The Battle for our Hearts and Minds (and Wallets)

The competition between tech companies reminds me a lot of the board game Risk.  Do you remember Risk?  I played it a lot back in law school.  It is a battle for world domination between countries/players.  Think Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon as the superpowers.  Microsoft as the once-powerful country in decline. The smaller companies that wish to survive find defensible niches, or strike alliances with the big guys.  The big guys each started from a core platform, and extend out from there.  Apple's core is hardware, with its proprietary software embedded in it.  Google's core is search, and an ever-expanding array of internet/cloud-based tools and software.  Facebook's core is social media.  Amazon's core is e-commerce.

Here's a blog post that suggests the Android platform is in trouble.  Why?  Because as the enterprise market (i.e., corporate IT departments) starts to open up and support non-Blackberry phones, the IT folks who manage it prefer the Apple world because it is easier to manage.  There are only a few flavors of IOS, whereas Android has multiple different versions, and phone manufacturers customize their Android phones, making it harder for the IT folks to support and manage versus the tightly controlled Apple platform.  The diversity of Android makes it more attractive in one sense, in that there can be more innovation, but that is offset by the fact that it is less uniform.  Here's a blog post from the New York Times that talks about some of this:   http://tinyurl.com/7o845ac  

There is a lot of speculation that Google might have to enter the hardware business.  Apple has a big advantage by having control over its platform.  Google's advantage is that it can leverage many other manufacturers by being an open source to them.  The downside, of course, is lack of uniformity and interoperability.  So Google surely is thinking about making its own smartphones and tablets.  Maybe designing the phones and tablets and letting others manufacture and sell it under their label?  That might be the way to go.  It's hard to compete with your customers.

Like the board game Risk, a superpower has to avoid a situation where its enemy gets to a tipping point.  Things go downhill in a hurry after that.  Think RIM. 

It's hard to believe, but just a few years ago Google's Eric Schmidt sat on the board of Apple.  Now these two behemoths are locked in mortal combat.  Kind of like King Kong battling Godzilla.  Us customers are on the ground watching in fascination and trying to avoid getting trampled.  It would be perilous to predict how this will turn out.