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Last week Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a host of devices from a smaller version of  internet based TV to  a completely overhauled series of iPod media players from $49 to $399 demonstrating its will to challenge Google and Microsoft as online  leaders. With the financial muscle and the depth of experience in nearly all the segments, to match the big two, Apple’s innovative thrust at banding together all forms of media devices could make it the biggest player in the time to come.

The marketplace had been rife with talk that FB with its much higher viewer retention capacity of 6 hours to Google’s 2 hours will snatch the leadership in the lucrative $200 billion internet ad market from Google. That however is hardly likely. Both FB and Twitter despite their millions of followers are hardly likely to dent the revenue earnings of the internet giant Google with its massive adsense footprint. If FB were to launch an adsense like product  it would be a hit with location based advertisers but not serious business establishments like the defence , oil and gas, the manufacturing sector  etc.

So Google has little reason to fear a ‘Facebook enhanced open source  adsense competitor’. It is true that the Facebook site will be a instant success, but Google’s market will be hardly dented, as advertisers will use both sources simultaneously. That FB like Apple does not allow Google search to penetrate its domain will help it retain some of the juicy accounts without competitors snooping in, but that is about all. Besides there are already hundreds of  CPA / CPM or CPC based ad networks  in business with even big names like Yahoo and Amazon in the fray, but Google has the volumes and search network in the web-world like none other. The equation however changes dramatically when the segmented mobile market comes into play.

The  threat from Apple is hence more daunting to Google’s advertisement market. What started off with iTunes and the iPod has rapidly spread into iPhones and the iPad and now even moving into the living room with internet based Apple TV. Besides  iTunes now equipped with ping becomes a sharing feature with friends, the first steps to the social networking platform by Apple. Apple TV would now rent out videos including streaming videos from the endless source of internet based content. Apple has  already confirmed that it has struck rental deals with Walt Disney Co’s ABC, News Corp’s Fox and Netflix  and is on the way to sign up with other content producers shortly.

Besides unveiling two revised models of iPod last week, Steve Jobs announced that a pricier version of  the same will be unveiled next week  with the Face Time video chat function on the touch, and its ability to play games with advanced graphics to match Sony, Nintendo and Xbox. This clearly puts Apple a step ahead of Google and other social networking sites which will not have a co-ordinated hardware support to all its features.

Apple will also be distinctly ahead when the mobile based social networking catches the adman’s attention, as the close friends circle are always those in your vicinity whom you are able to tap on the phone and meet on the street. The hardware support and its advanced features, integration of the devices of all platforms, the mobile, the internet, FM radio, the music and media player and the video and television will play a distinctive part in establishing the market leader in days to come. Only Apple and Microsoft will be geared to meet the entire range of services and even Google may struggle to maintain its current stranglehold in the online advertisement market, especially since it is dependant on vendors for its supporting hardware.