Apple wins or Apple loses, really can be only one?

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

One of the great debates that are built around the technology business is about who is winning and who is losing. It seems no middle ground support and often results in one winner and several losers. Depends on who you ask, you can say that Apple and Google won, Samsung and Microsoft lose, especially the latter.

Google wins because Apple lost and Microsoft has been crushed. Microsoft is ready for an imminent return because the other two were asleep. Samsung is overtaking Apple and Microsoft at the same time. Is this true? Is there a common base or economic sense to support these claims today?

I win, you lose

There is a misperception that the economy is a zero sum ​​game when you lose. That everything I wear is because you have removed yourself. This concept is closely linked to the term commercialism, we define: 

Economic system based primarily on trade development, mainly to export, and considers the possession of precious metals as a characteristic sign of wealth.

From this perspective, the economy of the countries was during the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries as if it were a game of poker: the players' chip pass from hand to hand according the skill of each. Similarly, the wealth of each country is measured in terms of the amount of precious metals (gold and silver) which was in their possession, having two ways to enlarge:

1. Trading, exporting more than it imports. If lots sold abroad, goods are exchanged for precious metals and the country's wealth increases. 

2. Attacking the neighboring country to plunder their gold and silver and protecting the territory from external invasions.

This perception that it was only possible to increase the wealth neighbor taking it away (peacefully or militarily), seems to come to this day and is installed directly in the technology industry. Involves large as Microsoft, Samsung, Google and, of course, Apple. 

Rethinking the winners and losers

What if all this is not so? Is it possible that Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung win at the same time and coexist in relative "peace"? That is not necessary for Apple to win, others have to lose. I think it is possible, in fact, has long been so.

If you look at the different businesses, we see that they are not 100% incompatible with each other:

• Apple is a vertical business that is almost impossible to replicate at that scale. Its main strength lies in the attractiveness of its closed system. 

• Google has a universal character who aspires to be everywhere and on all platforms, both iOS and Android and Windows Phone. Not forgetting the PC, mobile and tablet. Where will be the user, will be Google. 

• Google is like Microsoft in its horizontal nature concerning the platform. The new CEO seems to have regained the essence of Microsoft to have presence beyond its own platform. For example Office for iPad.

• Samsung, Korean hybrid that also follows a vertical scheme but aims to have a product for every age and budget.

Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Some do better than others and will win money, sometimes more and sometimes less. The rivalry is more intense among businesses of the same type as the Apple and Samsung vertical or horizontal as Google and Microsoft, but that does not mean that one should die for the other to succeed.

Can Apple beat all records when discloses its quarterly results, but that does not mean that Google and company will have to go wrong, do you think?