Google vs Microsoft vs Apple: 3 Development Models for Google Wave

I find it very interesting how the big three in the IT industry currently conduct their business. Well, that is not interesting, but the complete difference in the ways they conduct their business and develop products is very interesting. All have their merits, as all three of these companies are wildly successful. Of course, I’m talking about Google, Apple and Microsoft. Let’s take a more in-depth look at how they seem to develop and roll-out their product lines.

Microsoft

Microsoft is the business king. Their enterprise suite of products are crazy popular and pretty much dominate that market space. Their most successful products would be MS Office, SharePoint, Server, Exchange and System Center Suite (not to mention SQL server, VB Suite, etc). Yet, for all the reasons I like Microsoft and those products just mentioned,the reason those products are successful is precisely the reason I am not a fan of the Windows OS (which by the way, causes problems in the enterprise area for MS if the OS problems tarnish the enterprise line).

In the enterprise line MS constantly is working with businesses on how to improve this product line, what other features do you want, what other use cases does this line need to support, etc, etc. It works very well. You get a product that can pretty much do what it is you need it to do. There is a whole administrative tail that comes with these products from certification courses, to…MS sponsored working groups in  your area, to…MS experts and business consultants that will help you architect how to use those products optimally. This product line is all about feedback, lessons learned and big service releases or product releases that address both that feedback and those lessons learned. Very, very much akin to a normal business model. Very comfortable model to business as it speaks about doing things to their products in the same way as business itself works.

However, applying that same model to the OS makes for a very bloated product. MS really needs to get back to basis with this product (I think Windows® 7 may be  a step in that direction) so that terrible frustration folks have with the OS does not tarnish the business line. But, this is their model, they are proud of it, it is the central theme of the Win 7 advertising campaign. Everybody gets a say and we listen to everybody and then…we build a product that will do everything.

Apple

You want to talk about opposites! Apple, probably does user research (of that I have no doubt), but if anybody at Apple ever talked about it they would surely be fired that day. Apple tells you what you need and then they deliver it. You wish the iPhone could send meeting requests…buy something else, we don’t do that.

What they do, however, is give a product that does the things it does very well (I think that sentence makes sense). It will look cool, it will function as advertised and it will be integrated with the other core Apple products. You will not know about this product (outside of the rumours) until release. You get what you get. They tell you what it does and the reason it does it that way.

This model is clearly not designed to entice the enterprise customer. This is all about the personal consumer. Apple is about product. Making sure you have the current and the next hot product. Once you don’t…you fall off the radar and your profits also fall with it. When you have so much invested in the success of that next product you have make sure you have tight integration with your other products. If everything you makes works great together, why wouldn’t I buy everything you make.

Apple hit a home run with the iPod and then again with the iPhone. The tight integration of those products with the Mac line helped grow those products. The growth of the Mac line grew the software line, etc, etc. We will see another test of this model at the end of the month when the, much rumoured, Tablet computer (or whatever) is launched. I for the life of me cannot think of a good use case to justify buying this product. But Apple has apparently come up with one. They have built a product that will solve a problem I am not aware I have yet, they will tell me how their product solves it and then integrate that product in with their other lines. Will I buy what is presented to me…we’ll see.

They do this very well. They tell you what you need, they build it their way, it does what they say it can do and not do, they make it cool and make sure it works with all their other stuff. Your feedback….you get to make that at the checkout, that’s it.

Google

Google, which is primarily a web-based product line tends to lean toward fast roll-out of products that still need development. The product is open-source and encourages everybody to join in, try it and develop it further with extensions and apps that support and make that product better. They provide a whole bunch of open-source code to help everyone get started. Thus, they have another product to deliver their real business – search engine and ads.

This model has worked great in the past with Gmail, Google Maps and to some extent Google Apps. However, the idea that this works good for a product like Google Wave is yet to be seen. They took a little bit of the Apple model. They went far, far away to a secret island and designed the product without letting anyone find out about it and had a big huge launch. Then they took the MS approach and asked everybody to think of what they wanted improved and what new functionality they would like to see.

I am not sure if this will be successful. Google Wave is both a business and a personal tool…so, maybe taking what works from both MS and Apple is a good idea. I just have a real feeling that Wave (in my mind) is more of a business tool and, thus, really needs to be tight before roll-out and seriously solve a specific problem that business has. That big problem (by the way) is the easy one, real-time collaborative workflows! But, because it is (or certainly can be) a serious business tool they need a lot of the admin tail that supports business process (certification, architectural experts or consultants, appliance, etc) needs to be available. Moreover, in the same way that MS OS can tarnish the enterprise line so too can bad press and reviews about the preview of Google Wave hurt any enterprise aspirations.

On the personal side of the house they need to have more integration with their other products. Not available yet, hopefully soon. Similar to the way Apple makes all their products work well together, Google Wave needs to also work well with all their other products: Gmail (contacts & groups, Android, Apps, Voice, Blogger, YouTube, etc. That is a must for the consumer side and what will make it successful. The first thing out of everyone’s mouth with Google Wave is….”Does it work with(insert your favourite Google product).”

The come on over, try it and help build it has been extremely successful for Google and has gotten a lot of folks very, very excited about their products (read – this blog ). However, this product (as they have realized I think by the way they are trying to merge the best examples of what makes Apple and MS successful) is a mix of everything. So, perhaps incorporating the business model of MS, Apple and Google is the right road to be on.

Time will tell. I hope that this will be wildly successful but for that to happen they need to realize that they need the best of what has made Google successful, the best of what has made MS successful and the best of what makes Apple successful. Doing any part of that trinity half-hearted or with less enthusiasm will be to the detriment of the whole product.

Which model do you think is the best fit for Google Wave going forward? We love to hear what you think.

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Tagged as: Apple, Business, Developer, Google, google docs, google wave, google wave blogger, google wave gadgets, industry, iPhone, iPod, Microsoft, ms office

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