[Opinion]

Microsoft Corp. is unleashing next year Windows 8, its first operating system designed to work for personal computers, tablets and smartphones. But before the Redmond, Washington-based firm could extend its market dominance to mobile devices, it's possible that Google will launch a serious offensiveat Microsoft's forte: the desktop and laptops. Google, developer of the world's top-selling smartphone platform, will likely be an "Android" to PCs. It's not a question of if but rather when, given the two's animosity against each other, their colorful history, and opportunities in the tech world.

Microsoft vs Google: Like Athens and Sparta

Bill Gates-founded Microsoft and Larry Page-led Google have been like Athens and Sparta. Worse than that, they've been like two alpha males wooing the same woman every time. To counter Google's search engine, Microsoft came up with Bing and Yahoo. When Microsoft had the Internet Explorer browser, Google followed with Chrome. After Microsoft bought a stake at social network Facebook, Google came up with Google+. Up in the cloud, while there's Google Docs, there's also Microsoft's Office 365.

Sure Google is using a substantial amount of the $39.1 billion of its cash and marketable securities (as of June 30, 2011) to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. And Larry Page is dismantling some handsets now that Google is entering hardware for the first time, and is now a smartphone vendor. But after closing on the Motorola deal, it's likely that the search giant will shift its focus on PCs.
Speculations that tablets are replacing laptops and desktops are unfounded. While sales have been softening, there were still 350 million PC units sold in 2010, almost 20 times the total number of tablets bought in the same period. While Google has been making most of the money from ads and clicks on its Web sites, the OS for PCs (Windows 7) continues to be Microsoft's cash cow, contributing $20 billion in revenue in 2010.

What Google Needs

Google has the Chrome OS and Chromebooks (the laptops running the Chrome OS). But Google needs more than laptops that are as bare as the Sahara desert when not connected to the Internet. And it needs more than a Chrome browser an "7 seconds of boot time" to be taken seriously. Morever, Google needs a new OS for PCs that would integrate with integrate with Android and something beyond a cheap, Linux-based version of Windows XP.

Google's primary competitors are coming up with unified ecosystem for all computing devices. Apple is launching the iCloud, the service that allows users to content on remote computer servers for download or access via the iPhone, the iPad, the iMac and other Apple devices. Even Apple's latest OS for the Mac (Mac OS X Lion) has an interface and features heavily influenced by the iOS (Apple's platform for the iPad and iPhone). As for Microsoft, it will be for all its computing devices the Windows 8, which has an extensively redesigned user interface, optimized for touchscreens as well as mice and keyboards.

Aside from a new OS, Google needs device-makers that are sold to Chrome OS given that this time the primary sellers (Acer and Asus) are offering a wider array of Windows-based products. Google could set its sights on Hewlett-Packard's PC business, which is the world's number one in unit sales, in order to quickly penetrate the PC market. Although unlikely, Google could sign a deal to buy the business or have its execs start reading HP PC's registration statements once it is spun off.

Yes, it's not a question of if but when Google will again spar with Microsoft. But it doesn't mean Google will be successful in PCs. The YouTube owner has had many misses as hits. How many times did Google strike out with social networking before it finally hit a homerun (or another strikeout) with Google+?

Stay tuned...