For many people, smartphone shopping comes down to a choice of
Apple’s
iPhone or one powered by
Google’s Android software.
But now consumers can get an iPhone and fill it with Google.
按图放大
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A maps app Google released in December has been the most downloaded program for the iPhone for much of the last month.
Google has become one of the most prolific and popular developers of
apps for the iPhone, in effect helping its competitor make more
appealing products — even as relations between the companies have
deteriorated.
While some of its Internet services were built into the iPhone from
the start, Google has stepped up its presence in the last eight months,
pumping out major new iPhone apps or improving old ones. It also has
expanded efforts to hire developers to make more such apps.
A maps app Google released in December has been the most downloaded
program for the iPhone for much of the last month. The company has
cranked out a YouTube app, an iPhone version of its Chrome Web browser
and better software for gaining access to its Gmail service. Two dozen
iPhone apps from Google are available on Apple’s App Store, with
variations for the
iPad.
Google’s strategy may look self-defeating at first. But analysts and
technology executives say it is simply acknowledging the obvious: that
there is an enormous market of avid iPhone users it wants to reach, an
audience that is a target for ads and that can yield a bonanza of data
that will allow Google to improve the online products that produce much
of its profits.
Google’s support for the iPhone also looks like a win for Apple,
which, after all, makes money when it sells an iPhone that is used to
gain access to Google services.
But potential risks lie in Google’s growing presence on Apple’s
devices, especially when it comes to apps that replace basic functions
like Web browsing, maps and e-mail.
IPhone users who spend much of their time in Google apps could
deprive Apple of valuable data it needs to improve its own online
services like maps. And those apps could help Google build a deeper
connection with users that makes them more likely to switch entirely to
Android smartphones later.
“The best way to recruit users to those devices is to get them using
the services,” said Chris Silva, a mobile analyst at Altimeter Group, a
tech industry research business. “Find them where they are, get them
using the services and ramp them up so when they have devices equivalent
to the iPhone, they are already in the market.”
Early in the iPhone era, Steven P.
Jobs, the company’s former chief executive, who died in October 2011,
did not want Apple to approve any apps for the device that replaced its
core functions, one former senior Apple employee said.
Apple executives have long believed that they would need to build up
many of the same services that Google offers to compete long-term in the
mobile market, according to this person, who did not want to be named
to avoid jeopardizing relationships.
Eventually, under scrutiny from federal regulators, Apple softened
its stance and began allowing apps for the iPhone, like Web browsers,
that competed with important built-in apps.
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment for this article.
Apple has moved to reduce the presence of Google services in apps that come installed on its phones. Last year
it removed the YouTube app
— one that Apple created for the earliest iPhones so they would have
access to YouTube videos. It also stopped using Google data to power its
mapping application.
Instead, Apple began using its own maps service, which has been
widely criticized for mistakes, including misplaced landmarks and
inaccurate addresses. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive,
issued a rare apology last September for its maps product and later shook up the company’s management ranks, in part because of the problems.
Apple’s decision to stop including Google’s services on its devices
forced Google to quickly ramp up its own software development for
Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS.
Last November there were 11.8 million
unique users of a new Google-created YouTube app for the iPhone in the
United States, and 6.4 million users of its Google Search app, placing
them both in the top 20 list of iPhone apps with the biggest audience,
according to Nielsen.
In October, Google updated its search application for the iPhone with
voice capabilities that more closely resembled those of Siri, the
often-maligned virtual assistant included in the iPhone.
Google said it had not changed its strategy on Apple devices, but rather was continuing to build apps for all devices.
“Our goal is to make a simple, easy-to-use Google experience
available to as many people as possible,” said Christopher Katsaros, a
Google spokesman. “We’ve developed apps for iOS for some time now, and
we’re delighted to see the recent enthusiasm for them.”
Unlike Apple, Google makes its money not from selling phones but from
selling ads that appear on those phones. So it cares less about which
phone a consumer uses and more about whether that consumer uses Google
apps — and shares data with Google and sees Google ads.
When a consumer uses Chrome on the desktop at work, for instance,
then opens the same tabs and continues using Chrome on phones elsewhere,
Google knows much more about that consumer’s behavior, including the
consumer’s location and the searches. The company’s hunger for such data
has, of course, raised privacy concerns.
Chetan Sharma, an independent mobile analyst, says Google’s focus on
iOS should concern Apple. “It just pushes Apple to up their game in
software,” he said. “They’re kind of behind.”
沒有留言:
張貼留言