In recent years, Apple, Google and Facebook have been gradually violated their territories. For 2013 the war is expected to escalate on two fronts, online search and hardware.
Two of the biggest players in the software market, Google and Amazon, are looking forward to increase their hardware presence in order to increase the loyalty of their customers and gain greater control over their software services. In response, Apple is increasingly developing its own software in order for their products to differentiate from the competition.
After spending $ 12.5 billion to buy Motorola Mobility, Google plans to make use of the mobile phone maker by launching new Android devices to protect its businesses from Apple.
Meanwhile, the companies consider online search as an important opportunity in keeping their customers and to take advantage of them. While Google has topped this market for a long period, rivals want to undermine its position by improving online search on mobile devices or by services that allow third party recommendations.
In this regard, Apple last year released Siri, the well-known voice-activated service that responds to questions on different topics from weather to sports results. For 2013, the company aims to improve the service by increasing its responsiveness.
On the other side, during a conference held back in September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, talked about how friends can provide useful answers, saying that the company plans to expand its online search capabilities in the near future.
Apple should prove in 2013 that it knows how to defend as well, writes Wall Street Journal. Rivals from Samsung and Amazon are attacking the company’s position, which has been a key-factor in the IT industry in recent years by launching the iPhone and iPad.
Also, Android tablets gain ground against Apple’s iPad. In order to defend its territory, Apple has recently launched iPad Mini, a cheaper tablet through which the company plans to compete with similar products from the competition.
Defense is not, however, sufficient. Apple has offensive initiatives as well, Apple general manager Tim Cook, underlining Apple’s strong interest in the TV market, the company testing HDTVs and discussing partnerships with cable TV providers.
Google has invaded new territories last year, going again in conflict with its main rivals, but also with providers of wireless internet and cable television.
Next year, the company will work even more to ensure that its internet search service, YouTube and other new services like Google Wallet, reach its customers without being affected by low speeds of data traffic or blocked by competition.
To this end, Google will have to accelerate its initiatives introduced in 2012, such as providing high speed internet, wireless internet access control through partnerships and manufacturing tablets and smartphones using the patents acquired after buying Motorola Mobility. Google also could get more involved in developing Android-based household appliances.
The company also plans to defend against its rivals from Amazon and Facebook. The Web-search giant has been in contact with retailers that are competing with Amazon, by offering its services to to reach their customers through its search engine.
On the other side, as a counter-attack against Facebook, Google pushed customers of some online services such as online search and Gmail to register on Google+, a combination of Facebook and Twitter.
For 2013, Google will have to decide whether to enter a partnership with a car maker to create a driverless car based on Google software or to get more involved in production.
Last year, Facebook has edited its applications for mobile devices, has launched several products for advertising on smartphones and tablets, as well as individual applications like the instant messaging service.
Rivals and IT executives as well, want to know if Facebook will enter the hardware segment. Zuckerberg calmed the IT world after the rumors that Facebook develops a smartphone, calling such a plan a "bad strategy". Sources close to the company declared, however, that Facebook has been in tight relations with handset makers such as HTC for the design of some new devices.
Facebook could as well grow its demand for online search. In December, the social network has introduced a new feature that allows users to find nearby businesses by references to friends and other users.
E-commerce will also become very important for Facebook this year once with the recently launched Gifts business. The e-commerce platform – which allows sending gifts to friends – is a real threat to Amazon, in the context of the increasing number of partnerships between Facebook and retailers.
It remains to be seen how this “war” will continue this year, but one thing is sure: IT industry in 2013 will engage in a fiercer battle for supremacy compared to 2012.