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August 30, 2006
goople
A pinch of salt in the news enchilada may pass undetected: Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, joined Apple’s Board of Directors today, August 29th.
Speculation is green for this occurrence but I remember last time Steve Jobs joined a Board of Directors that was not Apple’s, Pixar was sold to Disney the day next. Not to say Apple will be sold out to the Juggernaut of search engines but possibly something else of the most interesting kind: integration.
1 Two of the coolest brand in IT are partnering on betting that Microsoft Vista is going to be a major embarrassment to Redmond’s agonizing monopoly but see the Zune initiative as a threat in the long run (AAPL needs GOOG).
2 Apple is from now on going full-frontal against the former Gates company (Bill’s out gardening with Melinda) and the miserable states of affair that is called the disbanded Microsoft Software Division (GOOG needs AAPL).
3 Google is going to switch to Apple hardware for most of its numerous factories (AAPL needs GOOG).
4 Google is going to buy on the dozen or so multimedia-oriented and Apple branded software pieces that are iLife and iWork (GOOG needs AAPL).
5 Google is going to embrace the iTunes Store for audio and video replacing the miserable Video store have now (they both need this).
6 finally The Googlians are going to fix .Mac and integrate it with their services once and for all (AAPL needs GOOG).
But the whole package of semi-obvious predictions looks possibly too predictable. Apple is set for exploding sales next year with both audio, video and PC products, what they are going to need is sit side-by-side on the couch with the only other company that is an established nightmare to MS and MS’s lack of understanding of web-as-a-service. WAAS has so far been a thorn on the side in Apple’s crown of jewels with only two, masterfully executed and very successful exception: the iTunes Music Store and the Apple Store.
Some very sweet goo is dripping in Cupertino with new iPods, faster Mac minis and now the right infrastructure to jump 2.0.
A small notch on the paper, one with consequences. Expect a lot of them.
Posted by lck at August 30, 2006 02:14 AM
