So what does it really mean for Yahoo! and Microsoft?

Have the battle lines been drawn? Is it time to take sides? Am referring to the recent announcement that Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google will be joining Apple Computers board. As a keen follower of the companies and a avid user of their services, software and computers I find the move extremely interesting and exciting. So what are the areas they can cooperate on?

  • I can imagine a world without the need for the $99 .mac service that Apple provides. I’ve heard the service is not great (I did use it through the 60 day trial and wasn’t impressed).
  • Google and Apple could work out a better solution for the end customer where in Mac Mail, Calendar, Address-book etc. just work with the corresponding Google services, keeping all user data in sync.
  • Why limit ourselves to mundane things only? How about being able to access (and play) all my iTunes music and video through Google Video (and Audio one day)? How about backing my entire mac and making it searchable online?
  • Spotlight search on Mac’s could offer algorithmic web search results from Google.

Now there are areas where Google and Apple may not see eye to eye:

  • Apple would like to keep iPhoto as the tool for managing photos, instead of Google’s Picasa (which someday may have a Mac version…for now it has a basic picasa web albums uploader).
  • Apple would probably like to make sure that they retain their brand and mac doesn’t become synonymous with Google (far fetched …. but possible).

A quote from the very well written NY Times article:

“The old social networks in Silicon Valley run very deep,” noted AnnaLee Saxenian, a leading scholar of the industry and dean of the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. “And this reminds us that Silicon Valley has a common enemy to the north.”

Now we all know who the common enemy is! But the real question is what options does all this leave it and Yahoo! (the company I work for) with?

September 6th, 2006 in Apple, Business, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!
  • Himanshu Sahani
    There is one thing which is common between Apple and Google - simplicity and elegance of design. Take a look at all Google products right from search to spreadsheets. The user interface remains elegantly simple like ipod or the calendar widget in Mac.

    Apple's been trying to revamp its OS business for some time now. Just being an acknowledged superior product does not results in more marketshare. They did move in the right direction by supporting Intel processors. I beleive joining forces with Google is also in the same direction.

    A couple of years back, after Google's IPO, the industry was rife with rumours of GOOS - Google OS. Pundits were predicting that in another decade OS will give way to webtops - machines with just browser to access the services on tap, Everything from OS to storage would be in the network. I would say that with Apple and Google coming together it is not far fetched now.

    Till date, Apple was innovating in the platform space -sleeker UI - better performance. Now, we can expect innovation in the network.
  • I would say it doesnt change much.. atleast not in the near future. i doubt if being on the board gives eric schmidt any power to change the workings of apple. it all rests with steve jobs. it might hav just been that eric schmidt is a technology visionary and apple probably wanted such a guy on its board. and frankly i dont see what is common in the two companies. atleast not now. may be apple's foray into the living room and google's vision for putting ads in tv are two directions pointing towards an intersection. and that is 1. far fetched and 2. does not affect a lot of other businesses of MS and yahoo. ok. maybe media center. but its still far fetched.
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