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Ah Summer when we can kick back, enjoy the sun, and put out thoughts of conflict behind us. Wait a moment, Summer?!? Evidently Microsoft and Apple missed a memo because both are swinging for the fences and not just at each other they may separately and collectively take Firefox and Google out.

Safari Kicks IE Ass

We haven't really started summer and some really strange battles are cropping up. First, and for the first time, Apple Safari is actually kicking browser butt. Easily the fastest browser currently in the market it is getting praises as it rolls over (http://tinyurl.com) Microsoft and Firefox easily and even kicks Google butt. I don't think any of us saw this coming, typically Apple is heavy talk in this space and even Apple users have quietly preferred Firefox but this latest version of Safari getting a lot of attention and could take Firefox out. Microsoft and Google are clearly in this for the long fight but as Opera has found out, there is really only room for a couple of major browsers and first Opera and now Firefox may get voted off the island, not by Microsoft, but by Apple. Seriously who saw this coming?

Bing Plasters Google

Now when I saw Bing I knew it would take share but believed that Google would have seen it coming and respond quickly. Nope, evidently Google now is in crisis mode and lesson for all you would be CEOs out there, if Microsoft had bought Yahoo they would not have built Bing the merger would have tied them up for months. Bing did what MicroHoo couldn't have done, and kicked (http://tinyurl.com) Google butt. Google has evidently put one of its founders back to work but Microsoft now has the high ground and once in the lead that company is very hard to stop. What is also interesting is this win is largely as a result of using Apple techniques which I find fascinating. The Bing advertising campaign is directly in Google's face, something that Apple has always been willing to do but, up until recently, few others have tried. This is Microsoft channeling Apple to beat Google.

Windows vs. MacOS: Tennis Anyone?

This is like watching a tennis match and for much of the last couple of years Apple kicked Microsoft's butt. But for the last several months Microsoft, after largely fixing Vista, came back with an in-your-face campaign and started taking market share back. Most recently Apple announced a low cost upgrade plan for Snow Leopard and a release date in the September that was like a first strike where Microsoft couldn't respond for 30 days in the critical back-to-school and holiday season. I understand Microsoft is preparing a response and, for once, it is a good one. Seriously this is like a tennis match, both companies are playing to win and both are on their respective games. Calling a winner may have to wait until 1st quarter 2010. By the way, from a product standpoint, Snow Leopard and Windows 7 are both likely the best operating systems either company has ever built. That kind of means we win regardless.

IBM vs. SunOracle (Pronounced Snorkel)

Oracle stole Sun from IBM but it doesn't look like they really thought this through. Sun employees and customers were already at massive risk due to sequential layoffs and a Strategy of the Week policy that destroyed nearly all confidence in Sun's management. With the acquisition and now reports that Oracle clearly doesn't want the hardware business, coupled with a large portion of Sun's base that evidently doesn't want to belong to Oracle, IBM is cutting (http://tinyurl.com) through that customer base like a knife through butter. By the way this isn't the only thing IBM seems to be cutting through, they hare launching programs targeting stimulus spending in the US and Europe and may be the biggest winner in the fight for those funds as well. Financial analysts, as a result are upping their outlook for IBM's shares as a result and IBM appears to be kicking some Snorkel ass and taking some Stimulus Dollar names.

Courtesy Technology Pundits