Early Leader in Connected Ecosystem Race: Apple, Google or Microsoft?

In my previous post we identified the possible top three tech giants which will drive the top three connected ecosystems and the related tribes. I am sure these will be the three, but recent surprising shocks such as Googorola, HP (minus PALM) and Jobs’s exit episodes have made me a bit circumspect in confidently forecasting that Apple, Google and Microsoft will continue to remain the top three players trying to span wide enough across the end2end connected ecosystem, as the connected industry is now taking new turns every six weeks. Primary reasons being the increasing fragmentation and complex nature of this ever-growing connected world. The total number of individual firms have grown almost three-fold across all the elements in this trillion dollar value chain, right from hardware to software, services, content, network, integrators and consumers.

So why is this Connected Ecosystem Value Chain getting so complex? So lets get down to the basics and first identify what are the different components in this value chain and how these are contributing to the overall ecosystem. Furthermore, we will also map these links against the current potential ecosystem leaders and understand where these companies stand:

Value Chain – Scorecard Analysis

From the above analysis we have broadly identified and mapped the key elements in this connected value-chain. It clearly depicts that Apple is extremely well positioned and ahead, leveraging its early mover advantage and exercising significant influence and power across all these elements. On the other hand, Google & Microsoft are still playing catch up game to match or get closer to Apple. As a result, we have and we will see more acquisitions, partnerships, mergers not only from from Google and Microsoft but also from Apple to continue expanding their expertise, resources and reach, as these cash-rich firms compete to dominate the future connected world with presence across multiple-screens.