The War Between Apple and Google Has Just Begun

Apple and Google weren’t always "frenemies". The companies seemed to band together against any number of competitors, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile included, in 2007 when Apple’s iPhone launched with numerous Google applications built in, including GMail, the Google search engine and Google Maps.

But the friendship turned sour last year during a conflict over the Google Voice application and Apple’s refusal to allow the software into the iTunes App store.

To date, Google Voice still doesn’t exist for the iPhone, although Vic Gundotra, Google’s vice president of engineering, said in an interview at the Crunchies last year, “Google Voice will come to the iPhone soon — one way or the other.”

As Google and Apple enter new realms, the two companies are competing in more arenas than we can count. In mobile hardware and software, Apple has the iPhone, and Google has the Nexus One and its Android software. In cloud computing, Apple has MobileMe, and Google has its suite of Web applications, including Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar. As Google’s YouTube unit begins renting movies through its Web site, it will start competing with the highly successful iTunes store. Then there’s Picasa and iPhoto….