Comments on: Is Toyota the Microsoft of Car Companies http://www.todaysmachiningworld.com/is-toyota-the-microsoft-of-car-companies/ The Magazine for the Precision Parts Industry Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:52:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Bryan Willmanhttp://www.todaysmachiningworld.com/is-toyota-the-microsoft-of-car-companies/comment-page-1/#comment-5924 Bryan Willman Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:19:36 +0000 http://www.todaysmachiningworld.com/?p=2686#comment-5924 The comparison is off because the two industries are so different. At one point microsoft made more profit than the rest of the industry combined - in fact, it may have made more profit than the rest of the industry grossed. Toyota is a leader among titans. Microsoft was (is) an empire crushingly larger than any other player. What's more, Toyota produces cars. It is a car company. Microsoft is not a computer company. Neither is Intel. But the two of them together are (with occasional flings with AMD thrown in for good measure.) You cannot understand the personal computer industry by studying Microsoft alone, you must also understand Intel. I don't see a "different half" for Toyota. Toyota's main competitors (Ford, GM, VolkswagenAudi, etc.) have market shares vaguely similar to Toyotas. Microsoft's most visible (but not quite same category) competitor Apple controls only a few percent of the market (order 11%) versus the share of windows somewhere north of 80%. As for Buelldog's complain that Microsoft sometimes changes things just to change things - yup, it always pissed me off. (I worked there for 2 decades...) The comparison is off because the two industries are so different. At one point microsoft made more profit than the rest of the industry combined – in fact, it may have made more profit than the rest of the industry grossed. Toyota is a leader among titans. Microsoft was (is) an empire crushingly larger than any other player.

What’s more, Toyota produces cars. It is a car company. Microsoft is not a computer company. Neither is Intel. But the two of them together are (with occasional flings with AMD thrown in for good measure.) You cannot understand the personal computer industry by studying Microsoft alone, you must also understand Intel. I don’t see a “different half” for Toyota.

Toyota’s main competitors (Ford, GM, VolkswagenAudi, etc.) have market shares vaguely similar to Toyotas. Microsoft’s most visible (but not quite same category) competitor Apple controls only a few percent of the market (order 11%) versus the share of windows somewhere north of 80%.

As for Buelldog’s complain that Microsoft sometimes changes things just to change things – yup, it always pissed me off. (I worked there for 2 decades…)

]]> By: Buelldoghttp://www.todaysmachiningworld.com/is-toyota-the-microsoft-of-car-companies/comment-page-1/#comment-5922 Buelldog Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:32:51 +0000 http://www.todaysmachiningworld.com/?p=2686#comment-5922 I think a Toyota vs. Microsoft comparison is unfair for Toyota. Toyota has historically delivered well-designed & manufactured cars, with excellent long-term reliability. They have only recently come into the spotlight with some major quality problems. They will focus on these issues, and fix them. I expect it is nothing more than a glitch for Toyota. On the other hand, Microsoft is well known and despised by many for their offenses. Here are two of my favorites:  -Bringing products to market before they are finished. This is not a recently earned reputation for Microsoft; they have frequently released products that required a bunch of patches, updates, and re-installs to fix problems that should have been fixed before the release of the product.  -Changing how things are done in the software. Millions of people all know exactly how to perform a given software function. That is until they upgrade and buy the new version. At this point they all need to try to figure how to do it all over again. This happens every time Microsoft comes out with a new version. If asked if I want to upgrade to the latest Microsoft product? Not unless I have to… I wouldn’t be the least bit concerned if I replaced my 97 Cutlass Supreme with new Toyota though. I think a Toyota vs. Microsoft comparison is unfair for Toyota.
Toyota has historically delivered well-designed & manufactured cars, with excellent long-term reliability. They have only recently come into the spotlight with some major quality problems. They will focus on these issues, and fix them. I expect it is nothing more than a glitch for Toyota.
On the other hand, Microsoft is well known and despised by many for their offenses. Here are two of my favorites:
 -Bringing products to market before they are finished. This is not a recently earned reputation for Microsoft; they have frequently released products that required a bunch of patches, updates, and re-installs to fix problems that should have been fixed before the release of the product.
 -Changing how things are done in the software. Millions of people all know exactly how to perform a given software function. That is until they upgrade and buy the new version. At this point they all need to try to figure how to do it all over again. This happens every time Microsoft comes out with a new version.
If asked if I want to upgrade to the latest Microsoft product? Not unless I have to… I wouldn’t be the least bit concerned if I replaced my 97 Cutlass Supreme with new Toyota though.

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