Top 8 Microsoft Competitors.

by Sona Avetisian · Published April 13, 2023 · Updated April 13, 2023

Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, has been one of the world’s most valuable brands for over 20 years.

The corporation also ventured into gaming with the Xbox hardware, which competes with Sony’s PlayStation. Microsoft competes in the global PC industry with other significant rivals, including Acer, Dell, and HP. It has also received several patents for its technology, supercomputer algorithms, and software development. Today, we’ll take a look at Microsoft’s top eight competitors.

Microsoft provides cutting-edge software such as MS Windows, Microsoft Office, and the Edge web browser. Skype for $8.5 billion and LinkedIn for $26.2 billion are among its most costly purchases.

Microsoft also provides cloud computing services through Azure, desktop PCs and Xbox game devices. It competes against influential brands like Google, Apple, and Amazon and newcomers such as VMware, Salesforce, and Mozilla.

Microsoft competes in three areas:

Personal computing;
Productivity and business processes;
Intelligent cloud.

Let’s move into the ultimate list of Microsoft competitors.

1. Apple

Apple is one of the most valuable technology companies in the world, offering consumer gadgets such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, and wearables. These items compete with Microsoft. Apple also creates iOS, which competes with Microsoft Windows. Apple had 137,000 employees and $274 billion in sales in 2020.

Apple and Microsoft are the only publicly traded corporations with more than $2 trillion in market capitalization. On the other hand, Apple is more valuable than Microsoft and outperforms it in the smartphone and tablet sectors. Apple devices are distinctively designed and powered by iOS, the world’s second most popular operating system behind Windows.

Microsoft competes with Apple for corporate solutions, hardware, and mobile operating systems. The battle has heated up as both companies aim to consolidate their positions in various sectors.

Apple’s iOS platform, which powers iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac devices, has increased its position in the commercial sector. The firm strives to give its consumers seamless communication across many Apple devices and continually adds new features to boost productivity.

Microsoft Windows runs on nine out of ten computers and laptops. Apple sold 194 million iPhones and 71 million iPads in 2020. Apple’s gadgets are becoming increasingly popular, making it Microsoft’s primary opponent.

2. Sony

Sony is a Japanese consumer electronics company that produces and sells smartphones and gaming consoles. The PlayStation is the company’s main competitor and alternative to Microsoft’s Xbox. Sony had approximately 114,000 workers in 2020, and sales increased by 9% to $82.5 billion. Their net income increased by 101% to $10.7 billion in the fiscal year 2020.

Sony and Microsoft are the dominant players in the gaming industry. PlayStation holds 40% of the market, making it the world’s second most popular player behind Microsoft’s Xbox.

From April to June 2021, the Japanese electronics giant sold 2.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles. In fiscal 2021, it aims to sell 14.80 million devices globally.

Microsoft will showcase the newest E3 Xbox in June 2021. Microsoft’s Game Pass membership allows gamers access to Xbox for as little as $70 for each release. It is less expensive than Sony’s offering. Yet, Sony’s PlayStation remains the finest alternative to Microsoft’s Xbox.

3. Samsung

Samsung is a leading consumer electronics manufacturer such as Computers, tablets, and smartphones. The greatest folding phones on the market are the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Microsoft’s Surface Duo. Yet, Samsung is more focused on consumer electronics than Microsoft. In 2020, Samsung’s sales were $212.3 billion, with a net income of $23.7 billion.

For decades, Microsoft and Samsung have been at odds. Microsoft sued Samsung in 2014 for failing to pay interest on $1 billion in patent fees. The South Korean tech titan will release the next Galaxy Z model in the second half of 2021.

The new Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 will include the first-ever S Pen design and cost $2,200 and $1,200, respectively. Both will be released at a lesser price than prior generations and can steal Surface Duo consumers. In the personal computing market, Samsung is a significant rival of Microsoft.

4. Mozilla

Mozilla is a technology business that creates open-source software such as web browsers, bug-tracking systems, and other Internet-related applications. It runs a non-profit organization that collaborates with a worldwide community of open-source developers.

Yet, Mozilla is also a for-profit company with over 1000 workers. It generates around $450 million in revenue every year.

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser is one of Microsoft Edge’s main rivals. Firefox had a 6% market share in the United States in June 2021, while Microsoft’s Edge had an 11.77% share—nonetheless, they are behind Chrome and Safari.

With a 12% market share, Firefox is Europe’s second most popular browser behind Chrome. Microsoft Edge has solid competition with Mozilla Firefox.

Private Browsing mode in Firefox instantly deletes browsing information such as passwords, cookies, and history when you stop the session, leaving no trace. On the other hand, Edge records surfing data in its privileged mode (dubbed “InPrivate”), and it’s a reasonably straightforward process for someone to reconstruct your whole browsing history, regardless of whether you browsed in regular or InPrivate mode.

In terms of data encryption, both browsers are about equivalent. If online privacy and openness are crucial, Firefox is the best option.

5. Amazon

With their various products, Microsoft and Amazon compete in the Cloud market. Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) need help to preserve their supremacy in this market. Through strategic collaborations with technological behemoths, both organizations have made enormous expenditures to improve their services’ capabilities, durability, and functionality.

According to Statista, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft have 31 per cent and 22 per cent of the Cloud Infrastructure Service market, respectively, as of 2021. Given this degree of competitiveness, the sector faces an increased danger of pricing pressure.

Because of its enormous client base and inexpensive rates, Amazon Web Services (AWS) poses a challenge to Microsoft in the cloud services sector. With its infrastructure as a service offering, Amazon has made it simple for businesses to establish secure hybrid clouds.

On the other hand, Microsoft invests extensively in R&D to guarantee that its Azure cloud infrastructure is highly secure and dependable. It allows them to charge more than AWS for identical service offers. But, with Amazon boosting its efforts in the security market, Microsoft may face pricing pressure in the future.

6. Google

Google is the industry leader in Internet services. Google has developed and expanded for almost 25 years to become one of the most iconic technology corporations of the twenty-first century. Google employed around 119,000 workers in 2020 and earned $160.7 billion in sales.

Google is a formidable rival to Microsoft in the enterprise solutions market. Like Office 365, Google offers its G Suite platform, which includes programs such as Gmail, Docs, and Drive.

It also offers business solutions such as Cloud Platform, which includes a variety of additional services such as Google BigQuery, Data Studio, and so on, as well as an enterprise-level cloud infrastructure. Google is also aggressively pushing Chromebooks, which might offer a long-term challenge to Microsoft’s Windows platform.

Google markets chrome as a desktop operating system alternative to Microsoft Windows. The OS combines features such as a cloud-based system for storing data and apps and emerging Web standards such as HTML5, giving it a distinct market position.

Google has a diverse portfolio and competes with Microsoft in all areas. It is the most used search engine, closely followed by Microsoft Bing. Google Chrome competes with Microsoft Edge, GCP competes with Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft 365 competes with Google Workspace.

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 provide many apps and functionality, but Google’s solution is less expensive. Google Workspace subscriptions range in price from $6 to $18 per user per month, whereas Microsoft 365 plans range from $5 to $57 per person per month.

7. IBM.

IBM is one of the world’s oldest software developers. In 1980, IMB used Microsoft’s operating system to power one of its first personal computers. Since then, the two firms’ histories have become inextricably linked. IBM had about 350,000 workers and $73.6 billion in sales in 2020. Nonetheless, its income has been decreasing over the last three years.

IBM is a global leader in enterprise cloud computing and has taken a hybrid approach to data services. The firm intends to distribute its products via various channels, including cloud-based offers, on-premise solutions, and hybrid cloud platforms.

Its products range from analytics, big data, and business intelligence to mobile, cloud, cybersecurity, the internet of things (IoT), and social media analytics. IBM services are available in various industries, including retail, finance, healthcare, and government institutions.

Because of its Cognitive Services offering, database, and business intelligence technologies, Microsoft sees IBM as a rival in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.

Microsoft believes that its Azure platform meets the demands of organizations better than IBM. It has a significant worldwide market owing to cheap pricing, flexible deployment choices, and availability in more than 170 countries.

IBM, like Microsoft, went from software creation to business consulting and IT service providers. It offers enterprise-level process automation, data recovery, networking, and digital transformation solutions.

IBM now serves 47 of the Big 50 corporations. The IT behemoth also provides cloud services but accounts for less than 2% of the IaaS public cloud market. IBM is the most experienced Microsoft opponent, having been in the industry for almost a century.

8. Cisco

Cisco is a technology firm that creates and sells networking, telecommunications gear, and software. It also offers IT services and solutions to assist businesses in streamlining their operations and increasing efficiency.

Cisco manufactures and sells networking hardware, telecommunications equipment, and other technology-related goods and services. They operate with massive items like analytics, automation software, networking and infrastructure software, servers, switches, and so on. They also provide solutions for the cloud, data centres, the Internet of Things, mobility, and network architecture.

The corporation employs 76,000 people or over half of Microsoft’s workforce. Cisco’s revenue for the fiscal year 2020 was $49.3 billion, with a net income of $11.21 billion.

Cisco’s business software offerings include automation, analytics, and security solutions. They overlap and compete with Microsoft’s Office and business cloud-based solutions. Software subscriptions made for 81% of Cisco’s overall software revenue in the first half of 2021.

Cisco is one of the industry’s major software vendors, with an ARR of more than $14 billion. In addition, the IT behemoth intends to purchase Sedona Systems and Socio Labs in 2021 to boost Webex Events. These acquisitions will provide Cisco with a competitive advantage against Microsoft.

Microsoft has distinguished itself from its competition by giving its clients low pricing and flexible deployment choices in various geographical regions. Its main competitors, including IBM, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), provide similar goods with distinct pricing methods. For more blogs, check our home page.