The Google Apple Merger: Fantasy or Future?

The Google Apple Merger: Fantasy or Future?
Author: Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com

Market research suggests that Microsoft controls upwards of 90% of the respective computer-based Operating System software industry. Whether a perfect number or not, there is no denying that this is a colossal company. Competitors like Apple and Google may offer a greater degree of threat to Microsoft than at any other time in history. Could a merger between Apple and Google knock Microsoft into the #2 spot?

Just to look at market capitalization for a moment Google sits at about $149.86 billion while Apple rings weighs in around $142.84 billion. To put this in perspective with Microsoft, America’s software giant has a market capitalization of around $236.10 billion independently. It doesn’t take a software engineering/ MBA pursuing graduate student to see that the combined financials of Google and Apple would automatically merit some shifting of the proverbial podium. The numbers are an important aspect of this equation, but what about the real market implications?

Where could the combined Google-Apple (Would it be called “Goopple”?) really pose the greatest threat to a company like Microsoft (one that reportedly controls 90% of their respective market share)? As a pioneer of mobile security, I believe that the answer lies within the mobile-based Operating Systems. This is an area that while Microsoft is slowly gaining traction, they remain far from the position of market control that they have over the computer-based industry. While the per unit profit margin may not be as high in mobile today, it is a market that will dwarf the size of the computer industry within the next ten years.

So could Google and Apple team up and with their combined size and strengths in innovation to take control of the future (oops I mean wireless industry) thus placing the Microsoft stronghold on the future at risk? If I am to become tomorrow’s Warren Buffett, I would put my money on the disruptive potential of Google and Apple. Perhaps it is a merger that will only play out in fantasy land, but should it ever start to materialize Steve Ballmer can’t say I didn’t forewarn.

This little scenario points out the strategic potential of the wireless industry in such a way that might even make Bill Gates snap out of retirement faster than Jay-Z! Could two smaller cats take down an elephant in the wild? Do you ever watch National Geographic?

As a mobile security professional, the market looks like it is being primed by the confusion created by the whimsical moves towards open source. The wireless industry is begging for a new king, the only question remains who will take command?

Cheers,
MobileTech

Your trusted mobile security guru.
Eric Everson, Founder MyMobiSafe.com