Apple and Google have been locked in many battles over the years. In the corporate world, they have constantly been bouncing number one between the two of them for a while now. Picking a winner is anyone’s guess as both companies always find ways to surprise consumers and experts alike.
Early this year, the Google parent company, Alphabet overtook Apple as the most valuable company for a brief time. Apple then attempted to regain the slot as number one, which they got before they lost it, and then recovered it again as recent as May. The battle is going to continue for a long time.
As of Friday last week closed, Apple, the smartphone making giant, was valued at a staggering $522 billion, and Alphabet was trailing rather heavily at $496 billion. The two companies have both implemented various techniques and methods to help themselves and make them hugely profitable as they are now.
Apple is popularly and globally known for their high end but must have iPhone range. The company has also brought with it other trendsetting gadgets in other respective fields which people clamor for every time they release a new one. But Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates said it now seems the world is not moving anymore; it is immobile.
Apple has in the past few months seen its shares fall by over 30 percent with concerns that its once stunning growth was starting to decrease, and therefore the company would not be able to get in as much profit as they used to do. Kay says that the company is at risk of losing their innovation leader position that it got after the manufacturing of the iPhone. The company has no new products coming, and they never really changed the smartphone landscape with a great deal, believes Kay. The Apple Watch has come, and people liked it, but most of the developers are still looking for ways to exploit the gadget he says.
On the other hand, Google has been developing. The company evolved from a simple search engine to become the leader in the mobile devices operating system software through its Android operating system. The company has also been investing in other tech ventures such as self-driving cars, Internet balloons and fiber networks it is believed. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney, in a research note, said that Google had been positioning itself very well over the last fee years through its acquisitions and investments.
Kay said that in Android, Google had one of the most valuable franchises which helped with Google mobile advertising efforts. Kay said that Google was boosted by the fact that they were at the top of most of the technologies that were important in the world. The technique might pay off finally, but they keep on looking, he said.
The expected release of the Apple iPhone 7 will be a key moment in the company’s future. It’s a test on how they can cope with pressure and if they can manage to continue with their creativity and lure clients into wanting it more. Google and Apple have a smartphone duopoly, but Apple has an edge in that it makes its hardware and software, but Google only makes the software.
Google also showed off its AI at their just-ended conference, together with home assistance and an upgraded messaging service. The company says that they are ahead in the AI department than most rivals citing the victory in the game of Go as proof. The company is also interested in virtual reality, which they hope it brings lifelike images to the Android software.
But Apple is not to be shot down, the company has a cash stockpile of $233 billion and is always believed to keep their projects a secret. Apple is rumored to be having an automobile project in the pipeline. They recently signed a $1 billion investment in Chinese taxi hailing service, Didi Chuxing.
Research firm Trefis said the company was looking to get more creative with its financial resources.
