» Apple vs. Google: Duel for World Supremacy

Forget about the battle between Coke and Pepsi, the ongoing struggle between foreign and domestic automobiles, or the three way social media dance-off between Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The big rivalry to define the world we live in for the next ten years, will be the war between Google and Apple.

With the resignation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board this week, it seems as if the two companies have selected their pistols, are back to back and ready to pace off the duel for mobile phone/world supremacy.

Apple is the company of today. The iPhone revolutionized the mobile phone industry and with each new release (3G and 3GS), Apple has spread its wings further and further in the tech industry. It’s battle plan is simple, and very similar to the Microsoft playbook of the 80s and 90s: Build a good product and make sure all other applications need your product to run. It began with the iPod, which required iTunes to operate an iPod on your PC. iTunes updates then lead to a download of the Safari web browser, giving Apple the opening they needed to get a web browser on PCs.

Apple then burst onto the mobile scene with the iPhone and quickly added to it’s reputation as Goliath, garnered with the creation of the iPod. iPhone gave developers the ability to make their own applications, put them on the iPhone App store, and go directly to the consumers, for a fee of course, making millionaires out of basement techies for just making an app that lets you see a beer slosh around your screen as you move your phone back and forth. The one problem, to get the software development kit you need a Mac running OS X at the minimum. Good move by Apple, forcing developers like me to buy a Mac for my primary development system.

Like a great Chess master, lying in wait, Team Google has been patiently putting their pieces in place, thinking ten steps ahead, and preparing for an assault that could leave the trendy Apple staggering.

Google Mail is now an industry standard. Android is in place and “gPhone” made a few waves in the mobile ocean. The Chrome OS is set for release in 2010 and what could be the most important piece of the puzzle is beginning to see the light of day: Google Voice.

The features of Google Voice are greater than anything Apple has or could put in place in the near future. Google is allowing you to pick your own phone number, place and take calls with that number, have interactive voice-mail and SMS, call routing, conference calling; pretty much anything a person or small business could want in a phone system at the touch of a button. That’s going to lead to more people wanting better, cooler applications for Google Voice, all of which will be provided by newer versions of the Android OS. Brilliant moves.

So the line has been drawn in the sand. On one side the iconic face of the trendy with cool gadgets and UI is Apple. On the other side is Google, a company built on intelligence and functionality.

Let the best innovator win.

Tags: Android, Apple, Chrome OS, Eric Schmidt, Google, Google Voice, gPhone, iBeer, iPhone