
Google vs. Apple – The Smartphone Race Is Over, and a New One Begins… - robbiea
http://www.ymedialabs.com/google-vs-apple-smartphone-future/
======
skierscott
> But Apple has always missed the cue on one critical piece: access to
> customer data. And that is what Google has always been successful at.

> When you buy an Android phone you sign in to your Google account. Behind the
> scenes, Google starts recording a huge amount of data about you as a user,
> your preferences, your routine.

Some would say not accessing customer data is a feature. I am very careful who
I share my data with and appreciate Apple's approach.

------
phmagic
For me, the problems with Google's latest move to capture more of my data are
1. The value prop to me is minimal compared to the amount of data they are
gathering, 2. There is no way to opt out.

1\. All of the hardware offerings Google made are subpar copies of other
products. They did the minimum viable thing to get your data. Google's
Assistant, with all the data and cloud processing power in the world, is
equivalent to Siri. Assistant is not a leap forward, just a rebranded OK
Google.

I'd had the same feeling in the past about Google's Social efforts. It's more
blatant that Google's mining my data when their product offering is just a
copy.

Contrast that with Search, Maps and GMail. When those came out, it mattered
less that Google was scanning my data because the products were leaps and
bounds above the competition.

2\. Google has taken over enough of your daily lives with Android, GMail,
Search and Maps that it's really hard to opt out.

We've vilified Apple for its closed ecosystem but we ended up with an
alternative much worse in Android, one where all of the data you've generated
is available for everyone to harvest.

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pmyjavec
"Apple has always missed the cue on one critical piece: access to customer
data. And that is what Google has always been successful at."

This is where it ends with Google and I, enough is enough.

I have to be honest the direction Google is heading in lately feels like
dangerous territory, either people are going to like the invasive approach or
be scared off by it, time will tell. I get the feeling people care less about
search these days, Facebook etc is the Internet for a lot of people and
Adblockers have to be doing some damage.

~~~
skeptic2718
The majority of the users don't care about that, so I don't think it will make
any difference.

------
ambirex
A couple nitpicks:

\- Virtual Reality - still hasn't demonstrated mainstream appeal. I'm pretty
bearish on it being the next 3d TV's

\- Resolution - Does anything north of 300dpi really matter at this point?
Maybe for VR, but see above

\- Privacy - as data breaches become the norm, where/how do you want your data
stored?

~~~
vlunkr
I agree, personally I think VR has interesting applications in gaming and
other areas that we haven't seen yet. But you're never going to get my mom to
spend money on VR.

~~~
soylentcola
Yep. But the same can be said for a lot of tech that eventually trickles down
to the mainstream. Video teleconferencing was once the domain of enterprise
and higher education but now your mom does video calls on Facebook or Hangouts
or Skype when she wants to see the grandkids (maybe not _your_ mom but lots of
moms)

I actually think VR telepresence is a lot more intriguing to me than just
playing cooler looking video games. I mean...the game stuff is the easiest
thing to do first because you've already got established frameworks in place
for the creation and rendering of complex 3d environments. But when you start
getting into depth cams or light field cams combines with more advanced and
ergonomic display hardware and high speed networks, you're moving toward
having the pieces in place to allow people to virtually _be_ someplace else
and communicate with others in a way a webcam can't replicate.

Definitely interested to see how that field looks in 10-15 years.

~~~
shuntress
There is an episode of The X-Files where Mulder teleconferences with the lone
gunman and they make a whole huge deal about the amazing high-tech
capabilities they are using to project their voice/image in to the specially
set up conference room.

The way the writers even notice the technology compared to it's
transparency/ubiquity today is quaint.

------
mariobertschler
> Apple won the smartphone wars a long time ago.

This is a bold statement. On what measure? Last that I've seen is that almost
87% of the smartphone market is dominated by Android.

It might be true for app monetization, but definitely not as a whole.

Good read though.

~~~
denzil_correa
> Last that I've seen is that almost 87% of the smartphone market is dominated
> by Android.

How much money does the iPhone versus the Android phones make?

~~~
do_it_simpler
How much more money can Google make with the data they get from that 87% of
market share than Apple can make from the iPhones themselves?

~~~
denzil_correa
You have a legitimate point but that is tangential to the parent comment which
says that Anroid (an operating system) wins over iPhone (a hardware) because
Android has more market share. I was merely asking if market share translated
to money. If so, what was the difference and how did Android win?

~~~
do_it_simpler
Ah, I see now. I took your question as saying that Apple "won" the smartphone
wars because their sales are (iirc) more profitable. My mistake.

------
vlunkr
I think this article underestimates the power of brand loyalty. Tons of
customers have almost a decade of iOS under their belt, and convincing them to
learn something new is often impossible because they _don 't care_. Their
iPhone is working for them. Tech people think they can list off android-only
features and convince people, but it usually doesn't work that way. Only
when/if their iPhone really lets them down will they look elsewhere. I say
this as someone in that situation. I'm not super interested in my phone, and
the iPhone works for me, so here I am.

~~~
forthefuture
That works the same for both sides. Many people I know would never use an
iPhone. Most people in the world don't use iPhones.

~~~
0xFFC
This is my _personal_ experience. So it is not going to match anyone else's
experience. From my personal experience this is not true at all. I am student
and I do see a lot of people. Everybody , I mean _Everybody_ (other than 1
people I know personally) would prefer iPhone over Android without question,
the only problem for them was high price of iPhone, there is no competition,
they chose android just because of price of it. That was the only reason they
were using android phones or service. If they have money to buy it (most of
them were student , and short on money) they would change to iPhone in
heartbeat.

------
relics443
"Apple won the smartphone wars a long time ago"

So no data to back that up? Did this become a topic of opinion rather than
fact? YoY sales and market dominance would suggest the opposite is true
([http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/1/11836816/iphone-vs-
android-...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/1/11836816/iphone-vs-android-
history-charts))

Also (and I know this is anecdotal evidence), in the past 3-4 years anyone I
know who jumped ship went from iPhone to Android and never went back. Not a
single person switched away from Android.

In my opinion (which is mostly backed by fact, but I'll keep it as an opinion)
iPhone is quickly becoming a niche product, and there's nothing Apple can do
to change that.

------
jayd16
By the logic of this article, Apple won the PC space because Microsoft decided
to make a laptop.

And just look at those ridiculous comparison "info graphics"...

~~~
KirinDave
Agreed.

I do not understand how anyone reads this article and comes away with the
impression it is even remotely correct.

I could barely finish it, it was so poorly written, full of questionable ideas
deliberately glossed over, and ideas that just do not add up to the
conclusion.

------
anexprogrammer
> Google is, has always been, and likely always will be, a search company

Nope. Google is and always has been an advertising company.

It affects how they implement search, Android, and everything they do.

All knowing AI, however clever, from an advertising company may start to move
some more onto Apple. That Apple isn't putting personalised data into
everything is becoming a marketing feature that they should be shouting about.

Edit: Not sure what's controversial to cause lots of up and down votes, I
guess some don't believe Google are an advertising company. I wonder where
they get their revenue from.

------
rdtsc
I was looking for a new phone recently as mine is 5 years old. It still works
but I was just comparing around mostly for fun.

Besides a bit faster hardware, some more DPI and "assistants" it is mostly the
same. My gen 1 Moto G which I got for $170 a while back is still mostly ok.
The hardware still looks the same. Anyone remember the jump from flip phones
to smart phones? That was a huge difference. Something completely new. The
upgrade felt like I was buying something completely different.

I guess I was expecting something more by now. Modular hardware, can plug more
memory or more hardware into it. A different shape. A ridiculous battery life.

The only exciting thing I saw is made by a Chinese company I never heard of:
Xiaomi (don't even know how to pronounce it). It is this phone:
[https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/25/xiaomi-mi-
mix/](https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/25/xiaomi-mi-mix/) it doesn't have a
bazel, looks square and slick, 256GB memory. I can see buying that. I don't
see shelling $700 for a Pixel or for an iPhone.

Then I noticed Project Fi by Google. That would save me money every month.
However given Google Fiber winding down, I am worried as soon as I jump on
Project Fi, it will be shut down as Google does with many of its products. So
the initial excitement there has kind of waned.

------
devilsavocado
Does only one company need to win? I don't think so. 91% of smartphone profits
go to Apple! I had no idea it was that high.
[http://fortune.com/2016/02/14/apple-mobile-
profit-2015/](http://fortune.com/2016/02/14/apple-mobile-profit-2015/) Of
course that doesn't account for profits from web activity, which is dominated
by Google.

Apple will continue to make incredible profits on hardware, while google will
do the same with advertising on the mobile platform.

------
norea-armozel
It's getting to a point that I hate any device prefixed with the word smart. I
don't want my device to suggest, hint, or predict anything with regard to my
behavior. I don't need an advertisement disguised as a smart phone. I just
want a smart phone that lets me search the web, make calls, stream music from
shoutcast servers, and take pictures. I really just wished Google and Apple
would just stop trying to wall off content they can't monetize.

------
agentgt
A long time ago (20-30 years ago) there was a somewhat analogous situation
with Microsoft (Apple) and IBM (Google).

IBM was the "diversified" company particularly after it acquired Lotus which
was suppose to make IBM compete with Microsoft directly on the office front.

I'm not saying the same thing will happen but I bet Apple will have another
revolution in the next 20 years much like Microsoft did.

------
rkeene2
> Apple won the smartphone wars a long time ago.

This claim is made, but it's not very specific. In what way did Apple win the
smartphone wars ?

~~~
dtech
I was highly surprised by that assertion too. If you take market share as a
determiner, Google has basically crushed Apple:
[https://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-
share.jsp](https://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp)

~~~
nilkn
> If you take market share as a determiner, Google has basically crushed Apple

I believe you mean that _Android_ has dominated iOS in terms of market share.
But when one company gives their OS away for free to everyone and the other
restricts their OS only to their own devices, that's the only result you could
ever reasonably expect.

Google as a company has had little to no involvement in the creation of
specific phones. And when they have had involvement, they've outsourced much
of the work. That's actually partially why this article exists -- the Pixel
phone represents their first foray into making their own phone, software and
hardware together, like Apple does.

So to me the statement that Google has crushed Apple makes little to no sense
because until now Google hasn't even attempted to compete with Apple directly,
and Apple has intentionally limited the scope of iOS's distribution.

If we're going to compare Google-created phones to Apple-created phones, how
many Pixel phones do you see daily vs. iPhones?

------
PhantomGremlin
There was one word missing from that article

    
    
       Motorola
    

Didn't Google, years ago, already fully control its own phone, both hardware
and software?

In addition, doesn't Google's track record of dalliances make the Pixel
something to be discarded and forgotten at the inscrutable whims of higher-
ups?

------
VeejayRampay
The only race in place here is the one to the $2000 mark. My money's on Apple.

------
scarface74
One thing stands out. Google doesn't have multiple streams of income. They
have search and a lot of money losing ventures.

------
charlesbow
The article mentions why Apple is the best: unbeatable hardware. It's that
simple really...

~~~
b2600
If it's just a hardware competition then Apple doesn't "crush" anyone in this
regard. Apple's (formidable) strength is the intergration of their software
with the hardware. Android can't compete with that aspect (yet).

------
dtnewman
If you look at the numbers right now, Google isn't close.

In Q4 of 2015, Apple generated about 63% of it's revenues from iPhone sales
[1]. That's almost 2/3rds of revenues for a $605B company. Google is nearly as
large in terms of market cap (~$550B) but revenues from Android don't even
come close (never-mind hardware sales, which are negligible). It's estimated
that Android has brought in around $31B _total_ revenue [2] since it was
launched in 2008. The numbers by year aren't publicly available, but even if
we're being very generous, it's unlikely that Android accounts for more than
10% of Google's revenues in any given year.

So yeah, in terms of smartphones, one company (Apple) is basically a
smartphone manufacturer with a few things it does on the side (laptops, etc.)
and the other is a search engine with smartphones as a side business.

Personally, I prefer Android. I've been an Android user for years and I can't
bring myself to switch. I broke my Nexus 5x phone recently and I've been using
my wife's old iPhone for a few weeks now and I can't wait to go back. But I
roll my eyes every time I read an article about how Google is on the verge of
taking over the market from Apple. Sure, if you look worldwide, the number of
Android phones out there exceeds the number of iPhones, but if you look at the
high end of the market--which seems to be where all the money is made--iPhone
are still quite dominant. When I start to see Google's numbers get into the
same _ballpark_ as Apple's for Pixel sales vs. iPhone sales, then I'll be
intrigued.

[1] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/253649/iphone-revenue-
as...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/253649/iphone-revenue-as-share-of-
apples-total-revenue/) [2]
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/google-s-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/google-
s-android-generates-31-billion-revenue-oracle-says-ijor8hvt)

~~~
rtkwe
I don't think Google has to personally get to the level of Apple to have
"won". When comparing the two it's better to look at the whole market instead
of just Google vs Apple because there's so many manufacturers for Android and
only one for iPhones.

~~~
dtnewman
I totally agree. You can be much smaller than Apple and still win. My point is
that Apple's iPhone is a behemoth, and until now, Google's Nexus phones have
been a niche product. Now, they're starting to compete more directly with the
Pixel, which is a truly high-end phone. But until they get meaningful sales
numbers, it's still very much a niche product. I agree with the article that
Google has made a phone with the _specs_ to compete. But I've heard this
before and yet the iPhone still dominates the high end phone market.

