Google Challenges Apple and Gears Us Up for the Future

For the longest time, Apple’s reign on the portable gadget throne seemed unseatable. Slowly but surely, though, Samsung gathered the necessary resources and (most importantly) reputation to make Apple squirm a little.

And because Samsung shone a light on the chinks of Apple’s armor, this year another company seems poised to make an equally daring bid: Google.

Apart from a few successes like Google Maps, the Android mobile OS, and, of course, the Google search engine, Google has been seen as that company that always tried to branch out and try various things without being successful at most of them.

Fast forward to 2013, and Google is suddenly the new “it” tech company. Analyst firm Gartner reports that by last year’s end, 64.1% of mobile device users worldwide were using gadgets running on Android. Google recently came out with the Google Chromebook Pixel, the company’s first self-produced Chromebook, a product that could easily go head-to-head with other top laptops in its class. Google’s “driverless car” project, which seemed rather far-fetched just a few years ago (logistics-wise if not tech-wise), has recently gotten one huge step closer towards commercial realization with the Nevada DMV’s issuing of an official license for Google’s driverless prototype, Toyota Prius. Of course there’s also the Google Glass, which has excited the tech world to no end since it was first announced, and will reportedly be seeing an official release later this year.

As for Apple, the consensus seems to be that its innovative spirit is long gone, which coincidentally coincided with the loss of the man who started the company in the first place. Steve Jobs was someone who had the uncanny ability to see beyond perceived reality and figure out ways to make said reality that much cooler.

With Steve’s passing, though, other companies seem to have been re-energized to be more forward-thinking; most notably Google. To cite an example, its Chromebook Pixel appears to be an experiment in future-proofing a product for as long as practically possible, what with its sufficiently high-end laptop parts, the automated updates to its web-based Chrome OS and its functionality vis-Ã-vis the cloud computing service the OS works in tandem with, and its 3:2 aspect ratio screen whose added vertical space is tailor-made for browsers and web-based apps, as well as being IMAX ratio-friendly.

Other examples of this future-focused movement include the aforementioned Google Glass and the driverless automobile technology, both of which are pioneering techs in and of themselves.

This doesn’t mean that Apple might never reclaim its undisputed status. Right now though, it’s Google that’s captaining the tech world towards the exciting promises of the future.