For Google, a cloud on the slide is not necessary: it is the very essence of the company. Hardware, well, perhaps a little over-compensation is in order.
Steve Jobs’, in his last keynote, framed that slide as a new direction for Apple after the company’s brilliant digital hub strategy, introduced ten years prior:
In fact, though, Apple was building Digital Hub 2.0, with the iPhone at the center:
Sure, iCloud kept files in sync (usually), but the iPhone was the juggernaut it was because it hit the perfect sweet spot of company, market, and value chain:
Company: Apple from the very beginning has been premised on the idea of integrating hardware and software, and the iPhone was the ultimate expression of that premise.
Market: The smartphone market was the best market technology has ever seen: not only did everyone need a phone, but in developed countries carriers subsidized top-end models because they drove higher average revenue per subscriber. Moreover, because a phone was something you took with you everywhere, there was far more value placed on non-technical attributes like fit-and-finish and brand.
Value Chain: Apple’s integration delivered sustainable differentiation in the smartphone value chain, forcing every other element, from suppliers to network providers to app makers to modularize themselves around Apple’s integration.