Apple has great design skills, but they're still in the desktop era. There's still no compelling online version of iWork, iTunes has been eaten by Spotify in mindshare in Europe, the iPhone still requires syncing. I don't think Google wants or needs any of those pre-internet products.
True, but for how much longer? Already the Cocoa Touch platform supports application installs via WiFi and can use MobileMe for syncing info via "the cloud" instead of a hosting computer. The only bit left is the media library... (and you can buy the smaller stuff like songs and music videos via the phone/iPod even then.)
> Apple has great design skills, but they're still in the desktop era.
As a Mac user for two decades now, it seems to me that Apple is in the process of leaving us behind. The current OS X desktop UI is made more for Windows switchers, and Apple's may-or-may-not exist tablet is expected to continue distancing itself from the desktop flavor of the OS. (I've been doing experimental development for Cocoa Touch over the last couple of months, and I can tell you that despite the "same" language and API, the programming and security enviroments are completely different from the historical desktop experience.)
