The war between Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google is bound to escalate on the search and hardware fronts. The software giants, Amazon and Google, are in competing in their attempts to increase their hardware products. This is in an attempt to increase their customer loyalty (Deghton&Kornfeld, 2013, p. 2). This move is also aimed at extending their control over the software services offered by these companies and the flow of revenues from these services. It has resulted to increased rivalry between the two companies with Apple responding by developing and building its own unique software. This is because it wants its devices to stand out and be unique. Google, having purchased Motorola Mobility, has been using the phone making company to release Android devices in order to rival Apple’s iPhone. Amazon is also planning to enter into the race with a phone of its own. All the four companies view search as an excellent opportunity for profiting off and retaining their customers. Rivals of Google want to significantly undercut its web-search system of typing specific queries in its search box. They have introduced mobile searches on Smartphone. The four giant companies are also competing in four other areas beyond search and hardware. These other areas include e-commerce and online ads. They are competing in the marketing of their products. Each of the company wants to attract and win a wide customer base. They all want to make their products and services ubiquitous.
Amazon was the major global e-retailing giant in2013. Its retail revenue of $31 billion equated a quarter of the total revenues of the other existing online retailers in the U.S. By that time, however, e-retailing business had not penetrated the U.S retailing market deeply. Amazon was also planning to enter the competitive Smartphone market by the start of 2014. The Smartphone would offer a product supporting the show-rooming practice in which potential customers could visit physical stores with the aim of comparing and trying out products. It could also enable them buy these products online. It accomplished this in the year 2014. Amazon has joined Apple in the tablets market. Its Kindle Fire Tablets has increased competition and has gained popular support from customers. It has also gained critical accolades in equal measure.
Apple joined the internet economy in 1976. For many years, Apple has been defining the iPad and iPhone market. However, rivalry ranging from Amazon to Samsung Electronics seems to be gaining ground. The competitors seem to be winning against Apple. In 2013, Apple’s Smartphone global shipments declined from twenty three percent to fifteen percent. The Android Tablet is gaining popularity over the iPad. In an attempt to regain its status and popularity, Apple released iPad Mini, which is cheaper (Deghton&Kornfeld, 2013, p. 6). Apple has also not been left behind in the search race. It Recently Apple has launched the Siri product which is a voice- activated searching tool. This is viewed as posing a challenge to the Google search engine.
Facebook had more than one hundred and fifty three million subscribers by 2013. All the subscribers used Facebook at least once a month. Facebook has been slower than Google in attracting online advertisers. Most of its revenue, however, comes from advertising. It has transformed the mobile-centric industry, and it is planning to join the Smartphone race. It is in an attempt to step up its competitiveness with the other giants. Facebook is also in its nascent stages of stepping up its search offers. Its new mobile feature enabling its users to discover businesses in their vicinity was also a major step forward.
Google aggressively expanded its territories this year. In its expansion, it clashed not only with its main giant rivals but also with wireless carriers and cable companies. It has worked harder to ensure that the YouTube Video site, search engine and other new services for instance Google Wallet have reached consumers without common hurdles like poor internet speed or blocking by competitors or rivals. Google has been making various defensive moves in an attempt to hold its giant web-rivals Facebook, Apple and Amazon at bay. It has made various attempts to widen its customer base by diversifying its products and services. The largest percentage of Google’s profits comes from search (Deghton&Kornfeld, 2013, p. 8). Google has developed Google+ in an attempt to counter Facebook influence. Google+ is a merger between Twitter Inc. and Facebook which allows individuals to share photos, videos and news. It has pushed and encouraged the users of Gmail and its search engine to sign to Google+.
These four giant companies have some common success and failure factors. The major success factor for the companies is good and able leadership. Successful platforms and foundations begin with good and able leadership and a unity of purpose. Transparency also plays a major role by enhancing and building confidence in all the individuals involved. It helps in attracting new partners as well as helping these partners in co-creating an optimistic business platform. Good policies and regulations will also ensure that the four giant industries succeed in their proposed plans. This also serves to minimize unnecessary chaos and misunderstandings among the various stakeholders within the firms. The policies and regulations bring all the players on board thus promoting oneness and unity of purpose.
The giant companies also have common key factors of failure. These include lack of good and able leadership, lack of transparency and lack of good policies and regulations. Bad leadership has always been the major reason for failure of various global companies. It is the genesis of other factors of failure like lack of transparency and accountability and weak business policies which eventually translates to a company’s poor performance. The giant companies should avoid being victims of such factors of failure if at all they are to maintain their global market status.
References
Deghton, J., & Kornfeld, L. (2013). Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Havard Business School.
