The Future Powerhouse

In the computer and electronic world there are 3 major players. Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Each of these strongly influential in their own ways. Apple being the innovative, fast paced one. Microsoft is taking on the role of the tortoise, slow and steady. Lastly, most certainly not the least Google, who plays the mafia boss, who buys up everything and has his hands in almost everything.

We all know Apple's history very well. They are extremely innovative and lead by a creative CEO Steve Jobs. Their iPod was a major success, followed soon by relative variations such as the iPod Video, Mini, Shuffle, and eventually came the Nano. Each was extremely user friendly, built with quality and attention to detail. But I think what sold it really well is that Apple was able to cater their products right into the heart of the market, satisfying many. Not to mention, the user interface and user friendlyness was programed extremely well. Later came the iPhone. Apple's first in the mobile phone industry. Something that Microsoft Windows already had a market share in. Apple did a fantastic in "breaking-in-and-entering" the cell phone market. It did not just stand in the market, it practically dominated the entire market. The success of the Apple iPhone was so dominate, that by the time they released their 4th generation of the Apple iPhone, despite an infamous antenna problem, it still could still not supply enough phones to meet the demand. This is a big issue. Using Apple's old iPhone generations as a guideline to determine the future demands of the fourth Apple iPhone, I'm sure they would have considered that the demand for the fourth apple iPhone would be very large.

Later came along the apple iPad, which I believe to be a giant iPod touch. In a first impression I did not think that this product was sell well at all. My second thought was "what was apple thinking?". Despite my doubts again Apple's iPod, they were able to sell them amazing to 3.2 million units in the first three months. Keep in mind that the apple iPad without 3G starts at $550 for 16 GB the 64 GB model cost $750. The base 16 GB apple iPad with 3G cost $680. This is a huge amount of money to pay for a piece of electronic. I knew I was a bit biased at first when the apple iPad was first officially on sale, and couldn't believe the 3.2 million idiots. Later when I had some time to go to the mall and visit an Apple store, I have finally given and the apple iPad a chance. It is very similar to the apple iPod touch. Except it's with a much bigger screen of course. I couldn't believe how fun it was to use and actually how easy it was to use. With that in mind, I withdraw my "3.2 million idiots" statement and now replace it with " 3.2 million rich idiots". Personally, I have only found two good uses for the apple iPad. One, installing it on a fridge door or a cabinet, and using it to check the news or weather when I'm in the kitchen. The other good use for it is to use that as a virtual sheet music, almost like in eBook. Besides those two I still believe it's pretty useless.

Now on to Microsoft. What has Microsoft done good in the recent years? The release of Microsoft Vista was a complete and utter failure. The one thing they did right during that time was to allow downgrading back to windows XP. Windows Vista was merely a bedazzled version of Windows XP. It ended up using more resources from the computer than was required. Thus resulting in a very slow computer. On top of that, people just found it annoying. With Microsoft Vista of being delayed constantly, the standards for it became higher and higher, resulting in a huge disappointment in the end. Quickly they realize their faults and released Windows 7. This windows 7 is supposed to be what Windows Vista was supposed to be.But at least this time they got it right. Soon to be released is the Windows 7 phone. Hopefully this is much better than previous windows mobile. Because this is what I plan on getting at the end of the year.

Now on to Google. Google started off first as a search engine. Then later and also became an advertiser. The world's largest advertiser is not Coca-Cola or McDonald's in fact it is actually Google. Once Google first became public on the stock market, they had to post its earnings revenues and all those essential data. The data was very shocking. Google before it became public and was already pulling in a lot of revenue. Now things only get better. They have released their own Operating System called Android, their own Internet browser call Google Chrome. This shows that they are tapping into the operating system market, the mobile phone market, and even the Internet browser market. Google has been buying up almost everything they find useful, innovative, or threatening. This is an excellent way to acquire market share as well as eliminating the competitors. As you can see Google his hands in everything, from arguably the biggest search engine to the mobile phone market.

So who will be the future powerhouse. Apple with its amazing innovations? Microsoft's "slow and steady wins the race"? Or google its ability to acquire a everything and has his finger and everything. It is very hard to say. Each with their own potential, are very capable to knock the other one out. If you're thinking about investing in only one company and one company only, then it will be down to personal preference. Because frankly it is extremely difficult to tell at this point in time, who will win and who will lose.

-Written by dictation via Microsoft voice recognition.