Now where were we?

When we last left off, Google and Apple were mixing it up like Frazier and Ali. I’ve been monitoring the situation, and I think we have enough material for an update on the continuing saga. I’d also like to welcome Apple’s new punching bag, Adobe, to the party. Hang in there guys, it’ll all be over soon!

Apple vs. Google is quickly approaching Hatfield vs. McCoy epicness

The last Technopocalypse ended with the acquisition of mobile ad companies apparently becoming the new black. The battle in the ad space has since continued, but after building the foundations, the focus has shifted to entrenchment. Google’s latest coup was receiving a patent on location based advertising. It’s one of those vague “method of utilizing location to integrate into an advertisement” ones that scares everyone away from attempting something similar. At least Four Square enjoyed their 7 months in the sun!

Apple unveiled their play, launching iAd, a framework that allows developers to place ads directly into their applications. It’s a wonderful closed ecosystem that gives Apple the iron grip they’ve come to know and love. In fact, the grip is so tight, iAd is being considered for an antitrust investigation! This alone will provide enough fodder for my next ten posts.

Google raids Apple’s fridge

The iPhone has long been criticized for the way it allows the user to manage their email accounts. An app called reMail (created by a former Gmail engineer) sought to address a number of shortcomings in the native email version. It would have too, except google swooped in and acquired it lock, stock, and barrel. Surprisingly (not), it was removed from Apple’s store, and the developer was folded right back into the loving arms of mother Google. Looks like all that sweet sweet functionality will get rolled into something else! I must admit I love these types of moves for some reason. Google was basically like, “OH HELL NO, the iPhone email experience SHALL NOT PASS! Buy that shit and shut it down!!!”

Back on the ranch…..

While all the ad and app related shenanigans were taking place, Apple was devising a maneuver that would make even Machiavelli giggle like a schoolgirl. Before we continue however, allow me a sentence or three of context. Many pundits believe that Google’s Android software poses the biggest threat to the iPhone’s hegemony. After all, Android has functionally equivalent features, a glossy interface, and its own version of an app store that just passed the 50,000 mark. Oh, it’s also TOTALLY FREE, which means hardware manufacturers don’t have to waste money on silly things like TEAMS of software engineers. As you might imagine, Apple doesn’t like the competition and threat that Android presents. So, what do they do? Why sue HTC for twenty patent infringements of course. TWENTY! (Cue up the Ed McMahon HI-YO!)

Wait…….what?

What the hell does Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC (High Tech Computer) have to do with anything?

1) HTC was the first manufacturer for Android, and to this day remains Google’s closest hardware partner.

2) Would you really want to take Google’s legal team head on?

Oh yeah, and most importantly…

3) HTC has the WEAKEST (and I mean WEAK) patent portfolio on the planet. In fact, the following conversation recently took place….

Microsoft: We think you’re violating some of our pate…..
HTC: HERE’S MONEY!!!!!

So to recap, Apple can end run Google legal, attack Android via the HTC Achilles’ heel, and send a Hulk Hogan-esque “YOU’RE NEXT BRUTHA!!” message to other android partners such as Samsung, Motorola, Dell, and Acer.

Who knows if it’ll work, but you must admit it’s a pretty creative legal maneuver. At the very least it allows me to include a wrestling icon, the physical weakness of a Greek hero, and “Motorola” in a single sentence! The only items I can think of that are more disparate might be “stapler”, “airport”, and “groundhog”.

The final frontier?

So the battle wages along the advertising front, the application front, the patent front (via proxy), soon on the tablet front (more here), and what’s this? The processor front? Wow, this is the fight that keeps on giving!

A few years ago apple snatched up a chip company called Palo Alto Semiconductor. With this acquisition, Apple could now design chips in-house, which results in better products from tighter software/hardware integration. A few of the big boys at the company, upset about the price of stock offered to them (for reals) ditched Apple and founded a start-up called Agnilux. No one really seems to know exactly what they do, but here’s what’s important.

1) The personnel consists of some of the brightest PA Semi engineers
2) Google just acquired them.

This is one of those moves that everyone is making a big deal about, so I too will help fan the flames of hysteria.

*clears throat*

OH SNAP, THIS IS GONNA BE EPOCH SHATTERING, and so forth…

(The rumor is that they’re going to design the chip for Google’s answer to the iPad)

Pffft, why buy the milk when you can own the cow?

Apple’s quest for hardware domination/independence apparently isn’t finished either. Recent rumors have them possibly acquiring ARM holdings, a move that would have SERIOUS ramifications in the tech world. Ok…um….Why? ARM (Advanced Risc Machines) is a company that designs CPUs and then licenses out their handiwork to other companies for manufacture. Think of it like BMW decides one day, “screw it, we’re just going to design cars on a computer, and then you can buy the blueprints and build it your damn self”. That’s what ARM does, except they design “the brains ” for the majority of mobile handsets and devices on the planet. (Yeah I know Qualcomm exists, but I assure you good sir, ARM they are NOT)

Anyway, if Apple snaps them up, things are going to get VERY interesting, VERY fast.

The good news is Google probably has their next step planned, because they just invested in a company that claims it can PREDICT THE FUTURE (How awesome is that?)

Below Hatfield vs. McCoy, but above Tastes great/Less filling

I mentioned in the preamble that we have a new player getting in the mix, and this one has developed into quite the doozy. Our second feature match pits longtime best buds/frenemies Apple and Adobe against each other. You know the deal, companies are best friends (Apple once owned 20% of Adobe, Adobe’s biggest customer was Apple, etc) and then their “shared vision” begins to diverge due to self interest. In a nutshell, during the mid nineties (aka when Jobs wasn’t around) Apple was faltering, and Adobe wisely jumped on the Windows bandwagon. Apple eventually got it together, and despite some minor headbutting, reestablished their solid relationship with Adobe.

And then it all went to hell…

The mobile web was still in its infancy, but with the iPhone on the horizon, it was about to experience a serious growth spurt. Adobe, like any corporate entity, wanted their crown jewel, Flash, to be a fixture of this new mobile landscape. Unfortunately for them, as far as Apple was concerned, this wasn’t going to happen. Citing a number of technical and pragmatic reasons, Apple kicked off the new fight by omitting Flash from the iPhone’s web browser. Some people, claiming Flash is a battery draining, processor hogging scourge, were thrilled with the decision and went out for celebratory drinks. Others, countering that it crippled the web experience of their awesome new device, stayed home and drank to forget.

Flash forward

For 2010, we can simply repeat the entire debacle by replacing “phone” with “pad”. The stakes are rising though, as it’s becoming apparent that device by device, Apple is attempting to phase out Flash from existence. The latest snub brought renewed attention to the debate, forcing people to pick sides, and setting off some awesome sniping between the two companies. A few weeks ago, the situation reached an especially fevered pitch when Mr. Jobs personally trashed Flash. The tirade included such gems as Flash was for the “PC era of desktops, rollovers and mice, not touchscreens and multitouch”. Ouch, man, ouch. Rubbing some additional salt in the wounds, Jobs also claimed that Flash was the #1 cause of Apple computers crashing.

Adobe’s CEO calmly responded, saying that if your computers are crashing, it’s YOUR operating system and not OUR software that should be addressed.

Time to turn this fight up to ELEVEN!

I’m going to do my best to explain the significance of Apple’s next move, because it has the potential to either a) alter the tech landscape in their favor significantly or b) backfire and bring the antitrust hammer down on them “hoisted on your own petard” style.

The biggest challenges an application developer faces are the sheer number of devices and the different types of code that bring them to life. If I want to create an application for say, an iPhone, it has to be built a certain way. As you can guess, the same goes for Android, Blackberry, Windows, Mac OSX, Ford cars, giant electronic billboards, and Japanese calculators. That’s to say that EACH device has it’s own (and often unique) way of interpreting the various programming languages. Because of this, it’s extremely time consuming to develop for everyone, so people tend to gyrate towards the biggest fish, because that’s where the money is. Many consider this bad, because it makes it tougher for the little guy to gain traction against the big boys.

Some clever people figured out awhile ago that a better approach might be to “write once, run anywhere”. This is generally referred to as cross-platform compilation. So I create my awesome Techranter application (an app that provides a real-time ETA of when a friend is getting to my apt) and from that one version, I instantly create multiple versions for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Japanese calculators, etc.

There are some problems of course, but that’s the idea in spirit, and it happens to be a pretty good way to do business. Developers get their apps (and get paid for it) on as many devices as possible, and consumers get to enjoy these innovative apps no matter what type of phone or device they’re toting around.

In fact, Adobe added this functionality to the latest version of their creative suite. I create something ONCE in Flash (let’s say a game) and here are my options….
(the gist)
1) Save as a web based version. Upload the file and people around the world can play my game online
2) Save as a standalone desktop version. Now I can play the game without an internet connection
3) Save for mobile. Now people can rock my game on their phones.

Traditionally, these would have been created separately, and in different programming languages. Instead of maintaining THREE “codebases”, a developer now must only be concerned with ONE. We’ve come a long way baby!

Debbie Downer enters, stage left

Well it was nice while it lasted because Apple just crushed that dream. For reasons that aren’t clear, (aside of a giant “screw you” to Adobe) they recently revised their agreement with iPhone/iPad app developers. From now on, devs will have a choice of three languages in which to build apps, and using an intermediary program (cross-platform compilation) is strictly verboten. This move serves to further lock down Apple’s walled garden and really seems to do more harm, especially to aspiring developers, than good. As mentioned earlier, the move has infuriated Adobe (and others) so much, they went to the man to complain. Not only did the man agree, the FTC and DOJ are “negotiating” over who’s going to smack Apple down first!

In conclusion, not a good move for developers, the general tech user, or seemingly, Apple. It is however a GREAT move for individuals who compose tech columns titled Technopocalypse, so there’s that.

And now we’re up to speed for now…

A lot of new developments kept popping up as I composed this post. HTC counter sued Apple, Nokia sued Apple, Google announced they’re dropping an iPad competitor, Blackberry is working on a tablet, and I almost forgot, HP bought Palm. Luckily, these stories have some time to mature and surprise us further. Since this went into overtime about 400 words back, we’ll cover them in a future “Technopocalypse, the Thirdening” post.

We’ll leave off exactly where we did last time (and I suspect every time), with these faceless billion dollar entities fighting for our love (wallets). It feels so good to be loved!

Until next time…