Ω USA TODAY Declares Apple Defeated by Google; Rest of Tech World Unaware

In today’s USA TODAY, journalist Matt “I’ve seen an iPhone” Krantz says:

Apple’s latest technology defeat at the hands of Google, most recently in the area of maps, is underscoring how the two tech titans are going head-to-head in a tech battle where the stakes loom large.

Unfortunately, he’s unaware that Google and Apple aren’t competing with each other in some “head-to-head tech battle,” and that all of the financial comparisons he then proceeds to make are pointless. Yes, Google seems to think that Apple is battling teh Goog, perhaps because of the patent wars where there is a true battle, but it’s quite clear that the two companies’ focuses are completely different.

Apple sells Hardware, and it makes nearly all of its profit on its hardware. It makes software to sell its hardware. Though Google makes hardware too, it’s not a huge profit center for Google. No, Google makes hardware—and the software it gives away to other hardware manufacturers—to get the Google Information Collecting Machine (my term) into every pair of hands that it can. That’s because Google sells Search.

Similarly, Amazon makes the Kindle and Barnes and Noble has its Nook, but both companies’ main product is Content.

Google sells Search. Apple sells Hardware. There is no competition.

So why can’t journalists and analysts get this through their heads?

Beats me. Perhaps I’ll Google for an answer on my iPhone…