And The Next Battle Is Apple vs. Google... As Microsoft/Yahoo Fade Off Into The Sunset?

from the moving-on dept

Wed, Apr 7th 2010 7:41am — Mike Masnick

Ah, the shifting tech world landscape. For the past few years, the monsters of the tech world were considered to be Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, in that all three seemed to be competing in the same arena. However, with Yahoo stumbling and Microsoft still failing to get much traction in the online world (yes, a bit more than in the past, but not enough to be interesting), everyone's looking for a new fight. Slashdot points us to a story of some analyst predicting (based on nothing, really) that Apple may start its own search engine. It appears that this is pure guesswork, based on the idea that Apple might not want Google paying close attention to what people are doing on their iPhones... especially as it builds up its own mobile device business.

While plenty of virtual ink has been spilled over the Google/Apple device battles, could they be approaching a bigger online battle as well? It's certainly not outside the realm of possibility -- and given its control over the devices it sells, perhaps it could get a pretty good starting position with a search engine. Still, it does seem like a bit of a reach for Steve Jobs and company. At this point, it seems more like some analyst just looking for a more interest "Google vs." prediction than anything serious at this point.

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Filed Under: competition
Companies: apple, google, microsoft, yahoo

21 Comments

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reboog711 (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:02am

Real Battles or created by the press?
Similar to the Adobe vs Apple debates happening in some development circles; I wonder how real these "Battles" are and how much they are manufactured by journalists.

Most big software companies have some overlap in products; don't they? And plenty of areas where their products are complimentary not competitive.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:05am

Who?
Micro$oft and ???
Can't say I recognize that other name...
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duane (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:05am

mobile ads
The article I read (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20001905-93.html) seemed to be pointing to a potential conflict. The article suggests that Google will be happy to have Apple in the mobile advertising market, but friendly rivals today often turn into bitter enemies tomorrow...
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Gipi Gopinath, 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:22am

Google V/s Apple
Competition is always good. It makes the products better and reliable. There should be more competition is this field.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:25am

What a stupid, pointless, fact-less article. A complete waste of time.
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Designerfx (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:30am

apple search
apple search is pointless. People might be defaulted to one search engine but they're still going to use gmail, google calendar, etc.

Google will still have the info with or without the search engine.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:40am

Just because I do a search through my iPhone doesn't mean I want what I'm searching for on my iPhone. I think people make far to big of a deal about how useful search data is. First of all, it suffers from the same problem as trying to get intelligence from large amounts of data such as phone calls or email. There's just too much and the useful stuff gets drowned out by the junk.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2010 @ 8:49am

Only a fool would believe Microsoft has faded off into the sunset...they are far from faded. The use of Windows Mobile alone has propelled them far ahead. No one in business wants a crappy iPhone...they are CRAP. They have a nice interface but thats where it ends. Also, Windows 7 is an absolutely AWESOME OS. Think what you want but Microsoft is still one of the the big boys on the block. I agree Google has become very significant too but they are a very intrusive company and are compiling all kinds of data about people and their use of devices. Too cozy for me...sorry.
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interval, 7 Apr 2010 @ 9:05am

Re:
"The use of Windows Mobile alone has propelled them far ahead."

What is 'Window Mobile'? Seriously, no one takes WM seriously, at least not yet. In that light, I would hardly call Microsoft 'Far Ahead'. The media if rife with comments and commentary about how Windows is the next big dinosaur, soon to me replaced by the network os. I don't believe Microsoft is as huge and far ahead as you think it is.
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Free Capitalist (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 9:11am

Apropos tangent
I have to admit I'm no fan of the "parent" Yahoo senior management, but I still fail to see how $8B / year should be considered "struggling". Yahoo is dumping their one profitable division to a company that never caught up.

Investors are idiots who think that there should only be a #1.
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sean, 7 Apr 2010 @ 9:13am

Re: apple search
google will have to closed their business if they don't have search. that's the only bowl has something in it. period.
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Neil, 7 Apr 2010 @ 9:17am

Re:
I agree lets see apple come out with a total failure like vista and still retain its sheep. companies make mistakes not every product is going to succeed. in the long term they need to be able to pick up the pieces and carry on.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2010 @ 10:01am

That analist should catch up with the facts on the ground.

ISP's are redirecting traffic to their own sites to show ads, there was this one incident this days that the ISP was even redirecting google traffic to it's own ad servers.

If there is going to be a fight will be google against ISP's.
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NAMELESS.ONE, 7 Apr 2010 @ 10:02am

apple what
whats apple , isn't that a fruit...makes ya wonder
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Free Capitalist (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 10:12am

Re: Re:
lets see apple come out with a total failure like vista and still retain its sheep

One acronym: OS7 (at least the first several variants)
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zbeeblebrox, 7 Apr 2010 @ 10:47am

Re: Real Battles or created by the press?
Adobe vs Apple has been discussed ever since Adobe removed the option to convert to Quicktime from Flash, so many years ago. And then there's the big thing about Apple not interested in including Flashplayer capabilities in the iPhone. Those things alone are enough to stir up debate about a rivalry, without any need for journalists.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2010 @ 11:51am

Re: Re:
you're an idiot then. I've been in IT for 25 years and still going strong with MANY Small Biz clients the VAST majority use Windows Mobile (just open your eyes and go into any store, verizon, Sprint, etc) and look at the offering of Windows Mobile devices if you need to prove it to yourself. MS has 50 Billion dollars in the bank. They are a leader and are here to stay.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2010 @ 1:44pm

Mac System 7- @ Free Capitalist
Mac System 7 came out at a time when Gil Amelio was running Apple. Remember, at this time, Steve Jobs was kicked out and was working at NeXT, which oddly was later acquired by Amelio, and became the basis for OSX.
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JackSombra (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 2:32pm

Re: Re:
"The media if rife with comments and commentary about how Windows is the next big dinosaur, soon to me replaced by the network os. "

We have been hearing some version of this for the last 15 years or so (basically since windows took over the desktop) and most likely be hearing it for the next 15 years with still little change

The "cloud" might eat into the desktop application's market a bit but it will have no impact on the OS market any time soon, people are just too used to windows and loath to change

Even then the cloud will have an impact nowhere near as much as the media goes on about and what impact it does have will actually be greater in the personal/home/small company computing market than the corp. market, large companies are loath to just hand over their data to some 3rd party, which might be in another country and governed by totally different rules (in some cases they are already laws against this, such as customers personal information being sent from UK to the US due to the lax US data protection laws)

MS have been slow on properly jumping into the mobile market, but then they always have been slow on everything they do. But when they fully get behind something they generally take over, not because they do best working product (that in this case, OS's, would be apple) but rather because they do the most flexible, easy to use, product that suits the needs of the widest possible audience (defiantly not apple)
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BearGriz72 (profile), 7 Apr 2010 @ 2:36pm

Re: Re: Re: (A/C)
M$ Fanboy Says What?

OK all kidding aside I am pretty sure that when Mike said "Microsoft still failing to get much traction in the online world (yes, a bit more than in the past, but not enough to be interesting)" that he was referencing search in particular (seems to be pretty clear in the context to me). Latest News shows that for Search the market share is thus ... Google 69.97% / Yahoo 15% / Microsoft's Bing 9.6% {http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yahoo-gains-us-search-share-in-march-report-2010-04-07}

Windows 7 is a very cool OS by far the best Microsoft has ever produced but it certainly is not the only game in town. As far as Windows Mobile goes Microsoft has some catching up to do. I use a Windows Mobile 6.1 Smartphone Myself (HTC Mogul / PPC 6800) because of the ease of moving information in and out of windows, but I know a lot of people who like the iPhone (I personally have no interest in dealing with Apple's proprietary BS) and the Android OS. I am waiting for Windows Mobile 7 before I upgrade and I hope that Microsoft does equally as well with Windows Mobile 7 as they did with Windows 7 but Microsoft's past performance does not inspire much confidence in that.

Responding to how much money Microsoft has in the bank. 1) Cite your source because I doubt they have that in any bank, total holdings or cash equity maybe, but actually in the bank, doubtful. 2) Who Cares? The "I will crush you with my wallet" defense may work in court but does not measure actual leadership or innovation.

Next?
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enrolled agent 2010, 9 Apr 2010 @ 1:19pm

Yahoo is just a website...
that's all. It's a kid compared to the all grown up Microsoft. They can be linked but mentioning them on the same breath, muc h less having a rivalry? It's a no contest! Even Apple and Google would have a hard time catching up with Microsoft, world wide.
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