Talk of a tie up between Apple and Google has been reaching a crescendo over the last week or so. We should not be surprised, Google's CEO did join the Apple board at the end of August last year, and the companies complement each other well. And, of course, and they both hate Microsoft...

It may be easy to think of this as the companies "getting into bed" with each other, but if that's what is happening, it's likely to be a hedonistic no-strings affair rather than an engagement. Lust, not love in my view.

The .Mac story on Wired looks like a semi-educated guess. It says, basically, that Google's cloud (it's storage space) will be hooked into the .Mac offering allowing Google to offer SaaS services to Apple's customers. Perhaps, but so what?

The story in the FT looks like having a much greater impact. They state that Apple is going to use its TV platform to enable the controlled rental of DVDs online. Just as music is made DRM free, so DRM reappears in online movies - this time from the beginning(ish).

The FT and the WSJ (who also run the same line), do not make stuff up. They do not guess. They do not even make educated guesses. They don't need to because they get fed previews (leaks) by the parties themselves in the run up to a major announcement (it's Jobs' keynote at the Apple Developer Conference today).

The tie back to Google may have already been announced. Last week, Apple and Google said that YouTube would be available on Apple TV. Immediately we thought of user generated content, but perhaps this wasn't about UGC at all? Perhaps this was about a publishing platform... The same GB storage in the Wired was the basis for the .Mac speculation.

Why does Apple need Google for this? They already have the iTunes store, so they already have a customer facing offering much more refined than anything Google or YouTube can offer.

What Apple doesn't have, and would find it a huge stretch to develop, is the delivery network needed to get so many large files down to the Apple TV boxes. Joost's new CEO made a public pitch to fill that gap through him GigaOM interview last week. Maybe Google has already got the gig...?

If I were Joost, vying for Apple's love, I would not be unduly concerned. Joost is younger and prettier than YouTube and Apple may find Google to be a bit overweight for its long term tastes. In the mean time though, the gossip mags can fill their boots with shots of California's latest celebrity couple...

Labels: Apple, Google