Many people have become frustrated with Mac products for the simple reason that they don’t have compatible Office features. It’s not that there aren’t alternative programs, but rather the fact that people are creatures of habit. While it is true that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Office programs are generally agreed to be the best, it is also true that people are comfortable with their products.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s new Office product should be available for Mac users in the Spring of 2014. Yes, that is a ways off, but it’s not as long as the iOS group will have to wait. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) users will have to wait until the Autumn of 2014 for the iOS version to be made available. Microsoft’s insiders seem to believe in the stock, as they own over 9% of the total market cap. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) only shows insider ownership of .03%, however their market cap is $156.1 billion more than Microsoft’s $253.1 billion.
Obviously, these are projected times for these product releases, but a report was released by ZDNet showing these timetables. It was also stated that, “I do not know how old this purported road map is, but my contact indicated it was likely current as of the start of 2013. I asked Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office officials for comment on the alleged road map, but they declined to do so.” The most recent report (that I know of) still showed that Apple and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) were in negotiations over the splitting of revenue share. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) wants the standard 70/30 split that is part of the developer license agreement for every developer.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) users should also be happy to hear that Electronic Arts Inc.’ (NASDAQ:EA) SimCity will be available for their devices on June 11. Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label said,
SimCity is coming to Mac on June 11 and one purchase will give you both the Mac and PC versions. You only need to buy SimCity once to play together across the same servers, regardless of which version you’re playing. We didn’t want to make any compromises when it came to the Mac so we created a native version that is optimized for the hardware and OSX.
SimCity had plenty of speed bumps to maneuver around at its initial release. This was largely because the game can only be played online. At its release, the servers became overwhelmed, and the gaming experience was not what it was intended to be. Since then, EA has ironed out some of the bugs, and they have even enabled the “cheetah” speed mode that was quickly disabled to reduce the load on servers. Originally EA had planned on releasing SimCity for Mac products in February, but has since pushed the date back.
EA currently has a market cap of $5.3 billion and insider ownership of .41%. The company shows an earnings yield of over 3% and a FCF yield of approximately 4.8%. While this isn’t nearly as cheap as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s 11.3% FCF yield and 10.1% earnings yield, or as cheap as Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s 11% FCF yield and 6% earnings yield, its revenues did increase by 15% in 2012. We all know about Apple’s plummeting stock, but the graph below shows just how well EA has done year to date.
The Foolish Conclusion…
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) are offering great deals for bargain hunters, while EA might be better suited for those more interested in growth. These products being made available for Mac users should give a boost to all three of these companies. They benefit each other and provide improved features for Mac users.
Tyler Wofford has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Microsoft.
