Apple Versus Google: Beyond High-level Comparisons

We will examine the areas of competition and cooperation between Apple and Google on Wednesday. Here's a magazine article from Business Week that provides some relevant color commentary on this rivalry. Again, as we discussed in the class, the table 'Same but Different" is interesting at a general level but is not as insightful from a strategy point of view. There have been recent attempts to arrive at comparative analysis between Google and Apple (and in some cases involving other companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo and others). Here's a NY Times blog post focused on a 'big-picture' look. Again, I believe that the Table (reproduced below) is interesting at a general (popular) level but can be more insightful.

See how you can develop a comparative analysis that can bring out the subtle but significant areas of similarities and differences between Apple and Google from a strategy point of view.