Microsoft and Google Suddenly Want to Be Like Apple - horowitzwaston

Along Monday, Microsoft shocked the tech reality by announcing a duo of Windows 8 tablets, both dubbed Microsoft Surface. But it wasn't just the press event's mysterious nature that successful the news so stunning.

For the first time, Microsoft will make its own Windows PCs. The company will be in straightforward competition with hardware partners such as HP and Dell, and judging from early reactions, Microsoft is in a dandy position to win. The potential effects of Come up on the PC market can't be understated.

And however, anyone who's paid attention to the technical school industry for the last five years shouldn't be too surprised. Microsoft's overture with Superficial–scheming the computer hardware tandem with the software—is the same approach that Apple has taken for decades. And Apple's method is paying off–just look at the rise of the iPhone and iPad, and the success of the MacBook Air. It took a few years for other companies to catch connected, but now it's finally natural event.

"We believe that any intersection betwixt hominian and machine can be successful improved when all aspects of the experience–hardware and software system–are reasoned in working together," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the Opencast press event. You could belik attribute that quote to Steve Jobs and get absent with it.

Microsoft's not the only company that's taken a liking to Apple's come on. Google likewise intends to build more of its own hardware. A new Google-proprietary tablet, factory-made by Asus, may be announced next week at the Google I/O developers conference, according to numerous reports. Several more Google devices, including new Nexus phones, are also reportedly on the means. Don't forget that Google now owns a hardware maker, Motorola, which whitethorn start churning extinct its own Nexus hardware in the future.

Google has built Nexus phones (in conjunction with a hardware partner) before, only the stress is variant now. Nexus devices were formerly meant to make up a reference for developers and hardware makers. Now, Google seems to view them as a mode to deliver Android software and Google Play services direct to consumers, unmodified by else companies and untainted by bloatware.

"We require to give you a place to purchase Nexus devices that work really fountainhead with your digital entertainment," Andy Rubin, Google's senior V.P. of mobile and whole number content, said stake in April, after the company started selling the Extragalactic nebula Nexus phone right away. It sounds like Google's learned that iTunes is as big of a cabbage for Apple as the core iOS software. Once more, it's software program, services, and hardware totally pronounceable into combined.

I see this as best news for consumers. The Dells and HPs of the world may not be pleased, but they have no choice but to play along, since they have no other companies to turn to besides Google and Microsoft. (HP tried to control its own software destiny with WebOS, but failed spectacularly, and now the company is recommitted to Windows.)

Apple of necessity better competition, particularly in tablets. By competing with their hardware partners—and learning some lessons from Apple–Microsoft and Google may close up rearing the bar for everyone

Follow Jared on Chitter , Facebook or Google+ for even more tech news and commentary.