Apple vs Google: The Smartphone War has Begun
The technology industry has long been characterized by epic competitive battles. The 1980s was about the personal computer platform. Winner: IBM PC. Loser: Apple. The 1990s had the microprocessor wars. Winner: Intel. Losers: AMD, Cyrix, IBM, Texas Instruments.
The first decade of the new millennium, however, was a different story entirely. The 2000s was a fragmented decade with battles fought on multiple fronts: cell phones; game consoles; music players; DVRs; Internet portals, commerce, search, and social networks. Lots of winners like Nokia, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook; too many losers to name.
But in the coming decade, we're back to a single front. The battle lines are drawn. The 2010s will be all about the war between Apple and Google over the smartphone platform. There are some significant similarities to Apple's epic battle with the IBM PC:
Once again, Apple's vertically integrated, end-to-end platform will go up against an open platform, Google's Android operating system.- Once again, Apple produced an innovative breakthrough device, the iPhone.
- Like IBM, Google will have its own device, the Nexus One, unveiled today (image above).
- Steve Jobs.
- Not only is there a third competitor in the mix, but Research in Motion's Blackberry currently dominates the field. Is RIM destined to become the Commodore of the smartphone?
- Neither Microsoft nor Intel is anywhere to be found in either platform.
- Whether by accident or not, Apple now has a rich third party app development ecosystem. Lesson learned ... I think.
- Aside from Qualcomm's ubiquitous royalty fee, Google's not likely to let another company's intellectual property dominate its platform. Lesson learned from IBM.
- If, this time around, Apple can at least maintain market share parity, then economies of scale and hardware costs should favor Apple's singular hardware platform.
- Smartphone subsidies by wireless service providers dominate device price structure.
- Wireless service providers, their networks, and their customer service will play a significant, as-yet indeterminate role.
- Whether Google or Apple will manage to leverage their smartphone dominance into a ubiquitous home entertainment hub also remains to be seen.
- Steve Jobs has grown up.
- Innovation related to dimensions, weight, battery power, touch screen, 3D video, speech recognition, and the user experience in general.
- Research in Motion's Blackberry.
- Content.
[Image of Google's Nexus One courtesy Google; image of Steve Jobs and Apple iPhone courtesy CNET]