View From the Phlipside - Ganging up on Apple

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.

This is America. And in America we are all about being number one, the top dog, the big cheese. Second place is first loser. Winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing. You get the drift. But what’s the downside of being at the top of the competitive food chain? That’s easy. All your competitors agree on one thing. They’re out to get you. That bullseye may be fitting a little tightly for the folks at Apple right now.

Of course it’s not the first time that folks have come gunning for Apple. People have been taking runs at the iPod for a while, the battle to conquer the iPhone is hot and heavy. But at the moment the size of the competition joining forces is a little bit more impressive. There are two moves afoot that may take a bite out of the Apple superiority.

First we have two of the most hated opponents talking. Word leaked out that Microsoft and Adobe have been having high level talks of late. Exactly why their two top execs are getting chummy isn’t clear but Apple certainly figures to be a major topic. Steve Jobs hasn’t had a lot to say positive about either of these two digital giants. Meanwhile he holds something of a stranglehold on the mobile phone market where both Microsoft and Adobe would like to be much bigger players. Rumors range widely on the talks including the possibility that Microsoft might buy Adobe. That could make a formidable opponent to Apple.

Meanwhile on the iPad front a group of major newspapers are banding together to throw their collective support behind the not yet available Google powered Samsung tablet computer. Apple has been playing its accustomed games in trying to control the what and how users can access things on their products and the newspapers are pushing back. It’s no small time cabal either. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today are planning on applications for the Samsung Galaxy tab computer. Those are products which draw a lot of eyes.

To be honest I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Apple. Most of this has been brought on by Apple’s decision to make their world as much of a walled garden as possible. Plus being everyone’s punching bag comes with the territory when you decide to go for the top in the big leagues.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

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