Google
is one name in the Technology arena that is well poised to rule.
Talking of past decade, it’s been all the way up for Google and
undoubtedly they have been ruling the internet economy. Google have had
its impact in the industry with more than 150 products and will continue
to grow with its ever increasing portfolio of the products. This is
likely to happen but for these 10 companies which have posed some
serious competition to Google.
1. Apple
Microsoft has one of the most dominant
impact in the IT industry. So without a doubt it is Google’s biggest
adversary in 2010 and these two giants will be locking their horns for
market supremacy in areas such as search, collaboration tools and
browsers. Talking of these two giants, Google has reigned as leaders in
search, but with release of BING in May 2009, Microsoft has raised few
questions amongst in Google’s management team. With features such as
ranking search results based on relevancy to other users, Microsoft has
linked Bing-related deals with Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo.
Microsoft have enhanced Bing, adding
image search and mapping. But in response Google have unveiled real time
search. In December, Google also added a photo search capability, a
dictionary and a translator that finds relevant content in 40 languages.
Entering 2010, Google still dominates search, with more than 70% of the
market. Apart from search, the battle is likely to focus on cloud based
collaboration tool.
Google Apps is designed to undercut
sales of Microsoft products, including Exchange and SharePoint.
Microsoft has responded with Office Web Apps, free Web-based versions of
Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are due out in 2010. Last but
not the least; the browser war between these two is giants are likely to
heat up in 2010. So 2010 awaits the answer if ever so popular
Microsoft’s premier browser’s market share could be brought down by
Google’s Chrome.
3. Amazon
In 2009, Google’s effort of scanning
millions of out-of-print books and incorporating them in online search
did gain up some momentum and helped themselves to publish over 500000
digital books for free to customers of Sony Reader and Barnes &
Noble Nook, which is due in January. Further, there claims of opening up
Google Editions, an e-book store, has opened up new rivalry with
Amazon.
Amazon with its Kindle e-book reader is
one of the leaders in e-book reader’s market. The other area where
Google is taking on Amazon is in cloud computing. Google’s Apps Engine, a
newbie cloud computing platform that allows developers to create their
own Web applications and run them on Google’s infrastructure will be
competing with Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) which has already
grab hold of market with its several upgrade after its release in 2006.
So it will be a great battle to watch when these two giants fight for
market supremacy on Cloud computing and E-book readership.
4. Facebook
Facebook, probably the most popular
stuff in the internet right now, has attracted 350 million active users
in just six years and is subject of interest for the guys at Google too.
In 2010, Google and Facebook rivalry is likely to heat up based on
question that about the way people will find their information in
future. With ever increasing use of social networking and the rise of
Facebook, Google’s worry seems to be a viable one.
Orkut offers Google Friend Connect, a
tool for Web publishers to add social networking content to their sites,
in direct competition with similarly named Facebook Connect. Meanwhile,
Facebook has sought out relationships with several arch-enemies of
Google, including Microsoft and Yahoo. So its for sure that this battle
is worth taking a note off in 2010.
5. Twitter
No doubt if Facebook is in rise, than
it’s no difference with Twitter. If social networking is the way to go,
then Google will certainly find Twitter in its way. Twitter, a
micro-blogging site, has in a way revolutionized the way we communicate
these days.
So, Google’s Friend Connect will face
tough competitions for Twitter’s Connect in 2010 as Twitter looks to
move up the rank in the areas of Social Networking. Other areas where
these two find themselves competing are Real time search. Google’s real
time search and Twitter’s will be trying to outperform each other in
2010. So, this battle will be a good one to watch for in 2010.
6. Mozilla
With release of Google Chrome, Google
has stepped into ever so popular browse battle. Mozilla has been in the
markets for years and now this step from Google is likely to create the
conflict of interest between these two.
Of late, the war between the two has
heated up even more. The battle has now gone to the default search.
Mozilla now has shown intent to kick Google out from its default search engine
status. The latest rumours on the internet show that Mozilla is now
eyeing to get a deal with Microsoft to make Bing as its default search
engine in Firefox.
This may not impact Google immediately
but eventually this move, if comes true, is likely to decrease Google’s
share of the search market. Hence, Google now has Mozilla on a double
war zone; first the obvious browser war and now the war over default
searches.
7. Yahoo
When it comes to search, one of Google’s
biggest competitors besides Microsoft is Yahoo. Yahoo has been in the
market with variety of products in areas of email, Messenger, News,
Search and Analytics services. So without doubt it will be a fearsome
competitor for Google. In 2009, Yahoo made some improvements by
integrating search with its rich content. Users can watch videos or
stream music straight from the Yahoo search results page.
Yahoo also helps users find travel deals
and compare product prices. Further, Yahoo has recently added Twitter
to its search Page and if a joint search and advertising deal between
Yahoo and Microsoft is approved by federal regulators, this could prove
costly to Google. So the 2010 is the year to watch as other competitor
look to outperform Google in the market with different joint forces
being formed by their rivals.
8. Cisco
Google definitely has a tough challenge
against Cisco. With years of experience on web based collaborative
platfomr, WebEx, and superior VOIP service, Cisco poses a threat to
Google’s Wave and Voice. In addition to this, Cisco also is looking to
enhance its video conferencing quality by focusing on collaboration
through intenret video, desktop video and consumer Telepresence.
In addition to this, Cisco’s presence in
Cloud is another leading edge it has over Google. As Google is looking
to take everything to the web, it certainly will face a good competition
from Cisco on this front.
Moreover, according to Networkworld,
Cisco is looking to enter into Smartphone market in the very near future
(actually by mid-2010). Its recent acquisition of Pure Digital and Flip
shows Cisco’s intent to take video to the mobile phone. Thus, we might
see Cisco giving a hard time to Google’s Nexus One in the coming days.
9. IBM
By now it’s quite crystal clear that
2010 will the year where big internet giants will be trying to gain
whole lot of market share that will be up for grab in areas of
collaboration tools. So, 2010 is likely to reopen Google’s rivalry with
IBM with the release of new collaboration tools such as Google Wave.
Google has stepped into the battle field with its low cost hosted
collaboration tools such as Google Apps. Google will compete against
IBM’s Lotus Lives, which has attracted more than 2 million businesses in
the last two years.
10. Nokia
Today, Nokia has had grab hold of the
mobile phone market with 4 out of 10 mobiles sold. With increase in the
use of smart phones, the IT giants Google will be in rivalry with Nokia
in periphery of operating systems
for Smartphones. Symbian Open source operating system will be competing
with Google’s Android. Nokia with recent deals with Microsoft is all
set to bring Office Mobile to Symbian devices. With claim of releasing
improved version of Symbian in 2010 means Google Android will have to
face tough battle. But, Google’s Android is poised for major
developments in 2010 and with commitments from Acer, Sony Ericcson, HTC
and Motorola, this will be a worthwhile battle to watch in 2010 and
years to come.
So, at this point one may feel Google
has tough battle to fight in 2010. Most of the arch rivals are gearing
up to poise serious threats either single handed or with collaboration.
So, 10 line ups of interesting battle is all set to keep the 2010
interesting enough for us to watch and keep the Google on their toes.
No comments:
Post a Comment