Column: The Economics of ‘frenemies’

Could it be that the most interesting battle in technology is not Apple versus Google, but rather Microsoft versus its long-standing hardware partners?

Yesterday at the company's analyst meeting, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman acknowledged the growing heat with Microsoft, saying, "Current, long-term HP partners, like Intel and Microsoft, are increasingly becoming outright competitors."

Now the idea of partners being rivals isn't exactly new for the technology industry, particularly when it comes to mobile.

For example, Apple and Samsung have quite a nasty rivalry in smartphones.

Yet Apple is a major buyer of Samsung chips. And Google, under its own name and its Motorola unit, produces Android-powered smartphones and tablets that compete with models from hardware partners like HTC and Samsung.

Heck, Google even uses LG (a key Android smartphone player) to produce its Nexus smartphones.