Apple Board Gets Googled
Out in California, the unMicrosoft is being built. Quick on the heels of the Google/eBay advertising alliance comes the startling announcement that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has joined the board of Apple. And with Steve Jobs already the largest shareholder in Disney, that is one humongous multimedia alliance being forged.
Having previously been in positions of power at Novell and Sun, and now at the helm of the biggest new-world technology company there is, Schmidt can bring a lot of experience to the Apple boardroom table. Also, as John Battelle said, “in corporate history, logo color choice, and brand values, Apple shares much in common with Google, that is for sure.” Already there are speculations of a Sun-Apple merger.
As things stand right now, however, both companies have only tertiary gains to be made from each other, but this may change. The two companies also mildly step on each other’s toes in the areas of video distribution (iTunes vs. Google Video) and web services (.Mac vs. everything Google). In recent times, as I pointed out in my last article, Google has ramped up its support for Macintosh in many of its services. Of the major Google applications, only Google Desktop and Picasa have not been ported to Macintosh. Of course, since Macintosh ships with iPhoto, Dashboard, Spotlight and other features, it would be harder for those applications to gain acceptance in the Mac community.
At this point, I would like to step in to speculation territory. So what are the possible collaborations between these two great companies?
Google Video + iTunes
One possibility is that Google backs down from the music sales, but ramps up the user-shareable video and audio features of Google Video. Apple provides the purchasable content, Google provides the user-generated content and together they conquer YouTube, Real, Napster and anyone else who enters the fray.
.Mac + Google
This feels like the best fit. Recently, there has been a lot of talk about how .Mac needs to step up or be walked all over by the likes of Google. Well, .Mac, meet your friend Google. If .Mac transformed in to a Mac branded GMail, Google Calendar, spreadsheet, address book, PicasaWeb and more- based on the services Google already provides, but with hooks in to Macintosh software, it could really help that service take off. Apple could allow advertising-supported free accounts and subscription-supported premium accounts.
Web 2.0 Hooks
A few months ago, I wrote about how Apple needs to own the web 2.0 revolution to wrestle the desktop away from Microsoft. Well, a partnership with Google would make that a lot easier. Google already has the online mindshare and marketshare. As more of people’s digital lives move online, the best desktop will be the one with the best hooks in to the web. Already PicasaWeb hooks in to iPhoto and Google Calendar hooks in to iCal, but this has to be a lot more intuitive and automatic for the alliance to truly make sense.
Most of this implies more value in the deal for Apple than for Google. Of course, the only change that is obvious right now is that both companies may not go out of their way to step on each other’s toes for the foreseeable future. Everything else is speculation, but it is speculation based on the assumption that both of these companies have a common enemy in Microsoft that could be better fought together than alone.
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Comments
The Apple + Sun merger rumour is interesting but what are the synergies or complimentaries?
Java + OS X?
Java VM has been in an Apple OS since System 7.7. So this would not create excitement for a merger.
SPARC + OSX?
Hmmm…interesting. Kind of like Itanium + Windows for corporate folks. I like that but I doubt Steve would approve supporting another architecture as market-limited as the SPARCs.
Sun Servers + XServe + XRAID + XGrid?
Now you’re talking. If Apple ever swallows Sun, it would be because Steve wants to grow Apple’s market share in the corporate world. Why not? This has got to be the fattest profit to conquer. This is where MS and IBM became behemoths for that reason. Apple should be keen to keep both eyes toward the corporate market.
When the dust clears, I think Steve (or whoever the ultimate boss will be) will toss Java to open source completely where it should be. There Java can grow fruitfully and spread its gospels of platform-free development substantially better than when tethered to Sun.
Then ultimately spin-off the SPARC division as a stand-alone company to create competition in the embedded or supercomputing segment.
I think your last answer is a good one- the corporate sector would make sense. The respect for Sun’s brand is still alive and coupled with Apple’s current consumer brand explosion, it could make for an interesting pairing in the corporate world.
Apple deserves merit for its corporate-based hardware. The XServe and XRAID solution coupled with OSX Server (unlimited clients, mind you) is a bargain compared to ones from Sun SPARC-based servers, IBM eServers, or Dell PowerEdge servers.
But while price points matter a lot in the IT procurement world, it is not the only thing important. Vendor history, credibility, and corporate relations matter the most. The motto “you can’t get fired for buying an IBM” in the golden days of IBM was due to its rock solid performance - both hardware and software.
All Apple missing is the respect and credibility with IT folks and CIOs in the Fortune 1000. One way to gain instant credibility is to merge or outright buyout an existing vendor with such praises. Sun would be one of those. Sun servers are a Godsend in the network infrastructure for their legendary performance in speed, efficiency, and almost perfect (as servers go) uptime-downtime ratios.
So, a new term, “you can’t get fired for buying Apple servers” would instantly become boardroom ethos.
It’d be interesting to see Google more or less take over .Mac and replace it with a free Google solution using existing and new Google applications.
Gmail could easily replace .mac mail right now. Ditto with Google Calendars. And gDisk is an app that turns your Gmail account into an iDisk like storage space, with over 2GBs of storage for FREE compared to less than half of that for the $100 that Apple charges.
How about the possibility of Apple & Google cuddling together in the boardroom? Can that be outright crazy?
I think if this happens, the feds will not interfere because Apple will not substantially increase Google’s search dominance. And vice versa, Google will not make Apple the dominant PC player overnight.
If Apple and Google will ever consider tying the knot is to mute a common foe - Microsoft. Both companies radar scopes have M$ on their crosshairs. Combining their raw creative talents and iconic statuses will be too much for M$ to overcome.
Add in the Sun server equation to the math and voila! A very potent entity rivaling that of the old IBM without the “monopoly” baggage.
The next few months surely will be interesting to watch and debated here at A.M. and elsewhere in Mac land.