Competition is Intensifying in the Core Areas of Tech Giants

Instead, the leading companies have thrived as partners and customers, supporting each other’s core platforms. Amazon has long been one of the biggest buyers of Google’s ads. Facebook and Apple have had an important symbiotic relationship since the early days of smartphones. After years of bitter fighting, Microsoft and Google patched things up a few years ago, always looking for common ground.

But that has not stopped them from competing in other areas, especially in newer markets. Both Microsoft and Google are focused on productivity applications, and the huge cloud computing business has become a new area of intense competition between the two companies and Amazon.

Apple's interest in search suggests that the tech companies are starting to penetrate each other's core markets more deeply, and their size and ambitions have reached the point of involuntary conflict. All of this is driven by a common need to dominate the next generation of large computing platforms.

Apple and Facebook have also been on the path of conflict. When Facebook announced its plans this week for its cloud gaming service, it was claiming the right to own one of the most popular activities on smartphones. Notably, the company said the new service would not be immediately available on Apple's devices, accusing the latter of "controlling a very valuable resource."

At the same time, one of Amazon's fastest growing businesses is advertising, as it competes with Google for a better starting point every time someone starts looking for a product to buy online.

Regulators can help push things forward more quickly. The us government's antitrust complaint against Google last week points directly to its agreement with Apple to incorporate Google's search engine into the iPhone. It is crucial that Apple accelerate its search efforts to hedge against losing the deal. Where other companies have failed, Apple also has a better chance of succeeding against Google.