Apple, Google and Microsoft Battle for Internet Experience

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APPLE, GOOGLE AND MICROSOFT BATTLE FOR INTERNET EXPERIENCE

Group Case Study

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Executive Summary

In this report, we will look at the strengths of the three major players in the internet and mobile market, which are Google, Apple and Microsoft and compare their business models. We will provide information of what these companies have done to get to where they are now. Then, report describes why mobile computing is so important to the major players. Next, we are doing comparison between open and closed app technology, standards to the success or failure of mobile computing, as well as how it relates to the mobile platform.

Explanation on which company and business model we think will prevail in this epic struggle will be also given in this report. We will also consider who is the best candidate to dominate the market between the three major players. Lastly, we will look at what this will mean for individual consumers and business and why this will be the case.

Compare the business models and areas of strength of Apple, Google and Microsoft.

Google

Google has many strengths in the internet realm. Their major strength is them being the leaders of the search engines. To help entice manufactures to use this operating system Google offered it to mobile device manufacture for free but was faced with manufacturers trying to patient it. So, Google made a huge move in 2011 to purchase Motorola Mobility Holdings to allow them to build their own smartphones and tablets. However, to this date most of Google hardware products that they have sold have previously resulted in failure. But Google biggest strength and threat to the market is their potential to sell phone for free without monthly fees to the customers for the amount of text and calls made. Instead they will make their profits by advertising revenue by the ads placed in the app and search engines (Laudon, Laudon and Brabston, 2015).

Apple

Apple strength lay within their app service where they lead the competition with over 700,000 software applications. Apple is also leading the market in mobile manufacturing as well. However, Apple did make one mistake when they tried to develop a map app to replace Google map app, but customers did not take to it and now Apple is still faced with Google stealing valuable information about their customers through the Google map app because Apple cannot get there customers away from Google maps (Laudon, Laudon and Brabston, 2015).

Microsoft

Microsoft is the weaker of the three competing in this race but is known for their operating systems for desktop computers and is trying to bring that into the mobile industry. Microsoft is also in the gaming world with their xbox and xbox controllers, but this only accounts for about 5% of their revenue. Also, Microsoft is trying to establish a cloud for mobile devices, so all the information can be stored in one place and expensive programs can be shared between customers (Laudon, Laudon and Brabston, 2015).

Why is mobile computing so important to these three firms? Evaluate the mobile platform offerings of each firm?

Mobile computing is so important to Microsoft, Apple and Google because leading of dominating this market would mean the difference between surviving or closing up shop because there are billions of dollars on the line for the one that wins this race. This is because more and more customers are going to mobile devices, which is 30% of the internet traffic so far. Therefore, all three companies are looking to improve their scope of the mobile market to try and gain the competitive advantage over the others. In doing so, there has been some alliance made. First, Google has partnered with Apple to develop a superior operating system then what Microsoft is offering to try and push them out of the fold. Also, Google has also partnered with Microsoft to develop app for both of their customers to try to take a little bit of the market that Apple is holding for the app market (Laudon, Laudon and Brabston, 2015).

Apple, Microsoft, and Google all have different items that they bring to the market. Apple main item is there 700,000 app that are available to their users and their ability to build and innovate mobile device. Where, Microsoft has the best operating system for desktops and is trying to develop a new operating system for mobile devices. Then, there is Google who has the best search engine for its customers and if it can get enough of the market it could give away its phones and services for advertising revenue and still make a profit which, could really hurt the other businesses (Laudon, Laudon and Brabston, 2015).

What is the significance of mobile applications, app stores, and closed vs. open app standards to the success or failure of mobile computing?

Mobile applications allow smartphone users to seamlessly access content without having to use a mobile browser. By using an app, it ensures that the content will appear properly and in a way that it is easy to read on small screens. Mobile applications are used for gaming, social media, email, banking, GPS etc. There are currently over 2 million apps available to Apple iOS users in the App Store (Costello, 2018).

Apple is an example of a closed company whereas Google is open. Apple builds their own hardware and only their software can run on their hardware. Similarly, in order to download an application on an Apple iPhone, it must be downloaded from Apple’s App Store. This means that if Apple does not approve of an app, it will not be available to iPhone users. On the other hand, Google has made their smartphone software, Android, available to any hardware producer for free and will allow users to download apps from sources outside of Google Play which is their app store (Costello, 2018).