Apple vs. Netflix: Why turf wars are flaring in big tech
• Apple is taking on Netflix by launching a subscription TV service with its own original shows
• Facebook is edging into Amazon's e-commerce sphere by enabling users to make purchases within Instagram
Apple's ambitious leap into streaming video illustrates an escalating trend: Tech's biggest companies, faced with limits to their growth, are encroaching on each other's turf.
Apple is taking on Netflix by launching a subscription TV service with its own original shows. Facebook is edging into Amazon's e-commerce sphere by enabling users to make purchases within Instagram. Google, which has already challenged Amazon and Microsoft in cloud computing, is launching an online game service that could undercut the lucrative game-console business at Microsoft and Sony.
Apple, which is also launching a gaming service and introducing its own credit card , may be veering the most outside its comfort zone, technology industry analyst Rob Enderle said.
"This is an awful lot of breadth really quickly for a company that hasn't been known for being great at breadth," Enderle said. "This is much more diversity than Apple's ever had."
Before, when the company's product suite grew too varied, "what Steve Jobs did with Apple was, he made the company focus," Enderle said.
These are different times, however, and Apple may have decided that it doesn't have much choice amid declining sales of its premier product, the iPhone.
"They have kind of bled the device market dry," said Sally Edgar, of UK-based technology consultancy Waterstons. "Companies will increasingly be about subscription services. I think they have to do it to survive."