Comparisons: Working with only Apple, Microsoft or Google technology

Bill Bennett -

To answer the question I spent a week working exclusively with each of Apple, Microsoft and Google. I wanted to see if staying within one walled garden would improves productivity and whether doing so is practical or limiting.

Efficient, but…

Each company's offering has its advantages. I’ll write more about that in another post.

The three also have common advantages.

Sticking exclusively with one technology means you learn all of its commands, tricks and nuances. Familiarity breeds productivity. As your knowledge deepens your work becomes faster. Quickly performing complex tasks involving more than one app can be automatic.

While none of the technology companies offer a flawlessly integrated experience, in most cases the quirks and road bumps are easily dealt with.

It’s hard to walk past the efficiency benefits of mastering your tools. I found I can work better by sticking to just one. You may not be able to do so for a variety of reasons, but if you can, it will pay off.

So pick and stick with just one?

If your technology needs are relatively straightforward and narrow, you should be able to pick one company, learn its technologies intimately and reap huge productivity gains.

I certainly recommend employers and managers standardise on a single company's offering in a workplace.

More complex cases

This simple approach will work for most people most of the time.

However, many people have complex needs that may not be fully serviced by a single technology. In my testing I found minor limitations with the Apple and Microsoft while sticking with Google is much more limiting.

None of this matters for many tasks, but you’d certainly struggle to do creative work like web design if you stayed strictly inside the Google camp. In fact, most creative work means moving across the boundaries at times.

Cross stack integration

As I mentioned earlier, none of the three are flawless integrated. They all do a good job most of the time.

If I were to put a number on it, I’d give Apple and Google nine out of ten for integration. Microsoft loses a point because of the cognitive dissonance of switching between the Windows 8 Metro interface and the older, desktop interface.

Moving between technologies isn’t any harder than moving from Windows 8 desktop to Windows 8 Metro. Most apps will copy data from other stacks, although there are still a few glitches.

There are minor problems and inefficiencies moving between each company's technologies. If we stick with the same scale, then, on the whole, cross company integration would weigh-in at seven out of ten.

The real benefits of staying with one are more to do with learning how everything works than with integration.

Based on my, admittedly unscientific, experiment, the smartest strategy is to pick a main technology to master and allow some detours, rather than make an exclusive choice.

Choose one: Apple, Microsoft or Google. Plan a strategy. Buy your devices within the same company's technology. Stay with it when you upgrade. Don’t be tempted to deviate unless you plan to eventually move everything to the new standard.

Use the mainstream apps, such as iWorks, Office or Google Docs. Master the tools, learn all the tricks. Make working in the world you pick second nature.

Stick with it as far as is practical, but don’t be frightened of moving outside when you need a different tool to perform a specific task. View your choice as a neighbourhood, not a prison.