On last week's episode of The Talk Show Dan, John, and special guest John raised an interesting question: Who is Apple's competition with Mountain Lion? Their discussion touched on some good answers, but I'm not sure they really said all there was to say on the answer that makes the most sense to me.
Competition
This was well covered on the podcast, but it is worth reiterating. Products are frequently driven to new heights by solid competition. When a product, even a great product, has no competition there is an increased risk of stagnation. It can lose the edge and the drive that made it great in the first place.
Given this, knowing your competitors is important for any company, but it can also be informative when looking at a company from the outside.
Parallels
Before looking at the competition for Mountain Lion, let's first look at the other competition Apple faces. Given the context of Mountain Lion, I'm really only interested in Apple's other 'platforms'.
- iOS --> Android, Windows Phone
- iCloud --> Google, Dropbox, Amazon
- Earlier versions of Mac OS X --> Windows
Although that list may not be complete, I think it probably hits the top few answers anyone would propose. You can definitely see some examples where considering the direction taken by competitors to a product provides some insight into the direction Apple has gone with their own products.
One example that touches on both competition with Android and competition with Google is the creation of iCloud. As Gruber has noted in the past, one advantage of Android and their connection to the Google ecosystem has been that for years you've been able to get a new Android device, log in with your Google info, and immediately have access to a good portion of the data you want on your device. Many of the features in iOS 5 that allow Apple's devices to function without a Mac or PC, as well as significant portions of the iCloud platform, could be construed as Apple's competitive response to Android and Google.
A second obvious example would be notifications in iOS 5. Apple's competitors had something better than what Apple had in iOS, and Apple moved to address that area.
Of course, Apple is far from a purely reactionary company, so I certainly don't mean to suggest that everything they do is a response to their competitors. Much of what Apple does is truly innovative and serves as a driving force for their competitors. Apart from that, there are also cases where Apple specifically doesn't respond to competitors in the ways that certain customers wish they would. Although, in some of those scenarios it might be more accurate to say that Apple's 'response' is just to reiterate its belief that it found the right answer the first time, and sees no need to change.
Mac vs. Windows
For anyone who has been following Apple historically, it may be hard to imagine that the competitor to any version of OS X would be anything other than Windows. This isn't necessarily because OS X development has been in response to competition with Windows, but perhaps more because of the overall perception of Mac vs. Windows as a defining competition in technology.
Despite the pervasive nature of this competition, many Apple fans might take offense at the idea of Windows functionality being a driving force in OS X development. However, I think it is clear that in some ways, it has been. Take this example Patrick Rhone and his wife (via Daring Fireball) pointed out: Basically that one of Microsoft's biggest wins has been convincing the world at large that Microsoft Office was a requirement for getting work done.
If nothing else, that was something that the Mac OS had to compete with. That perception was, and in many ways still is, difficult for Apple. Consider it this way, one of Apple's major selling points is integration. But how do you make the case that the Mac OS is better integrated with Office than Windows? Office is just another app on a Mac, but Office and Windows both come from Microsoft. I suspect many people think of them as a package deal. I've certainly come across people, even in the past few years, who are surprised to learn that you can even get Office on a Mac. So, if you 'need' Office, and value integration, isn't Windows the better choice?
Although that perception can be problem for Apple, the competition is good for them. Think about how much easier it is to use a Mac to interact with Office documents today, even if you don't use Office, than it was 10 years ago. For many people all the compatibility they will ever need with Office 'just works' using TextEdit and Quick Look.
I should be clear though, I think Dan, John, John, and I would all agree that Windows is not the primary competitor Apple has in mind with Mountain Lion. That isn't to say that Windows isn't still a competitor, just that it isn't the most interesting competitor to consider moving forward.
Vision
Gruber makes a good point that Apple's vision moving forward seems to be iCloud centric. iCloud is the platform, and iCloud is everything from music, to photos, to mail, to calendars, to tasks, to games. Apple wants you to 'need' your iCloud data the way you used to 'need' Microsoft Office. Your Mac, your iPad, and your iPhone are just clients for the new platform.
Mountain Lion
So what does Mountain Lion compete with?
The real competitor is the iPad (or rather, iOS on the iPad), and the playing field is iCloud. Mountain Lion and iOS are now competing with each other to provide the best integration with iCloud.
