Google vs. Apple
When we think of famous rivalries, most of us think Pepsi vs. Coke, Harvard vs. Yale, or Yankees vs. Red Sox. These may all pale in comparison to one rivalry that began, as what some could say was a partnership. Lets welcome Apple and Google to the boxing ring. This rivalry could go down as the biggest technology rivalry in history, which may not be such a bad thing for technology or consumers. This will be bigger than Mac vs. Pc, Intel vs. AMD, and IE vs. Netscape.
Mobile Advertising
When Apple launched the iPhone back in 2007, it partnered with Google as the default search engine for the iPhone. Now that Google has released the Android OS, Apple is looking to dump Google from its phones. This move would cut Google's access to mobile data on the iPhone, which could have in turn been used to improve its advertising and development of the Android OS. The key to this is advertising. While search advertising has become extremely profitable, mobile advertising has not been optimized to its full potential, if there is even potential there at all. This is why Apple set out to buy an advertising agency of its own. Apple bought Quattro Wireless to compete with Google after Google purchased AdMob, Quattro Wireless's biggest competitor.
Google is the king of search and search advertising. Google owns 65% of the traditional search market. While these numbers are staggering in terms of market share, they do not reflect success in mobile advertising. If anyone has what it takes to take down Google in mobile advertising, it is now Apple with the acquisition of Quattro Wireless.
Hardware
Andy Rubin, head of Google's Android Business, said," One or two devices don't matter. Twenty or thirty or a hundred devices, all running the same software--that's what matters." This was Google's game plan from the beginning with the Android OS. Google thought that having the Android OS on multiple providers' phones would help take over market share, but with market penetration happening at a slow rate, Google took it into their own hands with the development with the Nexus One. This shows Google taking steps into a market segment that was dominated for the past two years by Apple. Google has Verizon's full support as well with a $100 million marketing budget to develop a brand identity.
Verizon Wireless just confirmed that it would be partnering with Google to create a Google Android Tablet for the wireless network. Sounds quite a bit like a direct competitor to Apple and AT&T. Apple continues to pave the way for the industry by developing new and innovative ideas, while Google sits back and improves on them for the consumer. Not to say that the Apple products are bad in anyway, but once a company has made the initial move into a market, it is easier for companies such as Google to follow and improve.
Let the War Continue
For all the consumers out there in the world, this rivalry will be great. It will push forward innovation and help develop new technologies. Once the price wars begin, consumers will really benefit. Andreas Bechtolsheim of Sun Microsystems says, "This rivalry is going to accelerate innovation. Apple goes pretty fast, but having someone chasing you always makes you go faster. This is going to be good for consumers."
Although Apple does seem to innovate and pave the way for industry most of the time, there is one thing that recently that Google has been pioneering for the future. Google created its own programming language.
It's called Go. Here is the link to Download Squad, where they give a little more information on it as well as the link to Google's Go developer site.
This could mean huge things. There has not been a new programming language for over a decade. Over the past decade there have been vast improvements that have been made in the technological field. This new programming language should be a huge improvement, be able utilize new technologies, and be able to expand when new technological developments are made.
This is one of the biggest things that has happened in a while, and Google was the one to start it.
As I point out all of this, I really do not like how Google is starting to take over almost everything. If you take all the servers in the world and put them together (including Google's), Google owns over half of the servers. If this is not a monopoly, I don't know what is. There is also a lot of things that I do not find appealing about Google, but that could be a whole separate post.
10 print "Apple"
20 GOTO heck