I think most of the readers would agree with me over the fact that companies like Google, Apple, Facebook etc. have made interesting ideas into huge businesses. They have changed what was once considered a boring lonely journey, into an interesting one. They just do interesting stuff and they have made billions out of it.
But this is not a bubble and they are here to stay. These guys do serious business and competition is as severe as one can imagine. Let us try to understand various major business developments and changing market dynamics in some of the top tech companies from an amateur’s point of view:
Microsoft is the oldest of the lot. Established on April 4, 1975 by a Harvard Drop-out, it is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA. It made software and that is what it does today and is a world leader. It was ‘innovation and out the box thinking’ that brought it to where it is today. To talk about computer software would have been nothing but a joke in 1975. It had created a new market and it reigned. It kept on improving itself and kept moving ahead in the same direction. It killed any competition that came in its way.
Apple is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. It started almost at the same time as Microsoft but it gave equal importance to Hardware as it did to software unlike Microsoft. It made complete computer systems. It was on its own way but crossed its lines with Microsoft occasionally. But it lost its way and Microsoft went far
ahead in the Race.
Nokia, though an old company with different business interests, it came into limelight as a telecom equipment manufacturer in 1980s. It became the leader in the Mobile Equipment market with presence in almost the entire world. Traditionally Consumer always preferred better hardware and a workable software and Nokia made the most of it. It had put all R&D efforts in hardware and came up with amazing phones.
Google is a relatively new company as compared to Microsoft, Apple and Nokia. It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" and the company's unofficial slogan is "Don't be evil”. It eats drinks and sleeps innovation. Its products like the Search engine, Chrome, talk, Picasa, Reader, Android et al are path breaking. It has a different approach to business and it earns in a rather amusing way. For some, Google can become the father of all Tech companies and it is said to be working on every conceivable idea. Last heard we would be having Google kitchenware. Their R&D is their strength.
facebook Do I need to say more? facebook has engaged generations. It is the last entrant among the others that I have discussed. Most of us are on facebook and most of us would not be comfortable sharing with others, the time we spend on it. Some tout it to be poised to overtake Google. For those who haven’t seen the Academy award winning ‘The Social Network’, you don’t know how you, yes you and each one of us who use facebook, have made a guy called Mark Zuckerberg a billionaire.
Circa 2011, Apple has overtaken Microsoft. It is probably the world’s strongest brand. It still makes the complete equipment and not just software. iPod, iPad, iPhone, Macbooks and others are nothing the world has seen before. Apple not only makes world's best OS and apps but it gives equal importance to the aesthetics. ‘If you don’t have an iPhone, well, you don’t have an iPhone.’
It completely changed the rules of the game. It changed the direction of the industries, yes industries not one industry but many. Not only Microsoft but it has overtaken (probably killed) Nokia in its own backyard. Apple makes Music Players, Mobile Phones, Macbooks and Macs among others. It has re-invented from a company that made computing machines. It has out thought its competitors by innovative products and approach to market.
While companies like Microsoft were strengthening their position in their own market, Apple changed the entire Market and is moving in such a way that an Apple consumer won’t need (probably can’t use) a product other than an Apple product.
Nokia, which was a market leader in the mobile equipments market, has lost its battle on the software front. It failed to innovate in OS and lost the market to Apple which provides an equally good hardware as Nokia’s does but a far better iOS Platform.
Hence Nokia joined hands with Microsoft. Both need each other to compete with Apple. But will they give a good competition? Only time will answer.
Google is creating its own history; it started as a search engine but has given Nokia (already battered by Apple) and now even Apple, a stiff competition in mobile space by its open platform called Android. The Android platform is free for all and Google earns by advertising and other means. So all other manufacturers Samsung, Motorola, Sony Eriksson etc are making products powered by Google’s Android.
By this innovative business model, which they apply across various industries, Google has a bigger platform and it competes with Apple on various fronts. But the best part about Google is that it is an unpredictable competitor. You never know what it may bring for free and eat the market. (No pun intended)
What about facebook? The father of all Social Networks is out-thinking others on every step. The biggest threat it poses to Google is that it has the access to the real time data of its users. So it can offer you, let’s say, products/service in future that are based on the information you provide on facebook or the activity you do on it. So there would a better chance of selling you something if one knows what exactly you like or you do. Google on the other hand does not have the access to real time information of its users; it relies on the historical information.
Hence the late the entrant the more chances of it to kill the predecessors. So what is the key?
Is it Innovation or Out-Thinking?
I think it is a combination of both, on some fronts companies like Google have used their R&D to bring innovation and on other fronts companies like facebook have used their out-thinking to beat the competition.
Probably Apple uses both. So it depends on the situation of the market that one relies on either Innovation or Out-thinking or both.
I await your views/arguments and comments on the same. You can also write to me at nitinaddress@yahoo.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment