Apple Dropping Akamai’s CDN In Favor Of Google? I Don’t Buy It

That’s the question that dozens of people have been speculating on and asking me about this morning. Swiss American Securities, a division of Credit Suisse is saying that it has learned that Apple will no longer use Akamai. They see Apple dumping Akamai for a Google-based content distribution network and expect Apple to announce that next week at Macworld.

I don’t have any details on this "rumor" either way, but I highly doubt it and don’t believe the information. Apple has spent many years working with Akamai to get the iTunes service down to a science and Akamai has a large infrastructure in place specifically for delivering live QuickTime content. I don’t see Google building out a QuickTime infrastructure and supporting the kind of delivery Apple needs. I know many will say they are Google, they can build anything they want. Yes, they can, to a degree. But what would Google get from delivering Apple’s content? How does this tie into Google’s core advertising business? And what does Apple get from this? Maybe a lower price but it would have to be more than that for Apple to move CDN providers.

I just don’t buy it. I don’t see any value that Google or Apple would get from doing this. Now Apple could work with Google on some video initiatives and partner on things for the iPhone, Apple TV and what not, that would not surprise anyone. But replacing Akamai for Google for all of its content delivery, I don’t see the rationale.

There was an Apple RFP out in the market a few months back for some CDN business, but it was not for all of their content, was not a large deal and from what I understand, Apple pretty recently re-signed with Akamai.