Impact of the tech war on the consumer

Yesterday I came across a very interesting article titled Another game of thrones in the Economist, as I was browsing through the magazine for a news story to present for my Advertising class. I particularly liked the reference to game of thrones. The article talks about the battle between the four big player in the technology industry: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. Today, competition in the tech industry is fierce with executives criticizing each other, forming alliances and filing lawsuits to crush competition.

Companies like Apple and Google are competing for market share in operating systems for smartphones and tablet computers and also competing with Amazon. Google and Facebook are trying to drive users to their respective social networking sites. This looks like a great news for consumers, as they can now choose from an ever-wider range of innovative and cheap or free technologies. But the downside of all this is the use of unfairly means by these companies to promote their own services at the expense of consumers.

In a move to seize Google’s ad revenue, Apple does not to support Flash on iOS. Google has turned search into a huge money-spinner by tying it to advertising and promoting its social media platform Google plus. Facebook is in the process of doing something similar with the way people’s interests and relationships are revealed by their social networks. Earlier this year, Apple controversial decision to take Google Maps and YouTube out of iOS and replace it with the company’s own, was not received well by Apple users. Amazon has Amazon silk as it’s default browser for it’s tablets. While the battle between these companies is healthy for powering forward advances in technology and ensuring a quality service. It forces consumers into using only their services and no one else’s. Hence, changing the way people will find information, consume content and purchase products and services now and in the future.

http://www.economist.com/news/21567361-google-apple-facebook-and-amazon-are-each-others-throats-all-sorts-ways-another-game