The three
Internet titans—Google, Microsoft, and Apple—are in an epic struggle to
dominate your Internet experience. Two of the firms—Google and Apple—are
determined to prevent Microsoft from expanding its dominance beyond the PC
desktop. So Google and Apple are friends. But when it comes to mobile phones
and apps, Goggle and Apple are enemies: each want to dominate the mobile
market. Apple and Microsoft are determined to prevent Google from extending
beyond its dominance in search and advertising. So Apple and Microsoft are
friends. But when it comes to the mobile marketplace for devices and apps,
Apple and Microsoft are enemies. Google and Microsoft are just plain enemies in
a variety of battles. Google is trying to weaken Microsoft’s PC software
dominance, and Microsoft is trying to break into the search advertising market
with Bing. Apple, Google, and Microsoft already compete in an assortment of
fields. Google has a huge edge in advertising, thanks to its dominance in
Internet search. Microsoft’s offering, Bing, has grown to about 10 percent of
the search market, and the rest essentially belongs to Google. Apple is the
leader in mobile software applications, thanks to the popularity of the App
Store for its iPhones. Google and Microsoft have less popular app offerings on
the Web. Microsoft is still the leader in PC operating systems and desktop
productivity software, but has failed miserably with smartphone hardware and software,
mobile computing, cloud-based software apps, its Internet portal, and even its
game machines and software. Google’s original goal was to counter Microsoft’s
attempts to enter the mobile device market, but Microsoft was largely
unsuccessful. Instead, Apple and Research In Motion, makers of the popular
BlackBerry series of smartphones, filled the void. Google continued to develop
Android, adding features that Apple’s offerings lacked, such as the ability to
run multiple apps at once. After an initial series of blocky, unappealing
prototypes, there are now Android-equipped phones that are functionally and
aesthetically competitive with the iPhone. Apple believes devices such as
smartphones and tablets should have proprietary standards and be tightly controlled,
with customers using applications on these devices that have been downloaded
from the its App Store. Thus Apple retains the final say over whether or not
its mobile users can access various services on the Web, and that includes
services provided by Google. Google doesn’t want Apple to be able to block it
from providing its services on iPhones, or any other smartphone. Many analysts
speculate that Apple may take a shot at Google by teaming up with a partner
that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: Microsoft. News reports
suggest that Apple is considering striking a deal with Microsoft to make Bing
its default search engine on both the iPhone and Apple’s Web browser. This
would be a blow to Google, and a boon to Microsoft, which would receive a much
needed boost to its fledgling search service. The struggle between Apple and
Google wouldn’t matter much if there wasn’t so much potential money at stake.
CASE
STUDY QUESTIONS
1.
Compare the business models and areas of strength of Apple, Google, and
Microsoft.
The
Apple has the basis of creating a very strong hardware base for the internet
future and thus logically they play their role in this battle by laying
emphasis on the hardware that facilitates mobile computing., the Google also a
believer in the concept that in the future the devices used to run the
applications and other internet options should be a fraction of what they are
being charged now and instead the revenues generated should be from the in-app
advertisements and lastly, The Microsoft has laid its bet on the operating
system on which the mobile computing devices shall run. Microsoft also has
announced plans to develop the hardware for mobile computing, something it has
not done so far, and thus has entered into the field of both Google and Apple.
2.
Why is mobile computing so important to these three firms? Evaluate the mobile
platform offerings of each firm.
The
importance of mobile computing for all the three mentioned firms which is Apple
, Google and Microsoft as it is the future of the internet technology and for
these firms to flourish and expand they
need to be very effective with mobile computing.
The
mobile platform that Apple provides with its products is “iOS” this mobile
platform is the closed platform that is it is applicable for apple products and
only apple apps could work on this.
The
mobile platform that Google provides is “Android”. This mobile platform is a
universal platform or you can say it’s an open platform when compared to the
mobile platform offered by Apple.\
Microsoft
is entering this market recently by launching the tablet named “Surface
tablet”. The mobile platform that Microsoft is offering is the Windows Phone 8
its operating system will be compatible with the laptops and the desktops.
3. What is the significance of applications
and app stores to the success or failure of mobile computing?
Apps
greatly enrich the experience of using a mobile device, and without them. They
can range from large business computer programs for processing large accounting
problems to a simple program that can be used up to something. Mobile
applications have such a great scope of growth in the future that they can one
day eclipse the sales of the hardware part of mobile computing and form a major
market themselves here players like Google and apple shall have tough
competition even from small fray players if a common platform for application
usage is formed, the very same reason why Apple is resisting Google’s repeated
efforts for a common mobile platform. Lastly it can be said that although all
three firms have great opportunity in the market which is still young and in
its infancy, the first mover shall have very definitive advantage to take
control of this veritable goldmine.
4.
Which company and business model do you think will prevail in this epic
struggle? Explain your answer.
The
company and business model that will prevail in this epic struggles for me will
be the Google. The search engine giant of it has a lot of positives going for
it rather than the negatives. The clear positives that can make it a winner
are: A well-established name is something which not a lot of players can boast
of but Google is one of them, although Apple and Microsoft have chartered
territories of their own but Google can fight them out both as an equal if not better.
Google has also bet on of the most time relevant feature of the mobile
computing market, the App store, and this is the biggest advantage which the
Google business model gives it and makes it the prime contender for the number
one position.
Thus,
it can be said that Google does have a lot of positives that can help it in the
market and if it can take care of the negatives and maybe tweak the one
platform stance, it can just pull ahead of Apple and Microsoft in this battle
of the behemoths.
5. What difference would it make to you as
a manager or individual consumer if Apple, Google, or Microsoft dominated the
Internet experience? Explain your answer.
Consumers
would be forced to buy only one product and use only one service and create a
monopoly and the positive would be they would create a standard. This would
affect quality; prices would be as high as possible because they would have no
competition. No competition means nobody could force a monopolist from the
outside to improve products, diversify rang or products and lower price. Right
now it is too early to tell who would dominate the internet experience but it
is good to have competition than just one market leader. Business managers must
try to forecast which platform will provide the right choices for employees.
Consumers must choose which platform will best fulfill their personal needs.
Switching costs play into both scenarios, not just in terms of phone purchases
but the price of apps. Once a user purchases and adjusts to using a certain
platform it’s difficult and expensive to switch to a whole different system.
