Topic: Google I/O and the future of Apple

[Fast Eddie B]

Last Wednesday Google had it's "I/O" keynote for developers.

It was 3+ hours long, but fascinating.

Not much really "new", but the way they're improving and integrating everything is quite amazing.

You can watch a summary of it on the TWIT network, or find it on YouTube.

Just the voice search, now also available on iOs, makes Siri look like its dead by the side of the road (to quote one of the TWIT guests).

Plus Android and GoogleNow and Maps and Photos and Music and, well...watch the keynote for an idea of where they're going.

And Larry Page's speech and Q&A at the end was quite touching. He seemed to be channeling Steve Jobs at times.

Its no secret I've been an Apple fanboi since time immemorial, but it sure seems like Google has the mojo right now. Unless Apple has the next "insanely great" product lurking in the wings, they really seem to have lost their momentum.

Please do NOT turn this into an Apple bashing thread - just curious as to how others see this shaking out.


In the interest of full disclosure, I do have positions in both Apple and Google, so I obviously wish them both well.

[moj]

My brother is seriously considering selling his other investments to go all in on google. I'm not quite there myself but with glass's and fiber, Google does seem to have a bright future. I've being playing with the new music service and enjoy it, but it's not the be all end all. The market can bear, and benefits from both Google and Apple and don't see that dynamic changing much anytime soon.

[Tatyana]

The new Google phone looks great, but my colleague has reported that she hates it and thinks it is really not very intuitive.

[jaypee]

So, my problems with Google's mobile platform always has been battery life and the way apps are allowed to just run in the background and/or be crappily made. I like that Apple puts some controls on the app store. I also like that Apple is the only device manufacturer who makes the device, and that you're guaranteed to have the same experience with the iOS.. and also the bloatware that Apple puts on the iPhone is actually kind of useful and not annoying.

But Apple is no longer winning the battery life battle.

Having said that.. I think Apple needs to start collaborating or die. I was using my XBox the other day to watch an Amazon Instant Video, and it struck me that the only platform which is not supported by XBox is iTunes, and I'm sure that's not for lack of wanting to allow iTunes compatibility with the XBox marketplace. Conversely, the only things I can watch on my Apple TV are Netflix and Hulu. Two years ago I would have sworn up and down that Apple would continue to dominate the smartphone market... but now I'm not so sure.

[Fast Eddie B]

The new Google phone looks great, but my colleague has reported that she hates it and thinks it is really not very intuitive.

The tech shows have reported that far more people move from Android to iOS than the other way around.

As long as Google tech is available on the iPhone, I'll probably stay with that platform. I have an iPhone 4 and may upgrade to a 5 or "5s" in the fall. Not ready to make a switch - Karen and I are pretty comfortable in the "walled garden" that is the Apple ecosystem.

For now.

[jaypee]

Obviously this isn't a fair comparison because I'm comparing an iPhone 5 to the original Galaxy S, but I've had maybe one or two times when I've had to force quit an app (with the exclusion of GMail and Google Drive, which I have to force quit pretty much every day) on my iPhone. My Galaxy S would crash all the time because the apps weren't properly policed by Google and weren't as stable.

I'd rather the iPhone just for reliability.. and having that megahuge screen and being able to run two windows side by side looks nice, but I can't imagine it does wonders for your battery.

[moj]

I recently bought a HTC one and love the hardware but am new to android. Long ago I had an iphone 3. I loved it, then IOS4 came along and ruined it. It would crash the phone all the time, freeze up when trying to anything from texting to playing music. I took it to two different apple stores to see if they could fix, replace, or roll back the update. I was still in a 2 year contract but neither store would do anything. Even after making appointments they where rude and refused to anything about the phone. They said all they could do is sell my a new iphone 4 at full price. After that I've held a grudge and went to windows phone.
   I really like the windows phone and think it's a great OS for phones. I switched to the android phone because I was sick of not having all the apps everyone else did. I don't like android nearly as much as the windows 8 OS, but find myself using my new phone way more then my old one because I can do more with it. I wish windows had caught on more because the OS has some really great features built in. The podcast player built in to widows phones is so much better than any podcast player I've tried and android and have paid for dog catcher and now pocket cast. I dislike how uninstalling apps in android still leaves all the app data. There is a lot of stuff in android that is unintuitive or seems half baked.  Philosophically though, I like that's open and am still happy with my phone.