A new war has begun. Its not between the US, and Iran. And sadly, it does not look like the photo in this blog post. But make no mistake; the war is global, high stakes, irreversible, and like most conflict, will make for interesting stories. It’s between Apple, Google, and Microsoft, and who is going to win? You!
Of course, these three great tech powers have been in conflict for years. But the nature of their conflict has been fairly quiet because for the past three decades, the three powers have been exploiting niche markets and laying foundations in these niche markets. True, Apple released a huge number of commercials that effectively trashed PC’s, but these commercials were more about branding than creating direct competition between Apple and Microsoft. More importantly, any battles that have emerged have been ended quickly thanks to superior technology deployed by one power—the IPod beat the Zune before the Zune hit shelves because the IPod was a slimmer product; the IPhone effectively killed BlackBerry in less than a year because of its multi-touch screen. There wasn’t an opportunity for a real war to begin because one party was always ill prepared for an all-out conflict.
But things have changed, as CIO reports. Microsoft and Apple now seem legitimately scared of Google, and vice versa. Google’s droid has closed the gap between it and the IPhone. The Microsoft Surface can compete directly with the IPad, and worse for Apple, it could win. All three powers have deployed decent technology across all markets segments and have launched campaigns targeting all demographics. In short, they have effectively expanded until they are now in each other’s way. And this is why GTW I has begun.
So, what does that mean for you? Well:
- Good Tech, Cheaper Prices. Apple has to either drop its prices on its new line of IPhones or boost their quality significantly for the same price.
- Search Engine Superiority: Microsoft has to invest more and more into Bing and Internet Explorer, if it doesn’t want to lose the battle for search engine dominance to Google, and Google has to do the same. The big three are going to push themselves to the limit of innovation, creativity and user experience, and we all will benefit from these actions.
- Pick a Side or Give Up Reading Message Boards. As you may of noticed, people either cheered or decried Apple’s recent Samsung victory. There were articles in the Huffington Post, for instance, that attempted to rationally evaluate the court decision, but most of the online debate devolved into partisan trolling. It will only get worse from here on in.
What do you think? How bad or good will this be? Will all three powers eventually settle down? Why or why not? Let us know!