Google, Facebook, Apple and the chinks in their armour

We all know that there are three pillars grappling for power in our digital, consumer-driven age.

Yes, Google, Facebook and Apple are very impressive with their insane penetration rates and ever-increasing revenue streams, but lately, we at Strongman have been noticing some weaknesses - and consumers are more than happy to take advantage of the weeping sores, spilling out of these giants.

Lets start with Google. Google is perhaps the most successful digital company in existence and for a long time, their incredible growth was awe-inspiring. This year, we noticed that:

Their revenues are beginning to flatline (2nd quarter as opposed to 1st quarter, 2010)
Google Buzz, their entry into the Social Media scene is a low-end non-competitor
YouTube experiencing severe downtime issues at peak, critical moments (this is a sign of monumental growth, however the strains of data-hungry YouTube are showing)
Next, we visit Facebook:

Privacy has long been an issue, and with several Privacy scares this year already, Facebook may have stunted its Socially-reliant userbase
At 500 million users, but flatlining. 60-70-year-olds are now the fastest growing age on Facebook - are the Millennials looking for a "new" Facebook?
Its increasing prison-like policy on its API is preventing Facebook from penetrating further into the market... With Twitter (although a different tool altogether) penetrating every corner of the web
Finally with Apple:

The undisputed consumer king with its Mac, iTunes and mobile devices has taken the world by storm - until now. iPhone 4.0 has been widely referred to as a disaster, with poor reception and a multitude of faults
iPad, an eagerly anticipated release to revolutionise the way we do things turned out to be a semi-flop - with data transfer awkwardness, lack of Adobe compatibility and poor data processing tools
For a while, no other mobile competitor stood a chance against Apple, but it seems more than ever, sentiment and usership is being diverted towards Android-powered devices. Only time will tell.
Looking back through these facts, it is easy to see the "Microsoftisation" of these brands. Microsoft suffered the same demise when it reached the top - it got too big, showed cracks, and fell to make room for newer, younger and trendier competitors.

Perhaps this is just the cycle of colossal business in the digital age, which is great for shaking things up every few years.

If your business wants to be future change-ready, let us know: http://ping.fm/IbzGr

Until Next Time,

Tomer Garzberg (Keynote Social Media Speaker)

Australia to the World: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne

www.strongmandigital.com.au

http://ping.fm/jn7RD