Apple hates blogs but is still loved by bloggers.
Microsoft has blogs but no love.
Isn’t it ironic that Apple, the people that made Podcasting, a blog-driven phenomenon, possible, find blogging unacceptable?
Meanwhile Microsoft, the very empire that blogging was supposedly intended to dislodge, are the most blogger-inhabited business on earth?
No, not really. Microsoft is a very open company, it's employees are allowed to talk about their work on their blogs, years before products ship. Apple are a closed and paranoid company, who sue anybody - even their own fanbase, if they so much as mention a tiny detail of any upcoming Apple product.
Scoble also mentions a bit on this:
Certainly if you go to a blogger conference you see a lot more Apple products (at the recent SXSW conference, for instance, the audience was at least 60% Mac) but if you go into the average airport you only see, maybe, five percent Macs (I fly every two weeks and count such things and it's been quite consistent).
But, then, I also look around at where MSFT stuff is used. For instance, the signage in the airport. That's all Windows, but the only time you know that is when a machine crashes. Not exactly a good branding experience.
Or, look at Hertz rental car's new computers. All Windows. But you'd never know unless you were a geek. Or, look at Ghiradelli Square's ice cream shop. World famous. I've been going there since I was 10 years old. All running Windows but only a geek like me would notice.
Compare to Apple. They work very hard to make sure their branding is on everything they do. So, their brand gets credit.
We, on the other hand, are a platform company. Look at the Comcast TV box I'm using. It's hard to find Microsoft's name ANYWHERE on the box or the screen.
But, this author gets at something deeper. Why do some companies blog and others avoid it?
I've certainly seen that companies with strong brand love are avoiding the blogging world and/or are scared of it.
Interesting.