What differentiates Boeing from airbus

The difference  between both companies ie : Boeing and Airbus is foggy i mean both have each other as the only competitors in the market, in-fact both of them , more or less, did have a monopolistic control over the market. Apart from airbus being  the pride of Europe and boeing being the pride of America  both are masters in their own right except that boeing is an elder brother in the  aircraft market family 

Cost Vs Cost

So speaking of differences, it can only be seen in their sustenance philosophies  for eg : Airbus has a homogenous cockpit layout for all it's aircraft types starting right from the A319 to the A380, enabling a pilot flying a320 to easily fly the mammoth A380. But with Boeing, such a cross-cockpit qualification is not possible because their aircrafts have different cockpit layouts for various versions and certainly a pilot flying B737 cannot straight away graduate to jumbo-747s thus cockpit similarities does  reduce the cost of training and so airlines would opt for Airbus.

Boeing on the other hand bets on it's innovative design and fuel efficient technologies warranting renewed interest from customers for it's new generation B787 and B747-800. Turbulent winds of recession and a volatile market weather has given Boeing a perfect test platform to market it's new products.  As airline companies are increasingly becoming "fuel-cost "conscious with the added concern to abide by new environmental policies, boeing's sales and marketing strategy is almost falling in line as hoped.

Automation Vs Manual

Boeing is a bit shy towards automation and believes in pilot autonomy than Airbus, which is fully in love with automation , as a result pilots flying Boeing aircrafts have the last say over flight control, but in case of airbus pilots, they are told ....“while democracy may be good in the parliament but it is flight safety to the core which is good in the cockpit ”.

Last but not the least ... historically speaking both, Boeing and Airbus wants  to be different to survive so each of them will wear a different make-up and dress differently for the party, and once the party is over they both exchange each others dress.

PLM: Boeing's Dream, Airbus' Nightmare
By Mel Duvall and Doug Bartholomew
Product life-cycle management is helping to get Boeing's 787 off the ground, but is a key factor in Airbus' A380 delays.

Interesting perspective how integration issues haunt product development and how basic practices of Product LifeCycle Management helps.