After years of being only a minor cloud player, Apple is increasing its investment, at least in personal storage and entertainment. Attendees of this week’s Apple developer conference left San Francisco feeling that the cloud has become something of a big deal in Cupertino.

Microsoft is likewise cloud-focused, but in business markets. Some have suggested the coming cloud battle will be between Apple and Microsoft, each seeking to become the leader and storage and services for both individuals and businesses.

What a mess that would be!

There are very few Apple users that don’t touch Microsoft technologies. And many Microsoft users don’t interact with Apple at all. Trying to separate users into opposing camps, where one company’s users can’t benefit from the other’s cloud, only hurts customers.

Get on the same page

Rather than divide and conquer, it’s time for Apple and Microsoft to get on the same page, meet people’s needs for both personal and business cloud services and thus conquer together.

Each should focus on what it does best — consumers for Apple and businesses for Microsoft — and leave breathing room for the other.

Here are four suggestions:

1. Apple and Microsoft need to treat the other’s cloud storage as equal to its own. Might iCloud and OneDrive become different portals into the same cloud storage system? That would be one way to achieve parity while leaving opportunity for brand-specific improvements.

2. Microsoft should support Apple’s cloud-based entertainment services. Could Apple support Microsoft’s games business on its platforms?

3. Apple should use Microsoft’s search and online mapping as defaults on Apple devices. Bing should be Apple’s search service.

4. Apple devices must be first-class clients for Microsoft cloud-based apps and technologies. Anything Windows can do, Apple clients should be able to do.

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Apple’s $3-billion purchase of Beats appears to have been more about streaming music and industry relationships than crummy, overpriced headphones. I’m expecting Apple to continue expanding its content offerings to someday include its own television service.

While Apple has leapfrogged Microsoft in some areas, it remains a non-player in enterprise computing. Its devices need to play better with Microsoft enterprise technology, just as Microsoft needs to interoperate better with Apple at the user level.

Microsoft isn’t the end-user company that it used to be and has been largely AWOL in tablets and smartphones. Microsoft’s attempt to catch Apple has been almost violently unsuccessful, with some upside possible if the new Surface tablets and forthcoming Windows phones catch a breeze.

Broader consumer access spites “coopetition”

Combining Apple’s and Microsoft’s reach gives you access to essentially all the worlds desktops and notebooks as well as a large chunk of tablets and smartphones. You also get huge numbers of businesses and consumers.

Microsoft and Apple have a long history of what the late Ray Noorda called “coopetition” where companies compete in some areas and cooperate in others. Microsoft and Apple today have common cloud enemies, so circling the wagons to protect their common users is a way to strike blows against Google, Amazon and all the rest.

Operating systems are going to do what they will do. The existential threat to Windows is Microsoft itself, not Mac OS. While Microsoft spent big to get Nokia and wants to turn Windows Phone into a success, that isn’t assured and Microsoft and Apple could have a happy coexistence in the handset biz. I am guessing the new Microsoft Surface tablets aren’t causing deep anxiety in Cupertino.

The opportunity exists for Apple and Microsoft to again ignore their differences and work together to improve the lot of their combined sets of customers.

This would be good for the cloud, good for customers and good for the two companies. They should get on with it.

photo credit: andyi via photopin cc