."http://www.pcmag.com... "The general opinion is that Microsoft did all right, but maybe not quite enough to counter Apple's dominant grip on the MP3 player market."http://electronics.howstuffworks.com... In conclusion, Apple basically dominates Microsoft at the consumer product level in every market that they participate in. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, music players... It's not even close. Year after year, product after product, Apple has shown to make superior consumer products according to professionals and consumers themselves.