CASE STUDY: GOOGLE, APPLE, AND FACEBOOK BATTLE FOR

YOUR INTERNET EXPERIENCE

Questions and Answers:

7-13. Compare the business models and core competencies of Google, Apple, and
Facebook.

Although they have different business models and strategies, Apple, Google and
Microsoft are three major companies who seek to dominate the Internet user’s experience. They
come to the platform with their own proprietary strengths. In looking at business models,
Apple’s business model focuses on the consumer and bringing them a personalized web
experience through their hardware (iPads, iPhones, iPods and iMacs), their two major OS
systems: Mac OS X and iOS, and through the internet. Although their model limits what type of
software customers can access, they offer over 250,000 Apps through their iOS App store.

Google’s business model is geared towards mobile computing and the Internet. The
company wants versatile smartphones that allow access to the Web and the use of applications
that can be used on different devices. Google also has strength in advertising, in that they appeal
to many potential customers on the Web. The core competency of Google is emphasized on in
software engineering which is highly based on indexing and maintenance of scalable hardware
infrastructure. Moreover, the organization has a culture of innovation. Google possesses a small
number of key things and they are indexing technology; Google ads and Google Mapping
program and it is situated on the key products the organization has created a great number of
end-products.

Apple’s organization has greatly emphasized on generating a strong hardware for the
internet future which has greatly boosted them in the competition through prioritizing on the
hardware which ease mobile computing. The Apple’s core competency is through how they
implement elegant and functional designs. The consumer advantage is to get a product which
perform intuitively thereby causing everybody around to be envious. Other organizations have
attempted to imitate Apple, yet their attempts have not borne fruits since Apple copied that
design success from computers, music players, cellphones and their stores.

Facebook has shifted from the traditional method which is common to consumer
products and created a “consumer platform” which helped many consumers which were there. 
Its model is greatly visualized with a value proposition. This is confirmed because when you
login to Facebook there are many offers, and it creates a sense for a person to choose from
because their peers are already using them. Besides, the concern is not only to enter Facebook to
advertise but also for socialization with other people that is a platform where people get
information from their customers without any intermediary. Facebook’s core competency is to
create a larger network where a group of peers use intelligent algorithms to “suggest” people that
a person may know. Besides, Facebook has attempted to create a “life album” kind of where it is
having its own timeline and photo functionality. The photo features were well received by the
targeted audience and thereby led to the buying of Instagram which key role is to broadcast
photos to a large group of people.
 7-14. Why is mobile computing so important to these three firms? Evaluate the mobile
strategies of each firm.

Mobile computing is so significant for almost companies nowadays.to Apple, Google and
Facebook. It is a foundation which helps these firms to do operating activities involving the
internet without any fixed place. Besides, based on mobile computing, firms will create
competitive advantages to attract more customers and gain more revenue, profit. Following
paragraphs will mention mobile-computing strategies of three firms – Apple, Google, Facebook.

Apple: It is the leader in mobile software applications. The mobile platform that Apple
provides with its products is “iOS”. This mobile platform is the closed platform that is it is
applicable for Apple products and only Apple apps could work on this. Because of upending the
music industry with its MP3 player, the iPod, and the iTunes digital music service, Apple took
mobile computing by storm with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Google: Google continues to be the world's leading search engine, accounting for three-
quarters of the world's web searches. The mobile platform that Google provides is “Android”,
which is considered as an open platform compared to Apple’s. Android is deployed on 76
percent of smartphones worldwide and Google wants to extend it to as many devices as possible.
Moreover, Google also invest in artificial intelligence and machine learning such as voice search,
Google Translate, and spam filtering. Generally, Google is always looking for new ways to
connect more people to the Internet.

Facebook: Facebook is the world's largest social networking service. Facebook platform
enables developers to build applications and websites that integrate with Facebook to reach its
global network of users and to build personalized and social products. Facebook also realized
that lot of its profit came from advertising, so they introduced a new way to triple its profit.
Facebook enlarged the size of its home page so it could allow multiple photos. It allows
advertisers to provide more information to their markets.

7-15. What is the significance of search to the success or failure of mobile computing?
How have Apple and Facebook attempted to compete with Google? Will their strategies
succeed?

Since search is one of the most popular Internet experience, it plays an significant role in
the success and failure of mobile computing.

Apple and Google Competition:

In 2011, Facebook competed with Google by introducing the potentially market-
disrupting Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface), a combination search/
navigation tool and personal assistant. Siri promises personalized recommendations that improve
as it gains user familiarity-all from a verbal command. Google, following Apple, immediately
unrivaled its Google Now.

 However, this strategy is not without worry. Apple’s Siri is good for setting an alarm or making
a phone call. Google’s Allo, on the other hand, can help users perform their tasks such as getting
news, finding out travel times and even suggest responses or web searches during the
conversations with other humans.
 Apple Operating System, iOS gives Iphone, Ipad users the ability to use Apple’s own
search engine bypassing Google

 However, Google purchased Android and provided its system for smartphones manufacturer at
no cost leading up to 76% of smartphones worldwide runs Google search engine.

Facebook and Google Competition:

Facebook introduced a new search tool called Facebook Search which mines user data
and delivers results based on social signals, such as Facebook “likes”, and friend
recommendations.

 Facebook Search is not the same league as Google although offering more precise data.

7-16. Which company and business model do you think is most likely to dominate the
Internet, and why?

In my opinion, Google is the company most likely to dominate the Internet. Because
Google continues to be the world's leading search engine, accounting for three-quarters of the
world's web searches. Google dominates online advertising. Google had purchased the Android
open source mobile operating system to compete in mobile computing and provided no cost to
smartphone manufacturers, generating revenue indirectly through app purchases and advertising.
Google is always looking for new ways to connect more people to the Internet, including fleets
oflittle satellites, solar-powered drones that would fly around the world, and balloons that float
high into the stratosphere, beaming the Internet to those below. Such devices in the sky will help
Google spread the Internet to the roughly 4 billion people in undeveloped areas who currently
lack Internet access. Although Apple is the leader in mobile software applications and Facebook
is the world's largest social networking service, Google will likely dominate in the Internet
access with its own competitive advantages.

7-17. What difference would it make to a business or to an individual consumer if

Apple, Google or Facebook dominated the Internet experience? Explain your answer.

Because each of firms is dominating one segment of the whole internet experience, so if
Apple, Google, or Facebook dominated the Internet experience, the market would drive users’s
satisfaction up. Take Google as an example, Google is dominant in searching, but two-thirds of
product searches are now happening on Amazon, and a billion searches a day are done on
Facebook.

Another example, which has been mentioned in the article, Google purchased the
Android open source mobile operating system in 2015 to compete in mobile computing, and
Android has been adopted as a standard by many different manufacturers. Meanwhile, Apple
allows only its own devices to use its proprietary operating system. The problem here is while
Google's Android mobile operating system is expected to gain even more market share in the
coming years, Apple tries to maintain customer loyalty and keep software developers focused on
the iOS platform.

Moreover, consumers would be forced to buy only one product and use only one service.
They would create a monopoly market, and the products as well as services will not be improved
because there is no motivating factor, or in other words, the competition. It is too early to tell
who would dominate the internet experience now, but it is good to have competition than just
one market leader.