Technology wars
The goal of every business is profit, as long as the revenue is higher than cost than it is profitable. Business theories are focusing on how to increase revenue by advertizing and marketing and reduce cost by applying information technology to increase efficiency and automation. However with the global economy, growth is becoming another key element for increasing revenue because the market is no longer limited in any country but expands to the whole world. The approach is to capture the local market, then expand from local to global to increase revenue then outsources works to lower cost countries to reduce cost and maximize profit. Of course with globalization, the competition is happening at the global scale and every company is trying to position itself to be the dominant player in the global market.
In the technology industry, there is an ongoing war between four global companies to position themselves in this growing world market: Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. In the past, there was a battle between IBM and Apple for the Personal Computer market and Apple won. There was a battle between Microsoft and Netscape for the Internet market and Microsoft won. Today the battle is more complicated because it does not happen with one product but with multiple products.
With smartphone and cloud computing, software has become the key factor rather than hardware. As hardware companies are losing money such as HP, Dell, Intel, and AMD, new software companies are emerging such as Facebook, and Twitter etc. Of course, Apple, Google and Microsoft are quickly position themselves with new operating systems and products to control the market. Because of this, software jobs are needed to fuel these battles when hardware jobs are decreasing fast in the world market. The current battle is confusing because the boundary is changing quickly. Apple and Google are fighting over smartphones and tablet computer market (IOS vs. Android). Amazon is fighting HP, Dell, IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft over cloud computing market. Google and Facebook are fighting over social networking market etc. These battles are spreading to many countries for market control and the needs for more skilled workers are increasing all over the world. In past years, these companies were opening development facilities and research centers in countries such as China, India, Russia and Brazil etc. to hire skilled workers to ready for the next battle in those countries. According to the industry's analysis report, the hiring of workers in foreign countries will continue in the next few years to strengthen the position in each and every country for market growth.
Currently the major battle is between Apple's iOS operating system (iPhone and the iPad tablet computer) and Google's Android operating system (Smartphones and tablet computer manufacturing by Samsung, LG and HTC etc.). According to the report, Google's Android controls more than half of the market as it expands quickly all over the world but Apple still maintains a strong position as it claims to have more apps and more loyal supports than Google. While Apple fights Google on one battle, it fights Amazon on another. For years, Apple dominates the online music market with the iPod and Amazon controls the books market. However as Amazon is moving to be the “online store of everything” as it also sells CDs, DVDs, computers, clothes, and everything else including music downloads. Last year, Apple also moved into the book market with an aggressive strategy to lower e-book prices than Amazon. Seeing that, Amazon immediately began to lower its price for music download than Apple, and the battle began fiercely in this $100 billion dollars market. As the battle expands to other countries, the need to hire more skilled workers also increasing fast but the main issue is they could not find enough workers in these areas.
Facebook controls the social network market; it develops alliances with Netflix and Spotify for people to share music and movies with their friends. At the same time, Google's YouTube dominates the world of user-generated video but last year, Google began to concentrate its forces by combining movies and music into a new market to attack Facebook. The key battle is in smartphone market where Facebook has a strong position with people sharing pictures and music on their phones. Therefore, there is a four-way fight between Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon, which have each developed combinations of mobile gadgets, operating systems and app stores. Apple with the combination of iPod, IPads and iTunes is the most profitable accounted for 60% of the total profits made by the mobile-phone industry in 2012. However, Amazon with its Kindle e-readers and tablet computers could sell everything to anybody in the world and control 65% of the online business market. Both of these companies are aggressively hiring software developers all over the world to expand the market into specific country. Apple announced that it will increase its worldwide workers by 50% in the next few years. That means more workers with IOS skills will be needed and they begin to look to India, China and other Asian countries to get skilled workers.
Google's strategy is to control everything: both hardware and software. Although its Android phones and tablets are made by other companies such as Samsung, HTC, Sony and Asus, but in 2011 it bought Motorola and began to start its own mobile phones and tablets which made other manufactures very nervous. Google also created cheap notebooks using its Chrome operating systems. Most analysts believe Google will develop more cheap notebooks, cheap phones, and cheap tablets devices with the hope that will be able to expand its market worldwide. As it is increasing its influence, it is also hiring workers in every country. An analyst said: “The mobile market is expanding fast and country with mobile skilled workers will benefit significantly due to Google's expansion as it hire anyone it can find to make sure that it will have enough workers to dominate the market.”
Of course, Microsoft who has been quiet for a number of years also makes its move. Microsoft is working closely with Nokia to develop new phones, new tablets using its new Window 8 operating system. As a fully integrated system, Window 8 works in PCs, Phones, tablets (Surface) and many new devices which give it a new way to control the market as it is desperate to regain its former glory. Microsoft also hiring more foreign workers in recent years as it is a strong support of the new immigration laws to bring more foreign workers to its U.S. development center.
Today platforms (IOS, Android, and Window 8) are the new weapons in which these companies use to control the market but most universities do NOT teach these new technologies. An analyst lamented: “Without the knowledge of what industry needs, many schools, many students as well as many countries may miss this great opportunity. If they do not catch up quickly, others will take advantage as the battle for skilled workers is fierce in the mobile areas. The needs are in mobile phones and tablets and the next battle will be fought in cloud computing and Big Data. With the battlefields seeming to multiply each year the need for more skilled workers is intensified and it puts a lot of pressures for both schools and students to update the training programs and get the skills needed. Not long ago, India controls the IT $100 Billion dollars outsourcing market but the battle is changing quickly and currently no country can claim the $175 billion dollars mobile market yet and the next $400 billion dollars cloud computing and big data is still waiting for the winner.”
As Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon are battle for market domination but it seems the winning strategy is not on technology but who has the most skilled workers will win. To map a course for their companies to prepare for the next battle, all of these companies are quickly expanding their territory into new countries, new markets as they are hiring more workers every day. A Wall street analyst explains: “Without soldiers, generals cannot fight battle and that is why they are desperate to get more soldiers to prepare for the next battle. All companies are expanding their recruits in many countries as they are hiring any skilled software workers they can find. The issue remains: Where can they find skilled workers?
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
