{"id":210314,"date":"2010-01-21T21:30:17","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T02:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xconomy.com\/?p=59651"},"modified":"2010-01-21T21:30:17","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T02:30:17","slug":"friend-or-foe-how-apple-is-forcing-microsoft-amazon-google-and-att-to-raise-their-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/210314","title":{"rendered":"Friend or Foe: How Apple Is Forcing Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and AT&T to Raise Their Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Software<\/a>, Mobile<\/a>, Analysis<\/a><\/div>\n

\t\t\"Apple's<\/a>
\n\t\tGregory T. Huang wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s increasing overlap with other technology companies—including mainstays of the Seattle and Boston scenes—is one of the biggest business trends of the year. It doesn\u2019t matter whether you are the world\u2019s biggest software company (Microsoft), a Web search and advertising titan (Google), an online retail giant (Amazon), a wireless carrier (AT&T), a digital music startup (see this story on Seattle-based Melodeo<\/a>), or a mobile advertising network (Cambridge, MA-based Jumptap<\/a>): Apple is now moving in on your turf.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been talking with a number of techies about this tangled web and its implications for innovation. \u201cWhat\u2019s really interesting is the fact that everybody is sort of co-dependent and sort of competing,\u201d says Steve Hall, managing director of Seattle-based Vulcan Capital. \u201cWhere companies start and stop is getting blurrier. AT&T is a network and a carrier, but it\u2019s also trying to push specific devices to gain market share. Apple is a device maker and also an [operating system] and software maker, but it\u2019s dependent on a network like AT&T.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a relatively new phenomenon, says Hall, an avid iPhone user and longtime technology trend spotter. \u201cIn the pre-iPhone days, LG made my phone—who cares? That was decoupled from who was the software provider,\u201d he says. But now with Apple and Google getting deep into the device market and controlling what\u2019s in the mobile platform, \u201cthat has loosened the grip the carrier has had on the consumer choice,\u201d he says. That doesn\u2019t bode well for carriers.<\/p>\n

A couple of new developments this week involve Microsoft, Google, and Amazon in particular. For one, there\u2019s a rumor (floated in BusinessWeek<\/a>) that says Microsoft and Apple are in talks to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone, instead of Google. Whether or not the alleged talks go anywhere, it\u2019s a very interesting premise, given that Apple and Google are increasingly butting heads in smartphones, mobile advertising, and digital music. (Interesting to note that former Genentech CEO Art Levinson, an Apple board member, left Google\u2019s board<\/a> in October, following Google CEO Eric Schmidt\u2019s departure from Apple\u2019s board last July; I wonder how long Al Gore can stay involved with both companies.)<\/p>\n

Bing is already available on the iPhone as a downloadable app<\/a>, or through its website. But the rumored partnership would boost Bing\u2019s profile immediately, and would probably require users to change the search setting to Google (if they want to). One anonymous source with knowledge of Apple was quoted in BusinessWeek as saying, \u201cApple and Google know the other is their primary enemy. Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Amazon announced<\/a> today it is inviting software developers to create applications for its Kindle device, through a new development kit. That\u2019s right, Amazon is going to offer apps (it calls them \u201cactive content\u201d)—like games, puzzles, and restaurant guides—in its Kindle Store …Next Page »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Software, Mobile, Analysis Gregory T. Huang wrote: Apple\u2019s increasing overlap with other technology companies—including mainstays of the Seattle and Boston scenes—is one of the biggest business trends of the year. It doesn\u2019t matter whether you are the world\u2019s biggest software company (Microsoft), a Web search and advertising titan (Google), an online retail giant (Amazon), a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-mobile","category-news","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}