Welcome To The Battle Of The Big Boys!
03.06.07 - 05:16pm
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….And the gloves come off - Microsoft, Apple and Google - the three big bad boys of the computer business, are starting to play dirty and it would seem that Microsoft is starting to have not just Apple, or just Google to battle separately (the no man is an island must have hit home with them), for it would appear that Microsoft will be battling Apple and Google together making a far more indomitable opponent than either one of them could be working alone - Is it possible that the great giant Microsoft will fall?
Microsoft may have been Apple’s savior back in 1997 when instead of not releasing their Mac Office 97 (something that may possibly have met the end of the already foundering Apple), they instead boosted Apple with a 150,000 million dollar investment and went on a full marketing campaign, keeping Apple alive. This may of course have been self motivating as at the time they were in full anti-trust government lawsuits and drowning their only competitor left dog paddling along certainly wouldn’t have helped matters. So in the end they saved Apple, and now like the scorpion riding on the Frogs back, Apple may be paying Microsoft back with a slow death. (the wonderful world of business)
Now Google and Microsoft have been in heated battles for a while now as Google has continued to take over the internet market as well as control hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue. Last month they added a double punch when they announced that they were creating their own online suite of business software which will be available to companies for a $50 annual fee, going head to head with Microsoft.
Seemingly in retaliation Microsoft has aligned with the companies suing Google over copyright infringements (a case they just lost in Belgium with the courts fining Google with a retroactive 32,000 daily fine), in rival “book-scanning projects”. (A system in which books are scanned and content is released on the web and made available - say for example if you’re writing a report on Cheetahs). Google has been the clear winner in this competition which has further cut into Microsoft’s revenue.
Microsoft says that their “book scanning” only scans non-copyrighted material, unless exclusive permission is given,while Google displays snippets of books for “fair use” a principle that allows limited copying of protected works for certain purposes. Thomas Rubin, an associate general counsel at Microsoft stated their position clearly stating that Google “appears to be trying wherever possible to skirt copyright law’s boundaries.” He later continued, “Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people’s content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue.”
However, while Google may have taken a hit it was certainly no knock-out (more like a mosquito bite) and now Google and Apple are teaming together and may even be jointly producing a tablet-style computer. Google has already added their search and map function to Apple’s iPhone, and while we don’t know more than the tablet computer rumors, CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt did confirm yesterday that Apple and Google will be collaborating on several more products.
Schmidt had this to say when asked if Google would be developing their own internet communications device to compete with the iPhone, “I don’t want to comment on rumors,” he said, then added: “I will tell you that Google and Apple are doing more and more things together through the normal course of communications … We have similar goals and similar competitors.”
Microsoft, probably feeling hurt after the dismal Zune reception, may have dealt the first blows when it’s new Vista software proved incompatible with the famous Apple iPod. Apple, promised a fix with compatibility issues addressed in a upgrade done on their own but now seems to have thought better of the matter. Their newly released iTunes 7.1 upgrade added Coverflow as well as set up Apple TV software. It also added features to fix security problems with Quick Time yet did not even mention the Vista fix still only recommending Windows 2004 or XP. Now if Google and Apple are to come out with software that is in direct market competition with Microsoft why fix the Vista problem (that would only sell more Vista’s, as the 70 million people who own an iPod may not buy Vista simply because of this problem) If Microsoft set up the compatibility issue on purpose to promote their Zune (and we’re not saying they did!) it may be something that will instead backfire, whether the issue was accidental or not.
To add to Microsoft’s troubles, Fortune Magazine just added Apple to their top ten most respected companies in America. Apple jumped from number 11 to number 7 one ahead of Microsoft, due in part to their continued innovation, people management and quality of products and services. This puts them behind only IBM in Fortunes ranking for most admired computer company. This has also caused Apples stock to rise once again, this time to over the $100 mark, up to $105, for analysts such as Prudential’s Jesse Tortora.
All in all it is rather interesting to watch the big boys duke it out, (without the gloves). It also takes the competition to a whole new level which should spawn a new growth in computer innovation as well as perhaps some great prices on products for the consumer. (provided of course we see innovation in competition, not simply lawsuits after lawsuits - play nice boys - let he who plays the best products win, not he who has the best lawyers.)
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