Google pulling a Microsoft on Apple

This week Apple announced a lawsuit against HTC. It's quite clear that the lawsuit is all about Android, being Apple’s response to its skyrocketing popularity.


from the 1996 PBS documentary "Triumph of the Nerds" in which Jobs quotes Picasso's "good artists copy, great artists steal" and adds, about Apple: "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

The iPhone is currently clearly the leader with 63.7% market share. But this position is challenged by Android, in February the iPhone lost 3.2% of its market share while both Android and RIM gained market share. Since its introduction in the end of 2008, Android has steadily been gaining ground on the iPhone, but the growth has accelerated considerably over the last four months. For example, Android’s market share has grown 44% over the past quarter, and has doubled over the past year. All the while, the iPhone has lost 5% from last quarter and 10% from last year.


Apple always relied heavily on the integration of hardware and software. Mac computers with Mac OS. iPods with iTunes. iPhone with its own closed operating system and closely controlled applications. They undeniably give a product that does the things it does very well. It will look cool, it will function as advertised and it will be integrated with the other core Apple products.




History repeating
In the 1980's however, this strategy was crushed by Microsoft's operating system - DOS - that evolved to Windows, gradually adopting many of the features that initially were developed by Apple. Whilst the hardware became a commodity with loads of manufacturers, Microsoft managed to achieve a near monopoly with their complementary OS. This actually looks an awful  lot like the strategy Google has deployed with their Android OS for mobile smart phones that's now flooding over the market. The big difference: unike Windows, Android is free and it's open source, thus challenging the principles iPhones are built on. Google does not necesarily need to make money out of it because for them both device as OS are just  links between people who click on and companies that pay for their ads.

New York Times, march 12 2010: Apple’s Spat With Google Is Getting Personal