Google at their I/O conference and Apple at WWDC… Last year (2015), Google announces Google Photos and many people jumped ship from Apple Photos in hopes the other side would be more green. For some, yes… For others, no. Choices, they are great. What does it mean to be beaten to market though. Both of these companies, Apple and Google, surely were working on the feature for quite some time (months), but because Google comes out to the market with the feature first — Apple is said to be copying them? I understand that being first to market is strategic, but when Google Photos is an app for both sides of the fence (iOS and android) is it quite the same?

If the shoe was on the other foot and Apple announced their features prior to I/O, would this be the same discussion? Doubtful. For some reason, Apple is the golden goose to lay the golden egg. Only it so happens the egg was more yellow and they [Apple] copied it and changed the color a bit.

I’m in the camp that uses Apple Photos. I pay for additional storage to have my photo library stored in iCloud Photo Library. I like knowing that I have a local copy of my files (on my Mac) and that they stay in sync. Do I make a lot of changes to my photos to warrant the necessary syncing? Not a ton, but when a change is made, I don’t want to think about it.

With Google Photos, the photos upload to Google and that’s all great. I do have a local copy of them on my Mac as well… But what happens when I edit a local copy? Did Apple copy this feature from Google?

I will say that Google has Apple pinned to the wall on one specific feature set: ubiquitous sharing, regardless of device. The catch? A Google account. Sure, most people have one… But it’s a catch nonetheless. If you’re sharing from Apple device to Apple device, you know that person has an iCloud account (yes, i’m aware there are exceptions to the rule).

In the end, does it matter who gets to market first? Nope. Does it matter that everyone gets to the market? You bet.