I’m a fan of both Apple and Google, so to see them fight it out on the same playing field is like being forced to wear one of those double billed hats to a football game. But looking at the direction of travel of these two companies it really appears that it will be Microsoft left in the dust when it comes to the consumer.
There are two dominate platforms emerging in the Smart Phone market, the iPhone (Apple) and Android based (Google). But unlike the Palm and RIM based machines, these two companies have an ecosystem that stands behind their product. Let me talk to Apple and Google separately and you’ll quickly see what I mean.
Apple
Integration using iTunes
Available on both Mac and Windows based PCs.
Runs Mobile Safari based on WebKit.
Has a total developer program to bring applications to the device based upon Mac OS X.
iPhone operating system based on Mac OS X.
Google
Integration using existing Google Services (Gmail, Google Voice, Documents, etc.)
Available on any platform.
Runs Google Chrome Browser based on WebKit.
Has an SDK program to bring applications to the device.
Android OS is unique to the hand held device based on the Linux kernel.
So what is the game plan going forward? Google believes that Chrome is the future of the desktop. (That) We will get rid of lots of overhead and push the on button and be online. Apple on the other hand may have developers that can develop for one and develop for all by keeping some consistency between the way you develop for both the Mac OS and Mobile Mac OS. 90,000 applications is a lot of applications and if that translates to developers for the Mac, it can only be a good thing for Apple.
Because Google mostly sees the Application relying on the browser and on the Internet, that would lend one to believe that people who make web based Apps will have the most success, since they should run smooth on both an iPhone and an Android phone.
I’ve heard it said that business is about making money and yet it is also about getting your products in the hands of users. It’s still too early to tell who is the David and who is the Goliath, but as we see more of Apple’s business plans come together towards the end of January, we can all be sure that the fun is just beginning.
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