What Google, Apple and Microsoft have in common

“Don’t kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he’d eat you and everyone you care about!”

~ Troy McClure

Not really sure where this quote comes from -- dynamic quote creation is a feature of my blogging software -- but it seems appropriate. For years the tech world has been split into two distinct factions: those who like Microsoft and those who don’t. As a matter of fact one of the biggest tech successes in the last 15 years springs directly from the latter of those two groups: Google. Google, founded on the mantra “Don’t Do Harm” was thinking of Microsoft when they fashioned that new age mission statement. Microsoft has always been seen as the bully; greedy, monopolistic and focused on global homogeneity. The goal of technology homogeneity seemed like a good one back in the late 1980’s before the web, consumer electronic standards, communication standards. Today everything about it feels completely stifling and counter intuitive. With that said does anyone think that if given the same chance Google wouldn’t want the same power that Microsoft had in the 1990’s? Apple, in the same way, always held the banner of the Microsoft alternative for those who wanted to “Think Different(ly).” While Apple couldn’t beat Microsoft in the OS war they figured out a way to circumvent the frontal assault and beat Microsoft in alternative battlefields: Cell phones, app stores, music stores, electronic commerce, consumer electronics, etc. Got me to wonder if Apple is becoming exactly that with which they fought against?

What started (or reignited) my thinking around this? Google’s announcement that they’re looking at how to provide 1GB/Sec fiber connections to the last mile. They made the announcement early in the week. The combination of that announcement along with their Android cell phone OS got me thinking that, on one hand, they are interested in anything that increase web traffic, they really aren’t spending too much time working with others on these projects but rather jumping in feet first to make these technologies work on their own. There are many ways to view this but the most obvious -- and most capitalistic -- is the Google is looking distinctly at new businesses to help them simply make more money. The more money they make the happier their shareholders. Good right? This is exactly the attitude that Microsoft had. By expanding into new markets they create inherent (big money) barriers of entry. Now I’m not going to cry over new players in the internet access business: the alternatives pretty much suck today (Comcast, ATT, Verizon, etc). But before we consider this a good thing I’m left wondering what will be next for Google? In ten years will they be playing in pretty much the entire technology ecosystem? Will that be so good?

In the same manner as I’m not crying that Apple has a stranglehold over smart phones, music and media content sales online, etc. I have to wonder where the Apple juggernaut will go next. Perhaps the big difference for Apple is that they are creating brand new markets (iPod/iTunes, iPad, AppleTV, etc) and that is more opportunistic rather than monopolistic. With that said I wonder how many instances of “monopoly” will appear in a Google search of “Apple and music?“ Oh, maybe I should suggest a Bing, er Yahoo search instead?