Microsoft Picked The Wrong Fight

by , 3:35 PM EDT, June 22nd, 2007

Microsoft, in its desire to dominate every technological market, started a war with Google, an enemy it didn't know how to fight. Meanwhile, Apple is partnering with Google in a long term video war that Microsoft will be hard pressed to survive, according to an editorial from the Joost Team.

Observing how Apple and Google have been partnering lately, the author wrote, "Steve Jobs appears to have learned from Microsoft past success and decided that fighting Google was not the answer to the problem."

It turned out that each company had something the other needed. Google has the network and content. Apple has the fabulous hardware and UI technologies.

The result has been Google Search, Google Maps, Google Mail, and now YouTube on the iPhone. Google bent over backwards for Apple and recodes its Flash videos in H.264 format now.

"The latest move of Apple in the Windows browser space is most likely part of the plan," Mr. Maltais wrote. "Safari for Windows gives Apple the control they need on the environment to better display and play YouTube content ... and content is king, especially in the digital space."

The future has enourmous possibilities. There might be a video camera in a future iPhone that would allow the user to instantly upload to YouTube. Eventually, major content agreements that bring TV to Google/YouTube could spell trouble for Joost.

TMO notes that exactly what else could happen in terms of synergistic technologies between the two companies, no one knows, but the battle lines are drawn and Microsoft seems to be, suddenly, odd man out.