You’ve probably heard about the iPhone, right? </joke>
- Why Google is going mobile
- Why the iPhone/iPad (really) does not allow flash and Google Voice
I will use an analogy to try to explain my view, remember I might be wrong but I think the explanation “Apple does not want Flash on the iPhone/iPad because you get free stuff with Flash” is too simplistic.
Pretend you have a cable or satellite TV company.
Your company is called “iBanana” and it has different channels and it also sells and rents movies online, you would rent movies for € 2.00 and sell movie downloads for € 7.00.
Your TV channels would cost € 1.00 a month. per subscription.
If people want to see your content they have to buy a special receiver box called the “iBanana-TV”
Amongst your TV channel offers you have a cooking channel, a crafts channel, a documentaries channel and many others.
With time your company starts growing, it has great service and people like it, anyone who would not have your services must be crazy.
In the street, conversations would go like this:
- Hey I saw “Conan Vs. Godzilla” yesterday and it was awesome!
- Where? I want to see it, too.
- iBanana-TV, special promo, a 4.00 € download.
- Cheap, I will buy it too, sweet…
And sweet it is, an ideal legal downloads utopia where everyone pays per watch.
All is well until…
One day a broadcasting company called VoodooGle wants to join your TV channels they have a channel called “Watch-All-The-Movies-Channel” they offer movies and it’s a great addition to your “iBanana-TV“.
Until you realize the mistake, you think “hmm… what if they decide to launch their own company? if they leave iBanana-TV people could follow them and leave us…”
And it happens, one day the VoodooGle decide to launch their own iBanana-TV and they call it the VoodooGle-TV and since they acquired a lot of clients who already knew their product from your iBanana-TV, they could easily leave your and switch to the VoodooGle-TV offer.
The difference is that in their VoodooGle-TV they have the “Watch-All-The-Movies-Channel” with all the movies for free, just pay a monthly subscription.
The executives in your company panic because who would want to buy movies from iBanana anymore? And they panic because downloads represent 25% of your business.
So you decide to kick the Watch-All-The-Movies-Channel channel out of your iBanana offer for good you don’t want them using your TV offerings to gain clients for their platform.
Now, let us translate that to the music, video and phone industries:
Let’s say you are Apple-AT&T or Apple-Orange or Apple(phone carrier).
Would you allow a VoIP application (Skype) make long distance calls on your network at the cost of a local call or far cheaper than your long distance prices?
No.
Why not?
If you were a phone company:
Allowing VoIP over your 3G or 4G networks would impose a massive strain (so they claim), remember, VoIP takes significant bandwidth (if it reaches critical mass) imagine everyone talking on VoIP, with the overload dropped calls would ensue, you would have to invest more on your 3G and 4G and 5G (as if) networks and that costs money, you want your money for yourself right? Why invest in improving your network? pfft.
But that’s not the worst, people would just stop using your own network (outside VoIP) for long distance calls, I mean, look at your ridiculous pricing scheme, a long distance call through you would cost an arm and a leg and another arm.
I would call my aunt in Timbuktu using Skype not a regular cellular network and we could talk for hours as it would be cheap.
What about texting? who uses that thing anymore? People get a free ride with MSN, Skype and other chat clients.
So you would tell Apple, “hey buddy, you can authorize VoIP applications for the iPhone/iPad but they must only work over Wi-Fi”.
People think that in the same guise, Apple does not allow Flash because:
You can upload and download files with Flash, you can play video games with flash, you can stream video with Flash, you can do almost everything with Flash if it had the right permissions.
If Flash is so great why does Apple treat it as the Antichrist?
- Flash is a resource hog < it’s become a meme. It would drain your beautiful iPhone battery in half an hour.
- Plus, if you can download and upload through Flash you technically could bypass iTunes to sync your libraries.
- You would play free Flash video games without the need of the Appstore.
- Hey, why go through iTunes to get movies if you could get them for free through the flash-based Hulu site (and Megavideo)?
- Developers would have no reason to program in Objective-C (iPhone language), if they already do so in Flash/Java.
Ok yes, so far so good but what about that Google Vs. Apple war you were talking about?
Oh yes, Google…
What was ever so wrong about that Google Voice app that it had to be banished from the Apple Appstore? is Apple crazy?
That Google Voice App is A Trojan Horse (no, not the virus kind)
Well you see, that Google Voice app was not just an innocent little app, it’s a platform, no, rather see it as a Trojan horse, and I do not mean Trojan as in virus, it was practically a window to the Google Android platform, and if you became used to all its (very practical) functionalities people would see no reason to buy an iPhone anymore the next time Google would come up with their own device.
Google wants its products to be hardware agnostic
Why? because Microsoft beat Apple in the OS wars through since the 80′s this way, Microsoft never made any efforts of building their own computers like Apple did. If you had a Motorola Droid and you needed a replacement you would perhaps change the maker but the platform would still be Google’s own Android, so much as when most people changed PCs they would still get Windows in them.
Apple saw that coming and they thought, oh so they want to replace the iPhone platform via an app, and they thought, naa… no way, Scotty: beam them away – Yes captain.
Google is already competing against Apple in many services:
Would you like to sync your contacts, email, and calendars online with every computer and phone you have?
You can use Apple’s Me and pay up to 99 Dollars a year or Google Gmail, free.
Would you like to have a smart phone *yeah it’s an old school term* that has great applications, GMS, maps, calendars, multimedia, camera Etc? get an iPhone… or an Android device.
These, ladies and gentlemen are just two of a myriad of products and services that Apple and Google will compete on. This is only the beginning so brace, brace, brace…
Who fired the first shot?
Google, no, Apple, I mean… both
How and why?
Would you have a competitor in your board of directors meetings?
Apple took a “preemptive measure” by removing Google’s Schmidt from their board of directors as soon as they knew Google would come up with their own phone platform.
It’s as if Churchill invited Rommel to their strategic command meetings.
Remember that company Apple wanted to buy and ended up in the hands of Google?
Apple bided for AdMob, a mobile advertising agency for two reasons. and NO, it is NOT because Apple wants to place ads on mobile devices don’t be silly oops sorry for yelling.
It was yet, another “preemptive” measure.
1. AdMob is a wealthy source of business intelligence, they are the leading mobile advertising platform and they do have a lot of info about what iPhone customers (and other customers) are looking for.
2. You did not want all that info falling into the wrong -cough- Google hands.
This war is mostly about information
If you were Google and you see in your search insights data that a huge number of people want smart phones and mobile services, all the business intelligence points to mobile, and MOBILE you connect the dots and see that the money is in the mobile business what would you do?
Adroid.
What prevents Google from using their own data for their own business purposes? Don’t be evil schmevil.
More silly analogies…
- If you had a successful restaurant, would you let a competing chef-entrepreneur work in your kitchen and steal your recipes?
- If you were Antonio Vivaldi would you invite other violin makers to your workshop when you were designing your new violins?
- If you had a doughnut and coffee store in a cop district would you let your competitor place a streaming webcam in the counter to see what people want and are currently buying?
- If you were Apple would you let Google’s CEO in your iPhone meetings?
I don’t think so.
Search engine intelligence is where Apple has too late realized that they do not have the upper hand, and nothing can prevent Google from harvesting information about customers and their preferences, I mean, who doesn’t use the Googles?
Apple has recently acquired Quattro Wireless, to advertise? probably, but I think mostly to thwart the Google menace and drive ad traffic (and intelligence) away from AdMob.
Kung Fu fighting predictions
Yes, it has come to this, it’s like that classical Neo Vs. Morpheus kung fu scene, it’s kinetically energetic and breathtakingly fast and if the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission in the US approve Google’s plans I think the moves will be like this:
Round 1.
1. Google will try to sucker punch Apple by repeating the Microsoft-Apple war of the clones with Android.
2. Apple will come up with a different device (done) / ball game, remember when Apple is not doing well in one field they just invent another field so that others can play catch.
Round 2.
1. Google will integrate all their information / GMS location services / social media / content and intelligence gathering in one single device: Android
2. Apple will try to do the same (already bought their own mapping services company) but it will be too busy trying to revolutionize the print media industry hence, they will fail at anything cloud.
(Edit, now that that I think about it… when was the last time Apple *the one with SJ back* failed at anything significant or when have they followed rather than lead?)
Round 3
1. Google will get their cake and eat it and will be able to use all that purchased wireless spectrum space and create their own voice and data network with free worldwide calls, for a monthly fee.
2. Apple will say eh.. whatever dude… here’s a shiny new device that I’ve made and has nothing to do with anything you’ve seen seen before and it’s carrier agnostic…
In sommation I do not know (and nobody does) what Apple will do as their moves are very secretive, it is far easier to see, love, fear and loath what ever Google may be up to, they are evil (but I love Gmail! and Google apps, and Google Maps and…), but their attempt to appear nice and open makes them predictable.
In the mean time you have enough time to get your popcorn, seat down and watch.
