Over the past three decades, a few titanic rivalries have defined the technology industry’s megatrends, ultimately determining which products eventually end up in consumers’ and companies’ hands.

Now, adding to the annals of competition that include Microsoft’s (MSFT) clashes with Apple (AAPL) in the ’80s, IBM (IBM) in the ’90s, and Google (GOOG) in this decade, the new defining rivalry in tech may be between Google and Apple. Google CEO Eric Schmidt‘s resignation from Apple’s board on Aug. 3 highlights the degree to which these companies are more foe than friend.

By most measures—revenue growth, stock appreciation, magazine cover stories—Apple and Google are the two most successful and influential companies of the past decade. Yet their visions for how the computer industry will shape up in the next one could hardly diverge more. “They are both very innovative companies with very different ways of innovating,” says Henry Chesbrough, director of the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California at Berkeley. “They’ve both been very successful, but there’s a contest of different approaches going on here.”

Read more : http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2009/tc2009084_007016.htm

Lowyat.NET : Malaysia’s Tech Enthusiast Resource Community – Malaysian can now SkypeOut using MOLePoints.

Skype and MOL Access Portal Berhad (MOL) today announced a collaboration that enables local Skype users to exchange their MOLePoints for Skype credits.

Previously Skype users could only pay for their credits using international credit cards, which for Malaysia is a problem as many of the internet payment gateways decline any locally issued credit cards due to high risk of fraud from this region.

However, due to this partnership, anyone can just drop by any of the 15,000 payment channels across the country to purchase MOLePoints e-vouchers. These include  any 7-Eleven stores, Pupular Bookstores, MOL CyberCafes, epay terminals and even most of the local banks’ internet banking sites.

Using the MOLePoints, one may exchange from a minimum of 5 Euros of Skype credits which comes up to around RM27-28 depending on the exchange rate set by MOL. The rate will be adjusted on a monthly basis which is presumed to be based on the current FOREX.

Skype credits are used to make SkypeOut calls. SkypeOut is a service for making calls to any landlines or mobile phones any where in the world. Considering the low cost for making SkypeOut calls, 5 Euros will last for quite a while as calls rates to USA, UK and Australia for example start from just 0.017 Euros or RM0.07 per minute.

You can start exchanging your MOLePoints for Skype credit starting from today. For more information, please visit www.mol.com/skype.

Now Malaysian can used the SkypeOut service using MOLePoints.