Apple, Google Face Disruption

Meanings of disruption unclear, both are acquiring some key technologies.   Same with Microsoft.

Apple and Google are both at their biggest risk of disruption in over a decade   By Matt Weinberger Jan 13, 2023, 3:44 PM  in BusinessInsider

This year, Apple and Google will both face their first real tests in a very long time.

Apple could finally open its walled garden, potentially disrupting the App Store juggernaut.

The rise of ChatGPT threatens Google's stranglehold over search — and its ad business. 

Over the last few years, it's often felt like the tech industry was on cruise control.

Each innovation — folding screens, 5G, even the blockchain and cryptocurrency — failed to shake a sense that the future of tech is moving forward incrementally rather than exponentially. Google has spent the last decade-plus guarding its advertising business; Apple has built as many moats around its all-important iPhone business as possible, happily collecting App Store fees and Apple Music subscriptions.

Now, though, both businesses are about to face what are arguably their most existential threats to date. And while it's far too soon to write a eulogy for either company, you will see Apple and Google swiftly move to play defense in a way neither has had to in recent memory. 

For Apple, regulatory pressure worldwide seems to have finally cracked its infamous walled garden, as new rules threaten to undermine its App Store hegemony. The timing is especially interesting, as Apple is said to be preparing to launch a new set of smart glasses poised to extend the App Store's hold over consumers and developers alike for a new generation of computing. ... '