Hi, Alex Kantrowitz here. For the past two weeks, I've been traveling between San Francisco and the South Bay for Facebook and Google's annual developer conferences. This time of year is always trying, filled
May 10, 2019 Hi, Alex Kantrowitz here. For the past two weeks, I've been traveling between San Francisco and the South Bay for Facebook and Google's annual developer conferences. This time of year is always trying, filled with early wake ups and staredowns in the coffee line with caffeine-starved engineers. Yet through it all, the events give us a chance to see what the tech giants care about as they preview their plans for the coming year.
What stood out to me this year — more than any specific product introduction — is that both Facebook and Google are gunning hard for Apple. They see vulnerabilities in the roughly $900 billion company, which isn't selling as many iPhones as it once hoped, and are trying to exploit its weaknesses for their own gains. Over and over, their announcements poked at Apple's core business. Here's what they specifically went after:
The iPhone Price
The iPhone XS starts at $999. The iPhone XR starts at $749. Google's new Pixel 3a starts at a cool $399. When Apple priced its iPhones so high, it figured many people would pay luxury prices for its status symbol devices. Many did, but its sales still fell short of expectations. With the much cheaper Pixel, Google is challenging the notion that a good phone needs to cost so much. The Pixel may still not be as popular as other phones, but it is the fastest growing smartphone in the US, and the new, lower-priced 3a could emerge as a legitimate alternative to the iPhone. "If marketed correctly I can see the 3a as serious threat to iPhone XR. Flagship features at feature phone prices," former Apple employee and longtime Apple watcher Michael Gartenberg tweeted. The Pixel 3a is already generating the type of headlines Google's hardware division could only dream of in the run up to the event. Here's one from Business Insider: "I swapped out my $1,449 iPhone for Google's new $479 Pixel phone, and it proved that phones don't have to be so expensive."
 Photo via BuzzFeed News' Brandon Hardin Siri
Google spent much of its conference keynote talking about the Google Assistant, which can navigate between apps on the fly, understand what you're talking about when you say "my son" or "my anniversary," and will soon work 10 times faster than it did before. Google didn't mention Apple's Siri once — and it didn't need to. It's now clear that the Google Assistant far outclasses its Cupertino-based rival. And, as its functionality keeps improving, the Google Assistant could convince people to switch from iPhones to Android, or stick with Android instead of moving to Apple.
iMessage
Facebook and Apple are engaged in a serious war over messaging that seems to be flying under the radar. Many people keep buying iPhones simply because they can't fathom showing up as a snot-green Android bubble in iMessage (and they worry they'll lose their iMessage group chats if they switch over). So Apple has put much effort into developing iMessage, introducing new features like Animoji and Message Effects. Facebook, meanwhile, is taking on iMessage by orienting its entire company around a push to make it possible to send messages between Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. If Facebook's messaging initiative goes at planned, it could be a serious threat to Apple's messaging lock in.
Seeing the challenge, Apple has been taking potshots at Facebook for the better part of two years over its privacy scandals. And last week, Facebook punched back, co-opting Apple's messaging around privacy by making it the central theme of its developer conference. The war is just getting underway.
HomePod
Apple has struggled to gain a foothold in the smart speaker market, and could fall even further behind as Facebook and Google push their way into the home. Over the past week, both companies plugged their smart-speaker-with-a-screen products, the $199 Facebook Portal (which is now being promoted at half that price) and $229 Google Nest Hub Max. Apple, meanwhile, has done little to advance the $299 HomePod, a screenless smart speaker whose Siri assistant performs so poorly it's been a source of embarrassment to many ex-Apple employees I've spoken with over the past few months. Some will be wary to use Google's and Facebook's ad-supported devices due to privacy concerns, but there's a real chance these two companies will own the home before Apple gets in the door.
I'd love to hear from you. Please reply to this email with questions, tips, and things you'd like me to look into. BuzzFeed, Inc.
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