Why the Apple/Google Feud is Good for Us

apple vs google

A few months ago I wrote an article titled Apple Vs google: the war is on. As often, I saw things coming fast and the feud between Google and Apple is now a big deal. For those of us who have bad memory, here are a few events that heated up the rivalry between the two giants.

  1. First, Google entered the mobile market with Android, competing with iPhone OS
  2. Then Google entered the browser market with Chrome, competing with Safari
  3. Now Google wants to enter the OS market with Google OS, competing with Mac OS
  4. Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board
  5. Apple tried to buy mobile ad platform AdMob, to compete with Google
  6. Google outbid Apple and snatched AdMob
  7. Apple bought out PlaceBase, a company that does what Google Maps does
  8. Apple bought Lala in a hurry, lest Google buys it out first
  9. Apple bought digital ad agency Quattro
  10. Google enters the hardware business by making its own phone, directly competing with the iPhone

Both companies have lots of businesses overlapping each other and that’s good for us. Google and Apple are now competing on the following grounds: hardware, software, advertising, location services, and probably more that I forgot.

I don’t know if you realize this yet but this is the beginning of an amazing war between Google and Apple. Apple is not just a computer company anymore. In the same way, Google is not just a search engine anymore.

Why is the rivalry between Google and Apple good for consumers?

This war between Google and Apple is good for 2 main reasons. First, let’s talk about innovation. When 2 (or more companies) fight for a market, one of the several ways they can outdo each other is by innovating. With Apple in the same room as Google, they won’t have any choice but to provide users what they really want, and not slow down feature releases like Apple has been doing for a while.

Remember how we were waiting for copy/paste on the iPhone? Remember how we’re still waiting for multitasking? Remember this shitty camera on the iPhone? Well this is a thing of the past. With new phones like the Nexus One delivering the quality that you might expect from such a device, Apple will have to come up with at least as good as Google.

The second reason this war between Google and Apple is good for consumers is that prices might go down just a bit. Apple is not the kind of company that sells cheap products. That’s part of their marketing. They know people will pay more for quality product with a little apple on it.

However I believe that in the long run (I’m talking a few years from now), Apple will have no choice but reducing its prices to align its strategy on Google’s.

I really don’t think the price war is coming anytime soon. As I said above it will take a few years. But one thing I am sure of, it’s that Apple will now move its butt and come up with an amazing iPhone 4.0 in a few months. They won’t do that to please you. They will do that because Google leaves them no choice.

Go Apple, go Google. Beat each other up. We users are waiting to see what good is going to come out of your feud.

[Image: Business Week]