Google will beat Apple at its own game with superior AI
AI is radically re-thinking how computing should work…We’re really excited by this shift, and that’s why we’re here today. We’ve been working on software and hardware together because that’s the best way to drive the shifts in computing forward.
— Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s during October 4th keynote opening.
Google bets heavily on machine learning and AI, combined with their own software and hardware. They are bringing a different perspective to solving problems for users and this is how they will defeat Apple.
During October 4th event we witnessed how Google thinks about the future of user experience: software + hardware + AI.
AI introduces something like context based software that learns user preferences, patterns, interests, lifestyle and adapts the experience predicting what the user will be doing next based on many factors. This, in turn, saves users a massive amount of time and creates a brand new experience where a phone responds more like a human, it understands your language, it understands your context, it helps you in a way no other smartphone can today.
If we look at hardware, Google needs 100% control of parts and specs that will go into production of their phones, tablets, ChromeBooks to tightly integrate Android and AI/machine learning. The latter have their own hardware requirements to run algorithms quickly on your smartphone without uploading them into the cloud. Although Google uses hybrid approach with some data going into their cloud for processing while other is being processed locally, all to create a better user experience.
Hardware, software, AI combined Google will predict our actions based on massive amount of data they collect and run algorithms on. The software will learn and adapt continuously. During October 4th keynote Sundar Pichai gave an example of Google Calendar that switches from weekly to daily view based on what day and time it is and another example of how doctor’s appointment is treated completely differently compared your daily commute reminder.
After experiencing Google’s bundle (AI, Software, Hardware) users simply won’t go back. It will feel like switching from multi-touch, all-screen smartphone to an old phone with a physical keyboard and no apps. This is where the next big innovation will happen. It’s a beginning of a new era.
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Apple’s culture and privacy
Apple, on the other hand, has a particular stance on privacy which means they collect less user data, their software is closed (unlike open source Google’s Android) and the whole company operates in secrecy without publicizing much of what they do. In the world of AI where the more data you have the better, that is a big disadvantage.
They have a lot less data than Google or Facebook and have fallen behind in AI. Solving this problem is not just a matter of buying startups with billions of dollars they have, it is a privacy problem and more profoundly, a culture problem.
This strategy has put Apple on the back-foot. Their effort directly goes against the core aspect of the company’s culture built on secrecy.
They are so invested into privacy that I don’t see them reverting back. And when Apple goes head to head with Google’s AI based smartphone, the user experience of the latter will be so superior that the privacy aspect for most people won’t matter. Privacy only needs to be good enough to satisfy most users.
Until now, Apple was able to get away with breakthrough products created by Steve Jobs with limited functionality and a very strong, lifestyle brand. I have serious doubts they have anything in their product pipeline that can rival Google’s AI+hardware + software Pixel smartphone in the next 10 years.
This is how Google’s product line looks right now. They are very serious about investing into it.
In early Internet era Google learned with search that the way to win is to provide a superior user experience and openness to the software. In AI first era this experience is critical.
They figured out that being a horizontally driven company will not be sustainable in the long term future and the way to control customers is by owning interaction point which means the whole product and default services — software and hardware. Google is going head to head with Apple — adding a vertical business model, selling a software and AI differentiated hardware at a big profit.
Unless Apple finds a way to shift it’s culture, it is Google’s opportunity to lose.
