Apple Vs Google in the New Mobile World

I thoroughly enjoy being a handset reviewer. I'm always one of the few to have the privilege to try out new handsets. And just to say how much I really love being in this role - I only write a review after I feel that I've tested the handset enough and have a good assessment of the proos and cons. Every review that I write is not a mere collection of secondary sources. It's my own assessment after using the test set that I'm given for a few days. But well, what few people know is that I ended up being a handset reviewer (as part of my job scope) by chance because I was really looking at the SaaS trends and the future product roadmap in the mobility and collaboration space.

As phones become more and more like mini-computers, the types of applications running on the phones become more and more important. More and more people use phone for doing more than just making phone calls and SMS/MMS or emails. I use my phone to tweet, to check out my news feed, to play games and videos, listen to music and do some simple photo editing.

Between Apple and Google. I am placing my bet with Google. While Apple is really good with its devices and has huge success with its Appstore, Apple is still very much in the consumer space. Apple is driving iPhone adoption in the enterprise market by supporting Microsoft Outlook  Exchange push mail and leaving it to the software developers or SaaS providers such as salesforce.com or sugarsync to develop iPhone applications. Its move into push mail for Outlook Exchange has certainly waken RIM up. RIM has just launched its business grade iPhone-equivalent as a retaliatory tactic (see my other post on Blackberry Storm).

Google on the other hand uses a flanking approach. It does not support Microsoft Exchange push email and therefore does not attract much attention from RIM. G1's target segments are users who really love to have push capabilities for email, calendar and contacts and yet do not want to pay for Apple Mobile-Me or the great fans of Gmail users who desire to have the push capability as well as the small businesses who do not have outlook exchange and are or intend to use web-based emails. In addition, I believe over time Google will replicate its full suite of desktop apps onto its mobility roadmap. All the Google apps are part of a growing suite of services that support search, collaboration and mobility.

While the form factor of the G1 phone is not exactly as sexy as that of an iPhone, the G1 phone and Android software are really designed to support search, collaboration and mobility. To facilitate its mobility roadmap, Google made Android an open platform so that developers can access the core mobile device functionality through standard APIs to develop apps that truly encourage collaboration and mobility. I won't be surprised if Google starts to make the mobile version of its Google Gadgets available on its Android platform. That means the Google gadgets can be placed easily on my mini-mobile web pages or microblogs.

Where would you place your bet on? Google or Apple?