Former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO John Sculley said in a recent interview on Bloomberg that the iPhone maker and the internet giant Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are moving in different directions in the longer term.
According to Sculley who ran PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) before being tapped to lead Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its early days, people have gotten a fresh look and a deeper understanding of the future plans of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and the iPhone maker because both have just recently concluded their developers conferences. For him, he thinks that in the long term, both companies will be moving in different directions. Sculley explained:
“I see actually both companies in a very strong position but moving in quite different directions long term. Apple has done a great job of integrating its products. It’s taking it to the next level. It’s really building a future that’s about platforms on top of platforms so they’re moving into health kits, they’re moving into streaming music and various other verticals. Google, on the other hand, is also adding these platform on platforms. They announced a number of them this week: everything from home, to auto, to fitness and things of this sort. [However,] here’s where the two are different: the difference is that Apple builds these beautiful products with no compromises [and] that [are] highly integrated [while] Google, I think, is going for creative leap because they have got almost endless cash flow coming from ad model where they have a monopoly. They are saying that we think it’s going to be about very smart personalized systems [while] Apple is still building tools.”
Asked whether Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) needs a big product to be able to be more successful than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Sculley said that he does not think so. He said that the iPhone-maker is all about beautiful products and that the search and internet giant does not need to be like Apple.
He said that what Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is doing is looking beyond the world of tools where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is supreme at and to the world of very smart personalized digital assistants where the company has a leg up on its rival. Watch the full interview below.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shareholders includes Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies which had 65,000 shares in the company by the end of March. Edward Goodnow’s Goodnow Investment Group also reported 64,101 shares in the iPhone-maker during the same quarter.
As for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), hedge funds with positions in the company includes Daniel Bubis’ Tetrem Capital Management which had 47,328 shares at the end of the first quarter. Christopher Lyle’s Scge Management also reported 42,500 shares in the company by the end of March.
Disclosure: None
