Though some may prefer Google, many investors are undoubtedly smitten with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), as both companies might just be the most innovative duo in the tech world. The latter is still down quite a bit from its IPO price of $38, but FB shares have risen from their late-summer depths to gain close to 30% over the past three months.
Apple, meanwhile, has been stuck in a rut since briefly eclipsing $700 in September, and the stock has lost over 27% in the time since. Like Facebook, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s growth prospects lie primarily in its ability to out-innovate the competition. Both companies, like most of their tech peers, also are placing their sights squarely on mobile.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Christmas Eve, two of the tech industry’s top minds were at work discussing both companies’ prospects: former Apple CEO John Sculley and David Kirkpatrick, author of “The Facebook Effect.”
When pondering the future of Cupertino, Sculley and Kirkpatrick were both rather optimistic about the company, siding in the corner of most Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) bulls. The former Apple chairman had this to say about the subject:
“Steve Jobs, going back to the days when we created desktop publishing, always saw Apple as an end-to-end systems company. And so, Apple makes its money […] because they understand the whole system […] Apple is in a very, very good position to continue its success.”
The comparison to Samsung, which is the only company ahead of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in terms of OEM market share, was also made. Kirkpatrick, though, thinks that Apple still comes out on top:
“Apple builds software that yokes you to its hardware. Samsung doesn’t really do that at all – it’s dependent on Google’s software […] I don’t see Samsung getting into software the way that Apple is […] I don’t think Samsung could do the kind of thing we might expect from Apple in television, for example.”
Kirkpatrick also mentions that the living room is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s “for the taking,” adding that “we’re waiting for somebody to integrate the pieces to make the ease-of-use equal to the way our iPads work.”
So what about Facebook?
Turning their attention to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), both tech minds harp on the importance of mobile. Kirkpatrick mentions that “the mobile thing is happening faster than anybody realized […] I think we’re going to see the Internet essentially move completely to mobile in coming years.” Sculley stated that “mobile is everything,” adding that:
“The really interesting thing is that the Internet is based upon a consensus of standards. Whereas mobile has actually proprietary protocols carrier-by-carrier, and it’s all about apps on mobile so far today […] will the future be about the Internet going to what’s called HTML5, which is a new generation of software technology, or will the apps win out?”
Offering a synonymous answer, Kirkpatrick replies: “either way it’s going to be mobile.”
The author also offers up his predictions for how this transition will shake out, in the order of: (1) Africa, (2) China, and the (3) U.S., which we can assume that Europe and other developed nations are thrown in with the latter. In other words, it appears that emerging markets have the jump on their more ‘advanced’ peers in this particular space, but alas, that’s another topic for another day.
Let us know your thoughts about these issues in the comments section below, and for more tech coverage, continue reading below:
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