For the intangible Google provides me with a bevy of free to use cloud services that also deliver on a user experience not to be found any where else. In the real world each has a master it must obey. The share holder. A share holder wants to see growth even if growth means playing Romulus to Remus.
We have seen Google strike the first blow. I talk about brands for a very good reason as I believe it is in the brands that the direction and outcome of this war can best be seen. A brand is an emotional anchor, it is a religious icon to the consumer.
Every brand has an ideal that consumers who worship it believe in. It secures their loyalty at both the rational and irrational levels of consumerism. Apple as a brand stands for beautiful to look at, simple to use, reliable and productive TANGIBLE products. Try thinking of Apple as the company that only provides.
That leaves most people cold and probably the majority completely turned off. Google as a brand also has a pearl veneer of simple to use, free to use and productive INTANGIBLE products. Their claimed mantra of "don't be evil", that Jobs recently scoffed at, is the clue to their ambitions of who they want to be.
Google is stepping in to the space that Microsoft has owned for decades. A market that Apple could have owned but failed to win for its belief in delivering a complete solution in house. The only way Apple can provide the level of product excellence it does is to keep tight control of everything.
Microsoft waged a clone war in the PC market and won. It focused on software and let others provide cheap hardware. The outcome was a product that left much to be desired by the user but was affordable and universal in format. Too often inferior technology wins the day over superior.
Remember VHS & Betamax, We are witnessing the 2nd Clone war in the smart phone. Google had it's own phone but has opted now for the Microsoft route, let others provide the hardware. However Apple has a head start this time, a significant head start. Take a look at how it found itself in the mobile phone business.
The iPod & iTunes have given Apple 25% of the USA music market. 1 in 4 songs are sold by Apple now in America. Technology moved on and the phone companies tried to muscle in on the iPod by producing phones that were also MP3 players. Apple responded by doing what Apple does best, innovating.
The smart phone market today is Apple's creation, it defined the game and set the rules. Now the iPad arrives and Apples re-invents a whole market once again. Innovation not only in technology but in marketing and lifestyle. Sounds like Apple has it nailed doesn't it, How dated does a 2001 model iPod look, Ancient, bulky, low capacity, etc. Today it's as small as your thumb and mass produced to almost a commodity.
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