Customer Perception Value On Microsoft Surface Vs Apple Macbook

Write about the Customer Perception Value on Microsoft Surface vs Apple Macbook.

Models of customer perceived value for the customers for Microsoft Surface

The Howard-Sheth Consumer Model: According to the Howard-Sheth consumer model, customers seek for basic information for product brands before purchase. The products’ information about size and weight, quality, and durability determines the consumer value perception before the actual purchase. For instance, despite their appearances, packaging, and value perceptions variation, a Microsoft surface and a Mac Book are quite distinct. For instance, Apple Mac Book and Microsoft Surface Pro 4 both weight around a kilogram, share a similar sized 12-inch screen display, and very well constructed (Mallin 2009). According to the Howard-Sheth consumer model, when considering size, a customer who would want to purchase a laptop machine with a bit small size in thickness, for example, despite the precious little to choose between them for a Mac Book measures 13.1mm thick compared to Microsoft surface of 13.4mm thick on would choose on Microsoft surface and vice versa.

The stimulus-response model: According to Gilbert and Katz 2001, the marketing and environmental stimuli combine and dominate the buyers’ decision on the products’ image. Mac book has mastered the art of pleasing consumers through upgraded and improved software features. For instance, the launch of the Mac books’ thinnest screen of 13.1 grasped most consumers’ consciousness. Through the online marketing, Mac book has propelled to enlighten consumers of the full touch screen monitors, improved battery life, and attractive redesigned shape. The Mac book employees the stimulus-response model through in-depth marketing research on consumer wants to deliver the most suited features in respect to consume needs. Ultimately, the online mass-market advertising of the Mac books’ marketing through YouTube ads supports the artist social stratification (Wilson 2010). Through premium pricing strategy, Microsoft Surface Pro has emulated the Mac books relative pricing, which defines the social classes of the consumers. For instance, the Microsoft Surface Pro has the “classy” consumers who lie between the middle and upper economic class.

When a customer considers design and usability, Mac Book appears as traditionally PC while Microsoft Surface Pro 4 seems stylus-equipped device with the help of Microsoft’s optional clip-on keyboards- can also double as a laptop, which is the major difference between the two. Microsoft is more versatile of the two and therefore on the customer’s preference to versatility a Microsoft would be better than an Apple Mac Book (Harms & Johnson 2000). A Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is a capable, stylus-equipped tablet that doubles as a proper laptop, and if a customer loves, the idea of just scribbling handwritten notes directly on-screen, then it is in a class of its own. Unless one wants to take full advantage of the surface pro 4’s versatility, the Apple Mac Book is by far a stronger laptop, forgetting the stylus. For this, both Microsoft and Apple Mac Book have the almost the same capabilities hence one would choose on either.

Value Proposition Table

For the display quality, both the Apple Mac Book and Microsoft surface pro 4 have high-DPI display. They offer more than enough pixel-dense sharpness for the most exacting eyeballs, and with both capable of reproducing almost all of the colors in the sRGB gamut, and accurately too, there is nothing to moan about at all. Whichever the customer chooses, one would be happy indeed (Greenwood 2002). One other difference is that the two companies have used very different display ratios: the Mac Book uses a 16:10 display, whereas the Surface Pro 4 uses a 3:2 display. Well, because the Surface Pro 4 is a tablet it needs to provide enough screen space in both vertical and horizontal orientations, thus a thicker, more squared-off display is preferable. Here surface pro 4 wins over Apple Mac Book. 

For performance qualities, the Apple Mac Book comes with a choice of Core m3, m5 or m7 processors, but the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 goes better with the core i5, core i7. It opts for a Core m3 for the cheapest version but ups the ante with Core i5 and Core i7 processors in the models higher up the range (Chen 2011). In everyday use, however, one is unlikely to notice a vast gulf between the two. Apple Mac Book’s dramatically faster PCI-e SSD and the Core m processors’ ability to rapidly deliver similar bursts of power to their Core i3, i5 and i7 counterparts, the difference only really becomes noticeable under sustained heavy multitasking. Alternatively, in music production – if you are going to hammer a device with sustained workloads, then the Surface Pro 4 quickly takes the lead (Wilson 2010). As an everyday appliance, though, where portability trumps power, one will likely be triumphal with either. For this, Microsoft Surface Pro 4 wins over Apple Mac Book.

For battery life, in the same test, this year’s Mac Book fared much better. Apple sent both the Core m3 and Core m5 models for testing, and while the Core m3 lasted 10hrs 1min, the Core m5 version lasted 10hrs 12mins (Chen 2011). If a customer wants a device that lasts all day, then the Mac Book is a better bet. Factor in the ability to charge the Mac Book from an external battery via its USB Type-C connection, and it is a much better bet where all-day battery life is necessary. For battery life, Apple Mac Book wins over Microsoft surface pro 4.

Contrast and Comparison for Value Proposition

When a customer considers connectivity webcam and accessories, here is where a significant difference is between the two machines. The Apple Mac Book performs better with a single USB Type-C port with a headphone socket – that is your lot. If you want to both charges the Mac Book and take advantage of the USB 3.1 connection for USB devices, display outputs and so forth, then it is necessary to buy a USB Type-C dock. The Apple’s webcam is equally fundamental: its 480p resolution is fine for video chats, but it is nothing special. On the other hand, the Microsoft Surface Pro seems a little more generously equipped. Microsoft is still using a proprietary mains charger, but you do get a full-sized USB 3 port, microSD slot, mini-Display Port, and a headphone socket. In addition, there is a 5-megapixel front-facing camera and a decent, if not particularly brilliant, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera (Hassan 2015). In addition, of course, you get the Surface Pen thrown in free. In respect to customer considerations, Microsoft surface still wins over an Apple Mac Book for both performance and price friendliness.

In respect to audibility, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 performs better. Nevertheless, only a few consumers who can make a buying decision on such a less considered factor.

 However, the Mac book lags behind and keeps off some consumers with the introduction of the small 720 x 480 camera in Mac book. Furthermore, the Surface Pro 4 has the camera mounted on the upper edges of the display, which provides a better sound to the user. According to consumer value proposition, the Microsoft Surface Pro has high quality audio system (Jonathan 2008). However, Microsoft Surface Pro has some background noise that may keep off some customers.

In respect to price and value perception, the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 seems a recommended performance-ratio. The about equal at the base level, but the Core i5 Surface Pro 4 models are a much better overall value. The leap from Core m3 or m5 to Core i5 regarding performance capability is greater than the jump from Core i5 to Core i7 (Kirton & Green 2005). It is easy to recommend any of the Core i5 Surface Pro 4 units over any of the Apple Mac Book 2016 configurations considering price. Into consideration of price and value of Microsoft surface compared to a Mac Book, the price is fair, and none is too much more expensive than the other is.

A Microsoft surface pro 4 has a touch screen whereas a Mac Book does not have. In preference to the customer’s needs, it is easy for one to access information faster on the screen with the Microsoft surface unlike a Mac Book where you have to search for keys on the desktop hence may be time-consuming (Wilson 2010). It also applies to scrolling information on the screen. Therefore most customers would prefer a machine that has easy access to information rather than one that consumes time hence timesaving.

A Microsoft Surface device has facial recognition for security as compared to the biometric safety of the Apple Mac Book. It is safer since for one to unlock the computer he or she needs to show off their face and since not everyone resembles one another, information about the protection of equipment (Jonathan 2008). Security matters in all situations in human life and therefore many customers would prefer purchasing a facial recognition type of lock. Here Microsoft surface is preferred to an Apple Mac Book.

Space matters to customers when choosing a machine, for instance, a Microsoft surface has more room of 1 terabyte compared to less space of the Apple Mac Book of up to 512 gigabytes. In accordance to what a customer may need to use the laptop for, most customers would think of the Microsoft Surface machine, since it will store more information for them in the present and in the future, therefore, a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is preferred to an Apple Mac Book

A Microsoft Surface Pro four machine is more powerful as compared to an Apple Mac Book machine because it is the 6th generation about an Apple Mac Book which is a 5th generation device. It clearly shows that a Microsoft surface has more specifications compared to an Apple Mac Book and therefore it can perform more tasks than a Mac Book can (Chen 2011). Most customers would prefer a Microsoft surface to a Mac Book because of more performing tasks, and therefore a Microsoft surface is more marketable.

According to Chen 2011, the Apples’ Mac book still lags behind from the hardware malfunctioning that the competitors seem to take advantage on. Lately, the Mac book pro has upgraded software onboard on premium purchase terms, which exclude the bloat software claims. The Mac book has very basic and unique software and applications for video editing and production, quality audio production all accompanied by the full office suite (Wilson 2010).

Conventionally, the Mac books’ software versions provide ease of apps userbility. On the contrary, the Microsoft Surface Pro lags behind uniqueness, where the photo app has barren landscaping during that may bring complications during photo and video editing. Despite having free full-years’ subscription, Microsoft Surface Pro has some application malfunctions that most consumer value such as video and photo editing and production (Kirton & Green 2005).

Apparently, for the user interface comparisons, Mac book has a high consumer affinity to the video and photo lovers, battery life, and classy appearance design. The Mac books’ OSX software upgrade system has remained on the fore-front of the leading consumer preferred PC.. Apparently, Windows 8 Microsoft has adopted new realms and now focuses on enhancing the touch screen and speech recognition features. For instance, just like the Mac books’ OS Pc system, Microsoft ought to improve the Cortina resident feature on its latest Windows 10 and focus on creating reminder apps, scheduling user appointments, easing the search functionality options, and increasing the voice command functions.

Conventionally, the Microsoft Surface Pro must avoid launching the unreliable touch interface provided through the OS X software. Apparently, focusing on improving the ease of usability, and launching the hybrid compatibility functionality to other devices will propel the Microsoft Surface Pro market dominance. Moreover, the Microsoft Surface Pro ought to have upgraded annotate Edge browser, improved freehand writing and drawing on the OneNote app.

Ultimately, both Microsoft Surface Pro and Mac Books’ value proposition seems somehow close, which gives a clear picture of a tough competition for market. In fact, since computer usage has dominated the modern social, business, and economic world, there must be competition culminating from the meeting of different tastes and demand to different customer. Currently, the computer market is diverse and choosy, which makes consumers have every preferred device for use. The Microsoft Windows devices have different designs, capability, durability; while the Mac book focus on refining the durability, improved software series and introduction of new models(Wilson 2010).

Categorically, consumers have to select the two devices in respect to their financial status followed by preferences and choice. Every device has its advantages over the other; but the Mac book seems a durable and highly appealing PC to many customers across the globe. Financially, the Windows Pc stands out, and it makes the better choice for the low income-earners. Nevertheless, any customers capable of buying a quality PC will definitely consider the Mac book for its durability, usability and very secure in data storage and retrieval.

According to Kotler 2012, the products’ value proposition in respect to price and quality for tablets seems very cloudy for most consumers. Statistically, in 2013, the tablet and PC penetrated the United States market at a 37% growth, which has began to slow down lately. Apparently, Apple seems to progress ahead above all other electronic companies through the initiative to launch the ad campaign on different consumer coupons, which attracts a high consumer affinity for Apple devices. For instance, Apple Pc has gained dominance in the US states with 87% of consumers loving the quality, storage, and its durability in performance. According to Howard-Sheth consumer model, the marketing message makes a lot sense to consumer, which the Apple ads on Mac book have embraced (Jonathan 2008). On the other, Microsoft Pc offers diversified units through quality vastly batteries but still lag behind the Mac book competitive edge. 

Analytically, the Mc book has a well stable design on record, which offers attic uniqueness to the classy customers. For the Mac book, customers will consider its hybrid version if the price is slashed down to a standard price. Nevertheless, Mac book remains the number one classy selling PC that the Microsoft Surface Pro has failed to beat (Wilson 2010). However, most PC consumers advocate for price reduction on the Mac book with arguments that it is not compatible with other devices.

Apparently, the Mac books’ promotion strategy revolves around the premium image creation and the quality of the installed software. The Mac books’ promotional and marketing portfolio anchors the sales target for propelling advertising, personal selling, public relations and sales promotion. Conventionally, the Microsoft Surface Pro Pc has embraced the website stores as well as online marketing to increase market dominance. Moreover, Microsoft Surface Pc has further advanced its online advertisements to contract marketing through technology news sites firms (Chen 2011). Due to the increased Mac book preference by customers, Microsoft has employees same Mac books’ personal selling strategy for employees to provide the core product-specification information to increase consumer purchasing. In addition, the Mac books’ marketing mix chronicle around product promotion through face-to-face, install, and in store activations. Despite the recent improvements on Microsoft Surface Pro product specification, the Mac book has remained dominant in terms of durability, inbuilt anti-virus system, and software stability. The Apples’ marketing team has launched public relations campaign to boost and optimize the leaks of new Mac book features.

On the pricing strategies, Microsoft Surface Pro seems to have an upper hand compared to Mac books’ approach. While Mac book uses the premium pricing strategy, Microsoft Surface Pro uses price-to-performance ratio technique. For instance, comparing the price and value of Microsoft surface compared to a Mac Book, the price is fair, and none is too way more expensive than the other. The Mac books’ premium pricing strategy entails relatively high prices, which helps to manipulate the high-end image of the brand with its magnificent durability and security features (Harms & Johnson 2000). Ultimately, due to the Mac books’ relatively high prices, their customer comprises of the middle and upper class people. Due to the high premium prices, Mac book PC has maintained high profitability ratio from its higher profit margins. Nevertheless, Microsoft Surface Pro beats Mac book marketing mix since Microsoft Surface Pro marketing strategy remain inclined and aligned to both the consumer and company’s’ premium product enhancement strategy.

Segregation and targeting helps marketers and market researchers identify priorities, identify the most effective, and attract consumer-alluring messages. The Microsoft Surface Pro Pc team will focus on communication and feedback channel for commercially attractive consumers (Wilson 2010). Apparently, the Microsoft value proposition and implementation plan will plan focus on developing a user-friendly device that perfectly suits the product position segmentation.

Through segmentation, the Microsoft surface pro pc   programmers ought to site leakages that require customized improvement for high consumer affinity. Ultimately, the Surface Pro Pc will gain market dominance to deliver luring messages and increase consumer-purchasing behavior through product segmentation and modification techniques (Gilbert 7 Katz 2001). The approach is more suitable for some group of people rather than a scattergun approach. On the demographics, it will involve the breakdown by combination of age, gender, income and education .Younger population will prefer advanced, fast, and portable products to manipulate their daily operation like Microsoft surface 2 and surface pro 2

Other segmentation strategies will revolve around psychographics, which is base on personality and emotion based behavior linked to purchase choices including attitudes, lifestyle, hobbies, and personality and leadership traits. Interviews, this is to get qualitative data customer preference. The value proposition plan will define what product dearly appeals to them and the reasons behind its size, shape, and portability or how fast does the product access the internet, the price,   and maintenance of the product (Campbell 2005). In respect to the survey analysis, the value proposition strategy will focus on getting access to more wide range of consumers as compared to interviews by visiting places in urban, rural areas and town outskirts to evaluate on what customer prefers. A company that conducts more surveys is likely to reap higher income as compared to the one that does not conduct surveys to gauge on the marketability of the product. On lifestyle aspect, the plan would focus on the recreational pursuit of individual, vacation, and non-work time.

Microsoft brand position like Microsoft surface pro 2 has always been regarded as number one market leader because people want to buy safe, quality and long lasting products based on features like screen life and size. Some consumer prefers bigger screen size, efficient software installation, hardware, services and systems. This will enable Microsoft company sell maximum products like surface pro three (Jonathan 2008). It will enable the company  to sell a right product at the right time and even strike the best deal that will in short term and long run attract higher number of consumers. This occurs through modifying its features, which aims at suiting consumer as either a tablet laptop or a very powerful workstation. This will effectively ensure that the product offered by Microsoft companies are routinely in line with what the customers expect and satisfaction thus ensuring demands are met against future changes and technological  advancement and also demographic changes (Greenwood 2002). Ultimately, the value proposition for Microsoft Surface Pro will be designed for a particular age group, social, political, cultural beliefs and economic status of individuals thus the latter must be taken into consideration. Thus, the value proposition implementation plan will increase the Microsoft’s’ product differentiation to affect the profit margin, accessibility and customer preferences.

This encompasses uniqueness of a product, proper performance, the concept of   business strategy to corroborate necessity and the overall goals of an organization to satisfy consumer needs and demand. Strategic direction and vision and the firm, environmental niche, which it operates, economic context and the line of the product deal will affect its profitability or loss.

Type of value- how the product impact on organization goals i.e. cost reduction, efficiency or the revenue the firm reap from the product must be a concern to the objectives of the company (Chen 2011). Unique phenomena of individual, organization, social and political issues, satisfaction, culture, and general duration the product takes, i.e. the durability of the product. For instance some consumer will prefer Microsoft pro 3, pro 4, Mac book , I phone based on the cost, battery longevity, sharpness, or the size of the screen.

A value preposition is a market statement that a company uses to ascertain the reason as consumer decides to buy a certain product over the other. The assertion attracts all potential consumers towards a certain product, which increase and adds value to the product, by having better and fair prices, quality design, and the outward presentation that attracts the potential consumer (Hassan 2015). Value remains the core push in determining the price for any product in the pricing technique price strategy, and profit maximization ought to correlate to consumer satisfaction.

Through different technological advancement and evolvement, Microsoft Surface Pro has been able to effectively improve on customer preference by generating products like pro 4, which is lightweight computer that could go everywhere because it is light weight, thin and fast that easily appeal to customer demand in solving their problems.

It is therefore essential for the value proposition plan to access the customer underlying the need for customer willingness to pay, how they are best served, and what variables of the product makes them choose over other competitors (Mallin 2009). The consumer purchasing decision manipulates how much more the customer is willing to pay, focuses on discounts, customer observation, and how the changes in customer need affect perception of value and willingness to pay.

The maintenance plan will allow the Microsoft Surface Pro software programmers to manhandle the devices’ software while focusing on reduction of the manufacturing cost. Administrators will use application installation restructuring plan and redesigning to introduce and launch the software required for their jobs. Ultimately, the customer minded initiative will help the software developers to offer the most stable software and features with just little expertise software specialists to visit computer installation through the fist launch of programming of applications including productivity of the process (Harms & Johnson 2000). The implementation of the value proposition plan will consider upgrading the existing software into a new version and software replacement. Through the Microsoft Surface Pro for value implementation plan, the upgrade of the Window package installation and the shape modification will increase the completion to the Mac book.

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