The good, the bad, and the ugly in the battle between Apple and Google

With the relationship between Apple and Google dwindling by the hour as both parties are getting closer and closer to a full blown war of the mobile war, we have looked at what good could come out of the situation, the bad news, and the downright ugly outcome that we definitely do not want to see.

The relationship between Apple and Google has been based on hardware and software services coming together in harmony, but as both companies seek to find new sources of revenue from their massive customer base they are slowly eating into each others markets, with Apple protecting their territory by limiting Google services through the App Store, and with Google stepping on Apple’s toes by delivering their own superphone, the Google Nexus One running Google’s own Android firmware,  to challenge the Apple iPhone for the future hegemony of the massive and growing mobile market.

What good can come out of this?

Believe it or not but there are already some positives coming out of the war between Apple and Google in terms of new products and services for the consumer. We are firm believers in healthy competition to drive both technology and customer services forward, and with two giants like Apple and Google delivering competing services to the market it gives us more choice and forces them both to deliver their best to stay that step ahead in the technological evolution that we all like so much. The worst situation for a consumer is a situation where there is close to monopoly, especially when it comes to services you actually have to pay for.

Google launching their own smartphones on their own platform only means that Apple will move their product development further at a faster pace, and Apple potentially moving into the mobile ad and search market means there will be more competition in that market as well, and more choice has rarely hurt anyone.

The bad outcome

Although there are many positive sides to the two giants challenging each other in the tech market, it can also result in isolation and limiting access to popular services for the end user. The last thing we would like to see is either Apple or Google limiting how the end user can use the services of the respective company on their devices.

We have earlier commented on how much we are against Apple limiting access to services through the iTunes App Store approval process. Of course we understand that they are looking to protect their own services and profit line, but should Apple go to the length of limiting how people can use and access services from Google on the iPhone or iPod Touch for example, that would mean a decline in functionality and choice for the end user, which is never any good. After all we don’t want Apple nor Google to become the China of the tech world!

The ugly outcome

Microsoft! We are already starting to hear the rumors about Microsoft playing dirty to increase the marketshare of their renamed search engine service Bing by paying large publishers (NewsCorp) to take their content off Google and make it available solely through Bing. Now there is also talk about Apple falling into the temptations to replace Google as the default search engine and replace it with Bing - Steve (Jobs), stay away from the dark side!

As Google so elegantly puts it; “Don’t be evil”

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