Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook & Oracle Eating Google’s Lunch? [iPhone 5 & iPad 2 Dominance, Amazon Fire Launch, Social Networking & Patent Onslaught Heading Google’s Way]

Posted on TFTS by Chris Smith on Friday, 30. September 2011 under: Computers & Computing, Mobile/Cell Phones, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets, xFeatured

Google, when compared to its fierce rivals in any of the niches it currently operates seems to have a strong enough position, whether it’s search, Android, social networking or patent pileup. But when stepping out of those niches and looking at the bigger picture, one realizes that Google has made all the wrong “friends” in the wrong places: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Oracle being just some of them. The question is, can Google, the giant company we see today, survive on the long run when having to constantly compete against these companies at the same time.

Why are these companies ready to critically cripple Google’s business on the long run? Here’s a run down of reasons.

Apple

The company is already fighting Google in the mobile environment, a niche Google entered thanks to its new Android OS after Apple launched the iPhone. Even if it gained significant market share since launch, Google has always been a step behind Apple since, at the end of the day, Android, initially meant to fight BlackBerry phones, was readapted to a touchscreen interface.

How can Apple deliver a blow to Google besides making a ton of cash on iOS devices quarter in and quarter out? With its voice recognition based software, an amalgam of Siri and Nuance features meant to offer a new virtual Assistant application!

The Assistant is expected to be part of iOS 5 and it’s reportedly going to surpass other similar initiatives. Using it, iPhone 5 users will ditch Google Search without intentionally wanting to do so. Instead of creating its own search engine, which Apple was once rumored to be working on to eliminate Google Search from its smartphones, the company is placing an intermediary app between the customers’ queries and the results. By using voice the customer won’t have to actually go to Google to look for stuff. And Apple will not have to replace Google Search as one of the main searching tools on the iPhone. In fact Assistant may very well use Google Search to deliver its responses, but the iOS users will not see how that works. And they won’t record page impressions or click on ads. And Google’s earnings may further dissipate in time, the better the Assistant becomes in the future and the more iOS devices will use it.

If that doesn’t work, then Apple can still continue to pursue various legal battles against Android device makers. Currently the company has scored several victories against Samsung and HTC and the war isn’t over yet.

Microsoft

Not only is Microsoft pouring money in Bing, in the hopes of stealing search market share from Google, but the company is also upping its desktop and mobile game. Windows 8 is surely going to be a success, especially when compared to Google’s Chrome OS alternative while Windows Phone 7 is expected to grow and therefore pose increased threat to Android.

But the thing with which Microsoft is really crushing Google right now, at least when it comes to public perception, is something we wouldn’t have expected in the past. Microsoft is rumored to make up to $444 million off of Android devices made and sold by HTC and Samsung. The two Asian based companies created some of the most interesting Android devices out there, and are the only two manufacturers contracted by Google to make Nexus handsets. We certainly expect both of them to continue to create stellar Android devices, and the more they’ll sell, the more money Microsoft will get from Android usage.

Google on the other hand is offering Android free of charge, granted that it hopes to make a lot of cash from mobile search but also from future Motorola-made, Google-owned, Android handsets. But there’s a catch here too, Google, accused of antitrust practices, recently explained to the U.S. Senate that 66% of mobile search comes from iOS users.

Amazon

Since Android is open-source, and therefore free of charge, Amazon took it, stripped it of all things pointing to Google or reminding users it’s Android OS and rebuilt it for its underpriced non-iPad-killer, but surely Android-tablet-killer, Kindle Fire.

The device has been announced earlier this week and come mid-November it is expected to sweep floors with other Android devices. Amazon is offering an Apple-like complete tablet experience, which includes fast access to Amazon-operated music, movies, eBooks and app stores. And there’s no support for any Google services, including the App Store.

Amazon will use a tablet running a Google-made creation to steal market share from other Android tablet makers, at least initially. Every soul converted to the Kindle Fire, while an Android device, will not count as tablet market share won by Google.

Oh, and that Amazon Silk browser may become popular enough to find its way to Macs and PCs near us, where it could challenge, among others, Google’s own Chrome browser.

Facebook

Believing that nobody is in a position to challenge it, Facebook seemed to fall into an unexpected slumber. It had a rising subscriber base, and plenty of features to keep them happy with no rival in sight. Google+ came right in time and it quickly amassed a more than decent customer base of its own, currently reaching 43 million users.

Facebook woke up, caught up to Google’s act, saw its bet and raised it before and during f8 2011 with some new features that either mimic the ones found on Google Plus, (Skype video chat vs Hangouts, Lists vs Circles, asymmetrical relationships vs Circles again) or top them (Timeline; Spotify, Netflix and Hulu integration). And what will happen once Facebook starts rolling out more features that will keep users inside Facebook doing stuff socially rather than browsing the web in a more traditional manner that involves plenty of Google Searching and AdWords/AdSense clicking? Yes, you got it, less revenue for Google!

Furthermore, Facebook is rumored to launch a Project Spartan web app mobile app store. It’s believed to mainly target Apple’s App Store, although Apple is reportedly helping Facebook with it, therefore it doesn’t really view it as a threat. But this HTML5-based initiative will also compete against the Android Market and any other mobile app store currently available. After all, Facebook is available on most mobile devices out there, which means its web apps will be of interest to at least some of its current 800 million user base that happen to use smartphone or tablets too.

Oracle

Last but not least there’s Oracle, maybe one of the biggest pains in Google’s ass. The two are fighting in courts, or better said Google is defending against Oracle allegations saying that the Mountain View-based company used Java elements in its Android OS without consent. And Oracle wants a piece of the Android pie, which it might get considering certain evidence items that were already shared with the public and show, among other things, that Google may have intentionally used Java without proper consent, embracing the risk of having to defend such a decision in courts someday.

That day came, and should Oracle be awarded a multi-billion dollar settlement and recurring royalties from future Android handset device sales, well, Google would be losing money again on one of its flagship products.

USA & EU Antitrust investigation

In order for the picture to be complete we’ll remind you that both the USA and the European Union are investigating Google for monopoly practices. Those investigations are far from being complete, but depending on what these governments find looking into the way Google is trying to make as much cash as possible off of its advertising business, which is how Google collects money in the first place, Google may have to change its current business practices. Such changes would surely lead to more loss of revenue.

What is Google doing?

Google is growing apparently on the whole, even if some projects have to be ditched in the process. And while the company is certainly adapting to the requirements of the niches it’s currently developing its businesses in, while trying to fight off these major rivals, it will be interesting to see whether the overall effect of these other giant companies will lead to an unforeseeable (yet!) Google demise. Fortunately for Google though, the five corporations we looked at today can’t really join hands to fight Google since they’re also competing among themselves. Fiercely.