Both Netflix and Apple reported quarterly results today. They are both competing against bigger rivals BlockBuster and Microsoft. In the case of Netflix, the key number being closely tracked and reported is 7.03 million subscribers vs. 3.6 million for Blockbuster. In the case of Apple, three sets of numbers are being reported-- number of Mac users (2.16 million), number of iPhone (1.1 million) users and number of iPod (10.2 million) users. While these numbers may not put them on the top spot in any category individually, collectively they provide them with benefits to one another and this is reflected in faster growth rates individually. Although Apple may not have predicted this when they were facing challenges in the 80s and could have given up the Mac franchise, the fact that it exists is helping out the other business lines. In fact, the
WSJ article states that most of their iPod purchases are coming from Windows users. Apple has complementary effects across product and business lines that giving them an edge. Wonder how/when MSFT will get this going for them?