Apple vs. Google: A 5-Round Scorecard

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Summer has been good for Apple(AAPL) shares, but it's been even better for Google's(GOOG).

The fierce mobile tech rivals have enjoyed a resurgent popularity among investors over the past month, with Apple up 14% and Google -- thanks to a strong second-quarter performance -- up 24%.

Investors will watch to see if Apple can top Google's results when it releases its fiscal third-quarter report after the bell Tuesday. (TheStreet will live-blog Apple's earnings day, starting at 3:45 ET.)

But beyond the financial metrics, Apple and Google continue to duke it out on the innovation front. Apple and Google are undeniably the sector leaders, but they also represent a large swath of the tech market being shaped by sweeping trends in technology.

Developing areas like social networking, mobile, devices, cloud services and retail expansion are just some of the forces fueling investor enthusiasm.

Here is an updated look at how well some analysts and industry experts say Apple and Google measure up in five of the key categories. The half-dozen analysts TheStreet spoke with were asked to rank the companies' performance on a 1-5 scale.

Social Web

Three months ago, this category had both Google and Apple tied in a dead heat for Social Networking Failure. But in just the past two weeks, Google's new Facebook imitation Google+ has managed to catch on with 10 million-plus users.

For its part, Apple has Ping, a community-building attempt that allows users to share their music recommendations and comments with others in iTunes. The uptake has been disappointing. And FaceTime, a video conferencing service linking Apple devices only, has had limited success.

Social is a much bigger threat to Google's search ad-driven business and therefore a much larger priority for the `Net giant. Google+ is a promising medium for Google to plant ads that are targeted to people aligned around common interests. It's still early, but Google+ could help Google forestall Facebook's advertising challenge.

"Apple just hasn't gotten into this area yet and relies mostly on third-party products," said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. "Google participates, but its early days and they have had some failures already."

Score: Apple 2, Google 4

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