In an interview with Fortune, Google CEO Larry Page had a few interesting remarks to say about its biggest competitors, Apple and Amazon. He says that the intense competition between the three companies is ultimately harmful to consumers, calling it “a shame.”
“All the big technology companies are big because they did something great. I’d like to see more cooperation on the user side,” Page said. “The Internet was made in universities and it was designed to integrate. And as we’ve commercialized it, we’ve added more of an island-like approach to it, which I think is somewhat of a shame for users.”
The “island-like approach” he is referring to is the three completely different business strategies each company is taking. While Apple does make some money off of content from the iTunes Store and App Store, it mainly focuses on high profit margins for its hardware. Amazon prefers to make money off of its content and lure customers in with low-cost hardware (little to no profit margin). Google is similar to Amazon, but brings in the cash from advertising.
While Page has some highly valid points about the lack of cooperation between competitors, it only really becomes a problem to users if they switch from one company’s product(s) to another. If someone buys a Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 7 tablet, both of which are within Google’s ecosystem, the customer doesn’t have to worry in the least bit about what Apple and Amazon are doing with their products.