I guess it is not surprising anymore, but I couldn't help wondering about Microsoft being left out of consideration. Would love to here thoughts about how, and if, MS will compete among these companies.
The Great Tech War Of 2012
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Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#22I'm I the only one who doesn't place Facebook in the class as Amazon/Google/Apple? Maybe, someday, but not quite yet.
I was thinking the same thing. The other three have their hand in software, hardware, and media. Facebook still seems like just a media company.
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. For all the hype, pre-IPO valuation and talent draining, Facebook has done surprisingly little worthy of attention for several years now.
They have detailed personal information on 700m+ people. How is that not "worthy of attention"?
They haven't figured out how to use it to make anywhere near the kind of money that would justify their valuation, and any attempts to exploit it in any meaningful and profitable manner would likely be met with a huge backlash.
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. For all the hype, pre-IPO valuation and talent draining, Facebook has done surprisingly little worthy of attention for several years now.
For all the hype etc, I'm not sure how much any of these companies have really done that is worthy of positive attention for several years now. They obviously have a few big hits, but they all have at least as many failures and/or obvious competitive weaknesses. Apple have no doubt moved or effectively created entire markets and business models over the years. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have changed consumption patter…
>Google has a search engine, an e-mail service, a video sharing service, and a much more successful advertising model built around them.
You're forgetting Android. There are some other services I would include in with their top-tier ones (maps being a good example), but the omission of Android is fairly glaring.
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. For all the hype, pre-IPO valuation and talent draining, Facebook has done surprisingly little worthy of attention for several years now.
For all the hype etc, I'm not sure how much any of these companies have really done that is worthy of positive attention for several years now. They obviously have a few big hits, but they all have at least as many failures and/or obvious competitive weaknesses. Apple have no doubt moved or effectively created entire markets and business models over the years. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have changed consumption patter…
I disagree with your assessment that "not one of [Google's] three positions is easily defensible in the face of determined competition, and I suspect it is more by luck (and inertia) than judgement that they have avoided this fate so far." There has been vigorous competition for search, including many billions spent by Microsoft on Bing. Microsoft literally tried to pay people to use their search. Microsoft continues to lose hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter in their attempt to gain search share. I don't know how much more proof you need to see that Google's position in search is easily defensible.
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#26> Zuckerberg is even maturing into a capable presenter. Compared to Bezos, Cook, and Page, he's most adept at mimicking Jobs's singular skills, and comes off as infectiously visionary when unveiling a new product. really?
I had the same reaction, but you have to keep in mind the company he's in. Cook's iPhone presentation struck me as fine but uninspiring, I've never seen Bezos give a presentation, and Larry's... not good in public. I still can't stand Zuck, but at least he hasn't had any more "hoody moments".
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#27I guess it is not surprising anymore, but I couldn't help wondering about Microsoft being left out of consideration. Would love to here thoughts about how, and if, MS will compete among these companies.
Agreed. While clearly not leaders in hardware, Microsoft's entrenched position in the enterprise means you can never count them out. They have a history of arriving very late to a game, getting it wrong a few times, but finally getting it right to gain the #1 position. I guess it's just hard to see now given some of the recent high profile failures like Zune and the meager gains in Bing market share after spending so many billions. But what about expanding upon their strong foothold in the living room with Xbox and Kinect?
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#28More interesting than the holistic ecosystem/platform war is who among these four will join efforts to counter the other two?
Outside of possibly Amazon-Google, I don't see anyone joining up. Google hates Facebook, Apple hates Google, neither has integrated facebook into their mobile OS, and everyone seems content to ignore Amazon. We'll see how that changes with the introduction of the Fire, but I can't see facebook moving beyond their niche, and there's too much direct competition between Apple-Google and Apple-Amazon to allow for a partnership between anyone other than Google and Amazon.
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#29The vertical control of Apple (most notably) as well as Amazon and Google is almost complete. The author noted that they don't have:
1. Billing/banking control - Purchases on all three go through credit cards, where a portion gets siphoned off.
2. Internet access control - Apple has a lot of clout, and can do basically whatever they want, but they're still limited by the ISPs and telecos.
I really hope to see these companies compete in these industries. However, he left off one more space where they don't compete: at the bottom of the stack, selling silicon. Companies like Samsung and Toshiba can build their own SoCs for the devices they manufacture. If those manufacturers start doing more internally, we might see some impressive and competitive new devices.
Re: The Great Tech War Of 2012
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
For all the hype etc, I'm not sure how much any of these companies have really done that is worthy of positive attention for several years now. They obviously have a few big hits, but they all have at least as many failures and/or obvious competitive weaknesses. Apple have no doubt moved or effectively created entire markets and business models over the years. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have changed consumption patter…
>Google has a search engine, an e-mail service, a video sharing service, and a much more successful advertising model built around them. You're forgetting Android. There are some other services I would include in with their top-tier ones (maps being a good example), but the omission of Android is fairly glaring.
GP also failed to mention Amazon's little side business, AWS. More than anything else, AWS makes Amazon one of the most visionary and capable companies in the world to me, before even getting into rolling out Kindle and pretty much creating the e-book market overnight.