The 5 most famous "frenemies" in the history of computing

Star Wars – Star Trek, Coke – Pepsi, Edison – Tesla… Throughout history, there have always been fierce rivalries, but few have been as intense as the clashes between tech giants.

“Brushing past each other” from the dawn of computing to the digital age today, here are five of the most famous “frenemies” in the history of computing. Additionally, there’s a short list at the end of this article featuring other rival pairs that have the potential to make the cut in the future.

Apple and Microsoft (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates)

This is perhaps the most famous tech rivalry of all time. The battle between Microsoft and Apple heated up in the mid-1980s and continues to this day, although it is no longer as fierce as it once was. PC or Mac, Windows or macOS, iPhone or Windows Mobile, and most recently, iPad or Surface?

However, it wasn’t always this way. The two companies once collaborated in the early 1980s when Microsoft developed software for the Apple II. Bill Gates even joked that his company had more employees working on Mac than Steve Jobs did.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Things took a turbulent turn when Steve Jobs accused Bill Gates of stealing the Macintosh OS ideas to create his own graphical user interface operating system: Windows. In response to these accusations, Bill Gates remarked:

“Hey, Steve, I think there are many ways to look at this. I think it’s like we both have a rich neighbor named Xerox, and I sneaked into his house to steal the TV only to find out that you had already stolen it“.

Bill Gates was implying that the first graphical interface was developed by Xerox PARC, not Apple.

In the following decades, the duo continued to navigate a complex relationship. They were rivals in the home computer market, yet Apple relied on Microsoft to develop applications like Word and Excel for Mac, necessitating some licensing of their technology to this formidable opponent. Conversely, Apple also pursued a copyright lawsuit against Microsoft and HP, only to face a humiliating defeat.

By 1997, facing a deep abyss, Apple acquired NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back as CEO. At that year’s Macworld Expo, Jobs announced that Apple had signed a five-year agreement with Microsoft to allow the competitor to continue developing Internet Explorer and Office for Mac. Microsoft also invested $150 million in the rival company, saving Apple from bankruptcy.

The following decade witnessed a remarkable resurgence for Apple. The iPod brought the company back to greatness. The “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ad campaign ran for four straight years, with a total of 66 episodes that attracted a large number of users to Apple’s computing world. Then the iPhone transformed the company into an unstoppable force at the forefront of the mobile industry, becoming the most influential tech company in history.

Today, the relationship between Microsoft and Apple is more amicable than ever, and in some respects, they seem to no longer pursue the same core interests. There was a time when Microsoft’s Bing search engine was used for Siri on the iPhone. Office for Mac and iPhone are also well-received. The snarky ads still exist. And Tim Cook has stated that while the two companies still compete, they can collaborate in many other important areas. “I’m not one to hold grudges” – the CEO shared.

AMD and Intel

Intel and AMD have existed for decades. However, even though both companies were founded in the late 1960s, their rivalry only started to heat up 20 years later. Initially, things were good. Intel signed a cross-licensing agreement with AMD in 1976, and in 1982, the duo entered into a technology exchange agreement amid IBM’s reluctance to allow Intel to be its sole chip supplier. This PC manufacturer required a second manufacturer to be involved in producing x86 processors, leading to an agreement that granted AMD access to Intel’s second-generation 286 chip technology.

Intel and AMD have existed for decades.

This relationship began to encounter problems in the mid-1980s when Intel refused to grant AMD a license to use its 386 processor. AMD claimed this was part of a plan to help their rival monopolize the PC chip market, and in 1987, they accused Intel of breaching their five-year-old contract. AMD filed a lawsuit, marking the start of a lengthy legal battle.

In 1995, the two companies agreed to bury the hatchet. Intel received $58 million, while AMD got $18 million along with a perpetual license to access the microcode in Intel’s 386 and 486 chips. However, not long after, the two were back in court over new lawsuits, eventually leading to Intel being fined $1.4 billion by the EU for anti-competitive practices against AMD.

In the early 2000s, AMD first defeated Intel with the success of the Athlon chip line, until Intel released the Core architecture and shifted to a tick-tock cycle model, leaving AMD lagging behind once again, becoming the choice for those on a budget for over a decade.

Despite Intel continuing to dominate the PC market, AMD has been relentlessly striving in recent years, winning over tech enthusiasts and computer builders with its Ryzen and Threadripper processors. This trend is also becoming evident in other areas, where Intel has long been an unrivaled king but now faces a genuine challenge from AMD: the lucrative server market and the laptop market, where AMD had little chance to compete for a long time.

AMD’s GPUs are also featured in gaming consoles, with both Sony and Microsoft now equipping their next-gen consoles with Radeon graphics chips. On the other side, Intel has announced plans to enter the GPU battle soon, directly confronting AMD not only in the consumer market but also in the data center market, where GPUs are becoming increasingly important.

Apple and Samsung

There are countless Android phones on the market, but for many, what matters most is “Galaxy or iPhone”. Apple clearly has reason to claim that Samsung is not worthy of being their rival, given that the South Korean company has always sought to copy its technology and designs. With around 40 patent lawsuits, these two companies have been embroiled in a long chain of litigation over the years across various courts. Apple even managed to get some Samsung devices banned from sale in the U.S. for patent infringement.

In fact, both companies have produced some of the most popular smartphones in the world.

After nearly a decade of litigation, the two companies reached a settlement in May 2018, where Samsung was required to pay Apple $539 million for infringing on their patents. Nevertheless, this outcome was seen as a victory for Samsung, as at that time, they had become one of only two companies leading the smartphone industry.

From the consumer’s perspective, Apple fans assert that the iPhone is superior in terms of ease of use, applications, and style. On the other hand, Galaxy phone owners argue that the iPhone is overpriced and that their phones are superior due to their customizable features, expandable storage, and the open nature of Android. The truth is, the flagship models of both companies are now quite evenly matched across more aspects than ever before.

In reality, both companies have produced some of the most popular smartphones in the world in recent years. Samsung leads in sales, while Apple remains the most profitable brand for all its retail partners, thanks to a complete ecosystem of devices, services, and software, giving the company a unique position in the market.

Considering the situation, combined with Samsung’s commercial ads mocking the iPhone, the atmosphere of animosity between fans of the two brands, and the ongoing allegations of copying, it is easy to predict that this rivalry will continue for many more years.

Nintendo and Sega

Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a playing card company, while Sega emerged in 1940 as a gambling machine manufacturer based in Hawaii. Many years later, these two became fierce rivals in the world of arcade machines, handheld gaming devices, and game consoles. Sega’s arcade games made them a powerhouse during the golden age of the gaming industry from 1978 to 1983, but Nintendo also achieved certain successes with its Game & Watch handheld devices. Nintendo’s peak moment came with the release of Donkey Kong in arcade machines in 1981, introducing a new icon: a carpenter named Mario (who wouldn’t switch to plumbing until the 1983 version of Mario Bros).

Nintendo and Sega are fierce rivals in the world of arcade machines, handheld gaming devices…

Nintendo has been a familiar player in the home console market since 1977 with its Color TV-Game in Japan, which had four variants, each featuring six versions of a game, such as Pong. They launched a new, more successful system, the Family Computer (Famicom), in Japan in 1983, on the same day that Sega released its SG-1000 console, which was a failure for the company.

These two machines were eventually updated and redesigned for sale in North America. After the Nintendo Advanced Video System prototype was not well-received, Nintendo released the NES in 1985. The NES became the best-selling console of that era, and although Sega’s Master System was brought to America in 1986 to compete with Nintendo, it simply could not defeat the NES in terms of popularity.

In the following years, both companies released several updated consoles: the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the Sega Genesis. This also marked the time when one of the earliest and perhaps most famous console wars took place, with slogans belittling the rival such as “Genesis does what Nintendo don’t” – Sega asserted.

Many other console and handheld gaming models continued to be released thereafter, and although Sonic the Hedgehog helped Sega gain a momentary lead, the Nintendo 64 and the emergence of the Sony PlayStation rang the first bells signaling the end of Sega’s console ambitions. The company’s last and best console was the Dreamcast in 1998. The Dreamcast sold well in North America and Europe but struggled in Japan. Not long after the release of the PlayStation 2, Sega decided to cease production of the Dreamcast. When the last unit came off the assembly line in 2001, two decades of Sega’s pursuit of console gaming came to an end.

Nintendo remains a successful gaming company and console manufacturer in the market. The Nintendo Switch has been a resounding success, and the company works diligently to protect its intellectual properties, including many iconic games such as Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Splatoon, and Pokemon.

Meanwhile, Sega primarily develops and publishes games across various platforms, including mobile/smartphone, and continues to dominate the relatively small arcade gaming market. The company also features prominently in popular culture in various forms, most notably in the recent Sonic the Hedgehog movie, marking a new milestone for video game-based films.

Google and Apple

When HTC introduced an Android phone in January 2010 with many features similar to the iPhone, Steve Jobs declared: “I will use my last breath if necessary, and I will spend every single penny of the $40 billion that Apple has in the bank to correct this mistake“.

“I will destroy Android because it is a stolen product. I am ready to wage thermonuclear war!” – Jobs added.

However, the situation has not always been so tense. When the first iPhone was announced in 2007, it integrated Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube. But Google’s acquisition of the mobile startup Android Inc two years prior sowed the seeds of hostility between the two companies. Jobs was particularly furious with Android, viewing it as a betrayal.

To this day, Apple and Google maintain a relationship described as complex.

At the time, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt was sitting on Apple’s board when the Android platform was announced in November 2007. He continued in this position until August 2009 when he was persuaded to resign. This marked the beginning of many years of legal battles. Apple began suing HTC, Samsung, and Google’s partners like Motorola Mobility. Jobs told Schmidt in 2010: “I don’t need your money. If you gave me $5 billion, I wouldn’t need it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want“.

The relationship between the two companies hit rock bottom in 2012 when Apple replaced Google Maps with its own mapping solution in iOS 6. This software was so poor that Tim Cook had to apologize to users personally shortly after its launch. It even led to the departure of Scott Forstall, head of the mapping division, from the company. This was also the reason why Apple later opened the public beta program for iOS.

To this day, Apple and Google maintain a relationship described as complex. The two companies continue to criticize each other and release competing products, but Google pays Apple billions of dollars each year to ensure it remains the default search engine on the iPhone. Apple receives a commission each time a Google advertisement is displayed on an iPhone or iPad search results page. The two companies also collaborate in some other areas, such as YouTube.

CEO Tim Cook is said to have a more hostile view towards Facebook, while being gentler with Google. Recently, he stated, “Google’s search engine is the best thing“. For most of the past decade, Apple and Google have shared the top spots in the rankings of the world’s most valuable brands, with Google often standing just below Apple.

Other Rival Pairs

Several new rival pairs have emerged recently, or the level of competition between them has not been intense enough to make it into the top 5. But who knows what will happen in a few years? What do you think about the rival pairs listed below?