Microsoft and Apple are two powerhouses when it comes to the computer related and consumer electronics industry. Both of these companies have many similarities and differences with each other, and they both went corporate within several years of each other.

Lets start with some information about Apple. The corporation was formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc. but changed the name to Apple Inc. eventually. Apple focuses on manufacturing and designing consumer electronics and closely related software products.

They are best known for their personal computer, the Macintoish, the media player known as the iPod, and recently the iPhone. All of these products have received great reviews and are only getting better with time and technology advances. From Warner Brothers maps to having GPS on your phone, technology has definitely made leaps and bounds in the recent years.

Along the lines of software, Apple products include the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software, Final Cut Studio relating to audio and film industry, iTunes media browser, and most popular the Mac OS X operating system. Currently there are over two hundred retail stores in seven different countries as well as an online store where practically every Apple product that is currently being made is sold.

The iTunes store is also available which has recently expanded their depths into selling. They now provide music, television programs, music videos, podcasts, audiobooks, and iPod games which can be downloaded to your Mac OS X or Windows and then put onto your iPhone or iPod touch.

The company was established in 1976, and has been growing ever since. The annual sales in its fiscal year 2007 were 24.01 billion dollars. A great acheivement for the company that continues to grow.

Now onto the Microsoft Corporation. This comapny is an American multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a great range of software products for computer devices. They are best known for the Microsoft Windows operating system as well as the Microsoft Office series.

Bill Gates became the richest man in the world through this company, and although he no longer holds that spot, being the second richest man in the world is nothing to be upset about. Recently Bill Gates has thrown in the towel and stepped down from Microsoft Corporation to further pursue his charity organization.

One of the visions that he had for Microsoft was to have a workstation running Microsoft software in every office desk and home. Microsoft has been so successful over the years that due to the release of an initial public offering in the stock market, Microsoft made 12,000 millionaires and four billionaires from their employees.

Microsoft is also very popular in several other markets too, such as the mouse and home entertainment products. These consist of the Zune, MSN TV, Xbox, and Xbox 360. With all of these streams of revenue coming in for Microsoft, they have made strides to purchase the powerhouse search engine Yahoo. Unforunately, their offer of 44.6 billion dollars did not satisfy Yahoo.

As you can see, Microsoft and Zune have had huge strides throughout the years. There is definitely some intense competition between the two especially for the computer market with all of the Apple commercials using Microsoft as a dummy. That’s pretty brave of Apple to be throwing punches at the big guy in the computer industry, but it seems to be working.

You will definitely be seeing these two corporations continue to dominate when it comes to releasing software and hardware that uses the newest and most advanced technology. Both of these companies specialize in certain hardware and software products of their own, but it seems that for every line that Microsoft has, Apple has too and vice versa.