Microsoft CMO Says Rivalry With Apple Is a Thing of the Past
*By Alisha Haridasani*
The eternal rivalry between Microsoft and Apple may actually be over, said Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Chris Capossela.
“We’ve moved away from that competitive focus that I think we’ve had in the past,” said Capossela. “We need to bring our products on the platforms that our customers are using. So Office on the iPad or iPhone, Minecraft on every platform, that’s just a natural thing for us to do.”
In an interview Wednesday with Cheddar, Capossela said the traditional tech rivalries don't make much sense any more, and he cited the example of another competitor, Google, which uses Microsoft’s VS code developer tool. “The high tech industry is full of these paradoxes,” he said.
Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, and Microsoft's longtime leader Bill Gates had a love-hate relationship for years during which they sometimes helped each other while also trying to outdo the other. In 1994, Apple sued Microsoft for copyright infringement, putting the two companies at loggerheads. Three years later, Gates stepped in to help save Apple from the brink of bankruptcy.
Caposella said that Microsoft's current CEO, Satya Nadella, has presided over a cultural shift that reflects a more self-aware approach, focusing on what Microsoft does for "our own fans," not obsessively trying to best Apple or others by competing for the same users.
The company differentiates itself from competitors by marketing itself as the company for professionals.
“Millennials tell us that when they think of ‘adulting,’ they think of Microsoft and we love that,” said Capossela. The approach has helped Miscrosoft grow after years of stagnation, he said.
Microsoft was scheduled to release its earnings report on Thursday, and Wall Street was expecting continued revenue growth driven mostly by software, including Office 365 and Azure.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/marketing-microsoft).
The leading gaming organization and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves just raised $60 million in new funding closing its Series C. This new round of funding has raised the valuation of the organization to about $460 million. John Robinson, president and COO of 100 Thieves, joins Cheddar News to talk about what's next for the company.
Online platform Assemble is looking to provide career instruction and inspiration to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) of all age groups for access to industries they might not have been privy to prior. Actor, activist, and one of Assemble's three co-founders, Jesse Williams, and CEO Cortney Woodruff joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" to discuss the Assemble mission and what people can expect from the program. "There's a lot of jobs that folks don't know even exist in the first place, and what we know is that there are incredible innovators at the peak of their field that are Black and brown – in every single field," Williams noted.
Payoneer CEO Scott Galit joined Wake Up With Cheddar to talk about the company's partnership with Walmart to provide working capital to retailers on Walmart's marketplace.
Between uncertainty over the Omicron variant, and the possibility of a sooner-than-expected taper from the Fed, it was an especially volatile week for the markets. The release of the November jobs report on Friday, with job growth coming in way lower than estimates also caused movement on the market. Frances Stacy, Director of Strategy at Optimal Capital explains why all of this, combined with Bitcoin’s huge drop over the weekend, could make for another rough week for investors.
Ahead of Instagram head Adam Mosseri's congressional hearing on the mental impact of the social platform on teens, the company announced a number of updates aimed at teen safety.
Developers for the video game "Call of Duty: Warzone" staged a walkout in protest of 12 quality assurance testers being laid off by parent company Activision Blizzard. This marks the latest work stoppage for the embattled game publishing giant.
Earlier this year, JetBlue flew its inaugural flight into the United Kingdom. It was a game changer — not only did the airline enter the transatlantic market, but the plane that completed the flight was a single-aisle jet. For decades, flying the distance was synonymous with jumbo jets, but today narrow-body aircraft are now proving they are up for the task — and maybe even the best option. In this episode, Cheddar examines why airlines are betting on narrow-body aircraft.
2022 is just around the corner and one of the world's most famous trendspotters says that there is a wide-ranging mix of trends coming up in the new year that could impact businesses, culture, and our society at large.
Trendspotter and cultural zeitgeist analyst Marian Salzman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Spotify has just officially released its 2021 'Wrapped'. For the past few years, the streaming giant has been presenting customers with their listening habits from the prior year, including favorite artists, most listened to the genre, podcasts, songs you name it. However, critics say this method just shows how apps can collect our data. CEO of Prevailion Karim Hijazi, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Recent internal documents obtained by the New York Times reveal how exactly TikTok's algorithm works. The report highlights how the app is mainly focused on retaining two metrics which are retention and time spent. In addition, the document titled, "TikTok Algo 101" details how the algorithm understands human nature from when we get bored to our sensitivity and culture ques. It means the app monitors will kind of videos you like. Professor of Computer Science at the University of California in San Diego Julian McCauley, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
