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The Trojan Horse with a Touchscreen
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The tech sites are all atwitter — [literally] — with the news from Apple that the second generation iPhone will soon be released with more speed and utility for fewer bucks (at least upfront). The big news from the announcement is that the new phone will be targeting enterprise customers by offering compatibility with Microsoft Exchange. But the bigger news, I think, is the announcement of a new platform called [MobileMe] that promises seamless, internet-based, synchronization of information across multiple devices and operating systems. It’s a pitch at developing a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that will compete head-on with Microsoft’s Live Mesh and looks to leverage the Trojan Horse infiltration of the enterprise space by iPhone 3G to gain mind- and market share in this developing market. Very impressive.
A few days ago I [wrote about] my trial of the Live Mesh service and I was impressed with what they were offering. Still am, but not so much. Granted, MobileMe may not be as ambitious as Live Mesh — but it delivers basic services, for an honest-to-gosh fee (remember those..?), and it’s shipping now. Mary Jo Foley over at ZDnet [wonders] if Microsoft’s slow development pace on Live Mesh is due to the kind of internecine competition that Microsoft is famous for. Perhaps the sight of Apple getting the jump on them (again) will help settle those squabbles.
Well, of course, if there are potential winners in the zero-sum game of “Who’s on Top” there also must be losers. Who’s the biggest loser on the platform playing field? It’s not Microsoft. As Steve Gillmor and others have [noted], Microsoft’s market share in the enterprise is so formidable that they can actually benefit from competitors opening up new market possibilities for them. First mover advantage is more important to the also-rans. Apple can take a bite out of their market share — maybe even a big one — but time is on Microsoft’s side. For now. No, the big loser is clearly Google. Aside from that little matter of riding a one-trick revenue pony, the [biggest problem] Google has always had is that they depend on a competitor, Microsoft, to provide access to a majority of their customers (and income). They are channel-bound in the worst possible way. Hence their rush into mobile operating systems with Android. But, alas, Android is still vaporware and the new iPhones ship next month. Perhaps to drive the point home about the potential loss to Google from their platform push, the Apple [product announcement] hits repeatedly on the fact that, “MobileMe web applications are 100 percent ad-free“. That’s gotta sting those Stanford-minted egos in Mountain View — Steve Jobs, the Reed College dropout, and his company not only have a beautifully-developed channel to their customers that can take advantage of Microsoft but is not bound by them, they actually get customers to pay for their products!
What a concept.
Posted in Technology 06/9/08 | 
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Yeah this could be very big for Apple. I think they have a good shot because the mobile device is very desirable and the software demonstrates clear utility. It’s what you can do with it that will be seductive to the consumer. And yeah - Apple is definitely trying to make stuff that people will pay for, imagine that…
Comment by Webomatica — June 9, 2008 @ 10:08 pm
Jason,
I’m more and more impressed with the focus at Apple — a much smaller company than Microsoft that consistently delivers on a clear vision. If they make a significant move into enterprises, it’ll be a business school case study for the ages…
Comment by Sprague D — June 9, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
What makes you think that Google is dependant on Microsoft ? The majority of Google’s income comes from normal advertising on normal websites. This is dependant only on users with browsers. Nothing more.
Furthermore, Google is an agile company. If something changed overnight so that no websites would use Adsense anymore, Google would be able to create a new revenue stream to compensate for it. While they were doing that, Google would still have all the ad revenue from its own web properties (blogger, gmail, igoogle, search results, etc.) and its other, non-advertising revenue such as sales of its search appliance.
I don’t think the iPhone or MobileMe is any danger whatsoever to Google.
As much as I love the new features of the iPhone - they’re enough to make me want to buy one now - the MobileMe platform causes me to hesitate. I still remember what Apple did to .Mac and I suspect a lot of other Apple fans will remember that as well. Apple have gained a lot of new fans since then so MobileMe may be a success straight away but if too many people remember the .Mac bait-and-switch then Apple may find the uptake a bit slower than expected.
Comment by David Keech — June 11, 2008 @ 9:52 am
David,
Browsers run on operating systems and 95% of computer users use Windows. Google is subject to Microsoft leveraging their ownership of the platform to impact search behavior — that’s why Google was so concerned about Vista integrating search features that bypassed the browser.
And I have to disagree about Google’s agility — when it comes to revenue, Google is anything but agile — almost all of their income comes from search-related advertising. If that market were to be impacted by the recession, or aggressive moves by Microsoft, they would be hurting.
Comment by Sprague D — June 11, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
Google is not a loser. They still follow their long term strategy. They have first started with their mobile apps: Google talk, maps, etc. These apps already exist. What comes next? A mobile OS build a framework around the already developed components. Keep expanding. Apple set the stage, now Google takes over with a platform independent solution. You don’t need an iPhone anymore when everything has a great platform independent interface. You don’t have to be the first pioneer in order to win in a certain market.
Comment by nigel — July 16, 2008 @ 12:00 pm
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