Today saw the announcement of some very big news, the forthcoming release of Google’s OS and I could not be more excited. Secretly, its something I’ve wanted for quite some time; an open source, fast, lightweight and secure OS with the web and Google’s services (of which I use all) as its backbone.
The move by Google is sure to leave Apple and Microsoft shaking in their boots, and quite frankly, I’m certain this is the beginning of the end for Ubuntu & co. What I’d like to focus on here however is Apple, a company which just weeks ago I couldn’t see myself ever abandoning, and who had convinced me that beauty, elegance and reliability were my top priorities when it came to an operating system.
Since the increasing development and improvement of Google Apps (and web apps as a whole), the increased speed of Chrome, the release of Android and now, the Google OS. I’m left torn. Nearly everything I currently do is online, and I’d say approximately 80% involves Google Apps. I realise, your average non-geek Joe is a long long way from this, but I’ve never been more convinced that in time – everyone will use the web, an online word processor/spreadsheet etc.. (probably Google Docs) to work just as many have used windows and office for so long.
Commitment to Google Apps
My current commitment to Google Apps (until something better comes along of course) has left me frequently day-dreaming. Entertaining ideas of what it would be like to truly incorporate all my primary web services into an operating system designed to really make sure they work as best as they possibly can. An operating system so reliable, smooth, fast and secure that using the web would feel local.
My day-dreams came true today, and it means I’m left wondering what Apple can bring to the table between now and Google’s OS release, aside from a gorgeous UI and decent hardware that will pumped about Apple again. After two years with the iPhone I’m already considering abandoning the device for an Android phone, primarily because of its integration with Google’s applications. Android has a local Gmail client, maps is fully featured, everything is pushed, email, contacts and calendar events…its all slick and its all built in.
The point is this…
As long as Google and web applications continue to improve at the rate they are, Apple is the only company I can see with potential to retain its current user base, but to do it, they’re going to have to start thinking far more Google-like. Apple’s propriety strategy, I believe, is an advantage, but Google’s offerings are increasingly more attractive a proposition and unless Apple rethink their local OS strategy (as I’m sure they will by the way), this is the beginning of an era of Google dominance, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
The company is slowly but surely taking over every aspect of our lives from email (a backbone to nearly all our lives), to how we work, video and photosharing, how we maintain voice communication, the operating system our phone runs on…for some its scary, for me… I’m excited. And for now at least, the one company I want to see step up to Google’s surge in dominance is Apple, and I predict they will, but its not going to be easy.
Although, I am writing Microsoft’s long term consumer market off now, and saying loud and clear that the future is Google vs. Apple. Robert Scoble has just posted on Friendfeed: “Why did Google announce Chrome OS this week? Well, of course, Microsoft has a big announcement coming on Monday (I’m embargoed).” So you never know, I could of course be very very wrong and Microsoft might just have a few tricks up its sleeve, one might work..I doubt it.
Based in London, Zee is Editor in Chief of The Next Web.Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
I am also delighted with this news, probably a lot of your readers.
But to follow your prediction, it’s gonna be an interesting for Eric Schmidt. Who is currently involved in both campanies.
Yeah, i hear ya…i just think that business is business though and one board member is not going to stop a company from doing what it needs to do to succeed.
That’s absolutely true, (excuse btw for all the mistypes, probably the caffeine).
But I think that both OS have a different target group and can be perfectly living next to each other. IMO the biggest competitor is Microsoft, the Chrome OS will targeting the normal folks that are just using their OS for Office Suites, Internet, chit-chat and their e-mail.
If you compare the MS users to the Apple ones, you see that most professional users in the creative spheres are using Apple and that ‘Joe’ for his normal behavior is using the heavy/slow MS OS, which he even has to pay for.
So for what we know now, is that Chrome will focus on the main activities in an OS and not the Adobe suite etc.
The users of Apple are also more evangelists instead of users, they truly believe in their brand. It slick, exclusive and it’s the only brand that can create a style-icon out of hardware.
So I would put my money on a consumer-war between MS and Chrome.
Business market is btw a whole other point.
> If you compare the MS users to the Apple ones, you see >that most professional users in the creative spheres are >using Apple and that ‘Joe’ for his normal behavior is >using the heavy/slow MS OS, which he even has to pay for.
what a pile of crap. it is not true that most professional users use macs. macos can be as heavy and slow and unreliable as windows (by the way: try win7).
>So for what we know now, is that Chrome will focus on the >main activities in an OS and not the Adobe suite etc.
adobe suite is not the most important piece of software in the world. even for “creative” people.
> The users of Apple are also more evangelists instead of > >users, they truly believe in their brand. It slick, >exclusive and it’s the only brand that can create a
> style-icon out of hardware.
blah, blah, blah… I’m forced to use macs on daily basis and their f..king slick keyboards, mouses with no buttons and clit instead of wheel, crap interface, spinning beach ball of death, and happy grey screen: your computer has crashed, press power button.
and guess what: I still have to switch to my pc to do some creative work because there’s a whole world of specialised software which does not exist on macs.
mac.
When Linux was first rising to prominence, the rhetoric was about killing Windows. Instead it killed Sun (and the other remaining proprietary Unixes). ChromeOS may be positioned as a threat to Windows, but I think you’re right that the collateral damage will likely include Apple.
Scary picture…
You make very good point sin your post. Lets hope it becomes Apple vs. Google. Leaving apple for Google is not that bad. But leaving Apple for microsoft.. yuk!
Competition can only be a good thing – and lets face it: its a long time since MS had an edge. Their huge user base is down to inertia and not anything interesting they are doing.
Competition between Apple and Google can only lead to better usability (and new cool toys ) for us all.
(and by the same token its great that Android (and possibly the Pre – guess the jury is still out on that one) are out there competing with the iphone – can you imagine if it was only competing with Windows Mobile?)
There is a persistent *beep* that is coming from your website, and it is possibly the most obnoxious thing I’ve experienced in a long time. If it is from one of your ads, I suggest you drop that client.
Personally, I think there is room for another vendor in the OS space. It doesn’t always have to be one company OR another. One can argue that thanks to the Web and Web apps, Mac, Windows, and Linux/Unix (and others) are enjoying a better co-existence than ever.
I haven’t read the Google announcement and am looking forward to their release, but I will say that historically, Google has not had a strong track record for usability–something that is very important at the OS level. This is something that will give Apple an advantage perhaps, for some time to come.
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Is Scoble talking about Gazelle? http://research.microsoft.com/.....62909.aspx
That would explain the name Google Chrome OS. Gazelle is supposed to be a browser-based OS, so now you can say, Google announced it first
Whatever about Microsoft I don’t agree that this necessarily means the end for Linux and Ubuntu. I also use a lot of Google services but would be hesitant to move my OS also to Google – that’s just creating a new monopoly instead of the old one.
Apple sells you a polished digital media experience and targets consumers who want to pay a little more for the quality, simplicity and polish. Google’s OS won’t target that same consumer. Google’s offerings are all fantastic for what they are – free and good-enough to get the job done. They aren’t in any way a threat to Apple who’s customers feel that the premium price they pay is an assurance of quality and value.
Besides, Google Docs are great for quick and dirty documents but you’ll never get the impact of a Keynote presentation or the pro feel of a Pages production. The web simply doesn’t offer that level of software robustness today and won’t anytime soon.
Also, Apple’s customers probably care more about multimedia than they do productivity tools and Google’s offerings simply can’t offer the same experience or integration that the iLife suite does for managing and creating digital media.
To be honest I don’t think a new Google OS is going to be much competition for Apple or even Microsoft. Reason being, the OS is going to be geared towards netbooks. And although some may try it out on regular laptops and PCs I don’t think it is going to do much for most people.
Personally I will probably only test it if I can do so through VM Fusion.
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Its groundbreaking idea from Google web OS and they are planning to wipe out Windows in a most strategic manner. Google clearly pointing to Microsoft when they say “The operating systems that browsers run were designed in an era where there was no web”. But there are few questions which are unanswered like what will happen when we will go offline in Chrome OS? Can we use offline applications like iTunes or Photoshop? Can we run third party applications? How they are going to make profit from it ? I am also bit concerned whether Chrome OS will be embraced by enterprises as it is open source and web based as there is always a security issue….Just wait another thought can Chrome OS will become a global hit especially in small countries where internet is very fickle. But leaving these things aside its going to be win-win situation for the users and it will be interesting to witness the war between giants.
Why is it you believe that Google’s OS will be secure?
Apple will again convince you “that beauty, elegance and reliability were my top priorities when it came to an operating system” the first time you can’t connect to the cloud to get at your files and apps.
That is ridiculous. Google Linux will not outweigh other Linux distros. Current Linux users will not switch just because of the Google brand (some won’t switch specifically because of the Google brand), and people will not switch from Microsoft or Mac to Linux because of Google–people just aren’t like that. Furthermore, Google cannot replace all Linux distros because Linux as a community project would die if only one distro were being developed. Your article is absurd and its conclusions unfounded. You should be ashamed to have written it.
Microsoft still have XBOX :D But I’m sure Google OS will bring us something amazing: internet will be felt as local.
[...] Der Autor dieses Artikels hier ist ziemlich genau anderer Meinung als ich (englisch): http://thenextweb.com/2009/07/.....apple-war/ [...]
Can’t wait to get my paws on this Chrome OS . . . nice article. We’ll see how it all plays out.
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What this prediction seems to be overlooking is that theGoogle announcement specifically mentioned that ChromeOS would be a netbook OS. I fail to see how this is going to eat into Apple’s market share seeing as all netbooks being sold right now are non-Apple.
Furthermore, the closest thing that Apple has to a “netbook” would be iPhone. It seems likely that Apple will release an iPhoneOS enabled tablet/netbook of sorts at some point in the near future. In this case, its a whole different ball game… if the market remained static then, yes– this prediction might have merit, but thats not how this will play out.
My main problem with this post is that its comparing Apples and Oranges [pun intended]. The death of the desktop PC has been predicted for over 10 years, and I just don’t see it happening any time soon (not that it can’t happen). But even if it does start to decline does anyone really think Apple won’t be a player in that new market?
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its something I’ve wanted >>
it’s something I’ve wanted
a Google web OS is a government project whose want to make a solution to identified every person
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I think GOOG and AAPL went to war when Android launched.
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Umm , before we all go crazy, let’s remember that Google is not the greatest closer. Press releases sound fantastic sure… but let’s see it work first hmmm?
[...] This move will just hurt Apple in the long-run. It gives iPhone users another reason (in addition to AT&T’s failure) to switch to Android as it becomes available on more phones and carriers. This could be a huge factor in the emerging “war” between Google and Apple. [...]
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GoogleDocs are great when it comes to working on a document in a team and when the particular document is not important. But I really can not imagine how a company could just ever type sensible data into GoogleDocs. I mean their CEO is telling the world that every data that is within GoogleDocs is meant to be public and shared with every person in the world.
Everybody hates viruses and spyware but that’s what Google OS is: a gigantic octopus crawling for all of your data transferring it over the internet. So what do you mean by the Google OS being secure? If my OS is the web and I’m submitting all of my data to Google … well then I don’t have to be scared of spyware anymore since it can’t do me a lot more harm than what Google can.
Maybe it’s gonna be a threat for the Linux community.
Ubuntu was the biggest player that was focusing on creating a distro suitable for the main computer users.
As stated in the article it will probably out-played by Google.
But why don’t have a scenario like the one with Firefox, first Google played along/sponsored it, but after that they started their own Chrome browser.
The author is a tool.