I was tweeting these thoughts but it's too complex for a series of tweets/sound bites so here is a blog post to elaborate. First the facts. Both Apple and Google are Corporations and therefore have the goal of making profit for their shareholders. Both are doing everything possible to make their shareholders money so there is no good guy/bad guy scenario, it's just economics. However, there is a distinct advantage for the consumer and the evolution of the internet regarding Google's business model vs. apple's business model. This is because of how these companies make their money. Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company and their mode of delivery is the interwebs. Their goal is to get as many people online as possible AND make the online experience as awesome and cheap as possible so they will stay online longer. period. The more people are online the more money they will get from Google Ads.
This is how they make 97% of their money and since most people don't even know that fact, I think that just shows that their ads are not so annoying as to bother people surfing the interwebs. Google doesn't care if people are on a mac or pc or really what browser they are using as long as the browser displays ads. They don't make any money from selling Chrome or Android, etc. Those are actually free and open source tools that anyone can use. Motorola can thank Google for the free Android OS that they built their phone on. Yes, these tools serve google's money making purposes in the long run because the android OS makes the internet more accessible, and that's where they want people to be, but they are still free and open and high quality, which makes for a good competitive environment where consumers win. Companies that make money from selling proprietary tools at high cost don't like a company like google who pretty much gives them away in exchange for the hope that you will click on their ads some day. I personally think thats a fair exchange.
Apple is a different company with a completely different way of doing business. Apple makes money not from advertisements, but from selling cutting edge software, hardware, and media. They also sell a computing experience that they believe deserves a premium price tag. Unlike Google, whose main interest is getting people online to click ads, Apple wants people online to buy their media primarily through itunes (music, movies, books, computers, etc). So Apple has to be thinking, "how can we get the most amount of people to buy our media?" Solution = Iphone-like OS and App store. This allows them to control the entire experience from what apps go on the system to whether or not flash will work in the browser. Their method to get what they want means a closed system of control in which they call all the shots. The method for google to get what they want = an open and free internet. I think Apple makes some awesome products, but I still like choices. Though google and apple are very different companies, they both affect the evolution of the internet. Google's ad driven approach creates a much more open internet ecosystem. Apple's app store approach creates a user friendly experience, but a more closed-off internet, in which apple calls all the shots with their app approval system. Which company do you think is better for the internet?
