Here’s the chart comparing returns of Microsoft with Apple over the past four years: Based on this chart, Microsoft has outperformed Apple since Jobs’s death in 2011.However, looking at a longer-term horizon — since 1986 — you can see that although Microsoft has bested Apple for much of the past 30 years, by one measure of profitability, known as return on equity, Apple has outperformed Microsoft over the past two years: Microsoft threw down the gauntlet on Friday, drawing plaudits for its CEO Satya Nadella, after the technology giant posted one of its best stock performances in more than decade, driven by quarterly results that beat Wall Street expectations. Is it Apple’s turn to deliver now?