Two paths to a digital future

Over the last few days in particular, and for much longer in a vaguer sense I have been increasingly considering the digital ecosystems that we inhabit. While there are a number of different companies and services vying for influence it seems that two juggernauts in particular come to the forefront.

I refer to Apple and Google, two companies that increasingly both define and expand our digital existences. While both companies share a number of similarities, among them starts in Silicon Valley, roots in making things work better, not to mention almost cult-like followings; they seem to represent almost polar opposite philosophical approaches to how we should perceive, consume, desire, and innovate.

To my mind Apple, and by direct extension Steve Jobs, takes on the role of benevolent dictator guiding us through a walled garden of shiny, beautiful products that "just work", removing all of the hassles and much of the learning curve so typical of most technology. Conversely, Google and its founders take a rather different, I would argue more democratically-inspired approach. Invariably it leads to an ecosystem that is at once chaotically messy while being wildly successful. Google will release half-cooked products that remain in so called beta for years while they gradually smooth out imperfections through feedback from the masses while Apple will release each product once fully-formed as a marvel of engineering perfection.

Both companies have fanatically devoted followers, from those who line up outside their local big box store for the dramatic release of Apple's latest product to those who zealously preach the virtues of Google's "Don't be evil", open-source philosophy. Moreover, each company espouses a different set of ideals. Apple caters to those who want simple, beautiful and contained; an environment in which Uncle Steve ensures that everything is seamless and you are protected from the great unknown. Google meanwhile, through its signature product of search, invites you into the same great unknown with passion, unafraid to experiment and very often take the wrong path in order to reach sucess.

This philosophy is played out in all of their product iterations, but perhaps most apparent in the relatively new domain of smart phones. While Apple arguably created the category with its release of the Iphone which was immeasurably different from anything that came before, Google responded with its release of the Android operating system for mobile phones that has been taken up by countless manufacturers and is currently the most used system, even if its growth has been as messy as it has been fast. Apple's App Store provides a currated shop of applications that have passed muster by Apple's gatekeepers, ensuring that the products live up to Steve's high standards, but occasionally excluding products for less clear reasons as well. Google's store, in contrast, sets almost no barrier to any would be developers and as result contains every kind of software imaginable, good, bad, and ugly.

It remains to be seen which, if either of these titans prevail in the future, whether the world ultimately prefers the expensive, luscious world of Steve Jobs that asks little of its consumers except to stay inside its walls, or the free, chaotic world of Google that offers nothing but choices with no guarentee of safety and no hand to guide one through the dizzying maze. As the world becomes increasingly immersed in the digital realm it will be telling to see whose world we choose to live in.