Google, Microsoft or Apple – who will rule?

Google is a favorite topic of discussion for many. What’s the company up for? What will it do with the next $4bn it plans to raise, how well will Gtalk and the new Google Toolbar go? Will Google make the next operating system and turn the world upside down?

Bill Gates feels Microsoft is under threat by start-ups. Somebody will come up with a killer application and finish the behemoth.

Robert Cringely says:

So it could be that Google isn’t the Microsoft-killer many people — including Gates and Ballmer — fear the company is. Going a step further, it is even possible that Gates’s conviction that he’ll eventually be taken down by a startup is wrong, too.

Here’s where I go out on a limb, but I think Microsoft’s clearest threat still comes from Apple, though not the way most people expect. Yes, Apple is about to take Microsoft to the woodshed when it comes to Internet movie distribution. Yes, Apple already super-dominates the music player market where Microsoft doesn’t even really exist. But the real jewel is one Microsoft has to lose, not gain — the PC platform, itself.

I am a big fan of Bob’s writing and he never stops amazing me. Read the current article here:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050825.html