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Apple V Google Phone War Hots Up

The war between Apple and Google is really hotting up.

At their June developers’ conference, Apple displayed their new 3d Maps feature to be launched when the iPhone’s new operating system iOS 6 is introduced later this year. Google Maps app has been embedded on the iPhone since its launch in 2007, but the launch of the Apple mapping application will see the Google app removed from the core apps as Apple distances itself from its rival in mobile phone arena.

The reason? Money, basically. The advertising potential on mobile phones, with their hundreds of millions of users is immense, and as we enter the ‘Post-PC’ era where portable devices such as smartphones and tablets take over from the desktop and laptop computers, the revenues from advertising on a mapping application will grow at an exponential rate.

Apple’s voice activated command system, Siri, will be improved and when used in conjunction with iOS 6’ new core Facebook application will mean that users can update their status on Facebook by simply talking into their iPhone, iPad or Mac Powerbook.

The integration of Facebook by Apple is also a direct thumbs-down to Google’s own social media platform Google+.

Smartphones from companies such as Samsung and Google’s own Motorola division are the chief alternatives to the iPhone, and Apple has been suing those manufacturers in court, accusing them of ripping off the iPhone’s ground breaking features.

By partnering with Facebook, however, Apple creates an uneasy alliance with another rival – Microsoft. Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, powers searches within Facebook and are also given a prominent placement on the Facebook logout page. The ad, which is shown after a user logs out of Facebook, seems to be a smart compromise, giving brands the prominence they’re looking for without sacrificing user experience. Not only does the unit appear when a user’s session is complete, Facebook’s most active users rarely log out and therefore won’t see many ads like this.

While Google’s Adwords dominates online paid search, the mobile marketplace could change the landscape completely with Apple leading the offensive.

One final thing – Apple uses Yelp to deliver its citations and recommendations about businesses, so amping up your presence on Yelp is probably a good idea…

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by James McRoy .