by Jared Levy on July 13, 2010
While Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is not exactly known for a complete lack of volatility around earnings, its movements have not been all that violent (on a percentage basis). Thursday’s earnings report may be a pivotal one for Google, with the smartphone wars continuing to heat up.
The Blackberry, part of the Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) family, still leads the sector with a 41% market share in the U.S. and of course the iPhone craze powers on, but Google’s Android operating system is still growing at an exponential rate. I like to think of it as the 1980s Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)/Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) saga, redux. Back then, MSFT, like Google, offered its “window” operating system to multiple computer makers. In doing so, the company got folks across the world and on different hardware platforms addicted to its products.
Apple, in typical Jobs’ style, only sold its operating system software (and all software, for that matter) for Apple-made PCs. This strategy hurt Apple in the early days. Obviously, things have improved for the company and now the iPhone is like the Rubik’s Cube of the 2000s. Apple has done a good job at getting the public addicted to a cool (albeit flawed) product. Now that Consumer Reports won’t bless the iPhone 4 because of antenna issues, I’m looking forward to seeing how Apple spins it.