I’m not into the “Apple vs. Google” or “Android vs. iOS” arguments. I use whatever tech works best to get the job done; to me, that’s all that matters.
That said: I wonder if commentator John Gruber really thought about the implications of this observation, published in a post called “Google Versus”:
“Google is the company that built Android after the iPhone, Google Plus after Facebook, and now a subscription music service after Spotify … Gmail? Webmail but better. Think about even web search: Google search wasn’t something new; it was something better … Google Maps entered a market where MapQuest and others had been around for years.”
In context, he’s arguing that there’s something a little naive about Larry Page’s weariness over seeing “hyper-competitive” Google positioned as “versus” someone else.”
The more important insight here is that Google tends to watch as competitors identify markets … and then come up with products designed outperform the competition. (Many companies do this, including Apple. The iPhone, after all, was a rethinking of what existing cell phones could be.)
Lately, Apple’s track record with this approach isn’t as impressive as Google’s. Consider Maps, which was panned as a stinker. Google Maps existed, and provided a level of service everyone loved. Apple made an effort to replicate that … and failed. The new Google Maps, announced yesterday, widens the gap between Apple’s sub-par copy and Google’s product even more.
If Apple is going to continue to grow, their response to that kind of one-upmanship from Google has got to go beyond calling people “Glassholes” for wearing Google Glass and preventing users from making Google Maps the default mapping app on the iPhone.
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