Now, independent technology companies are starting to enter the market with their own services.
Ben Thompson, an independent technology analyst who writes the Stratechery blog, thinks it makes perfect sense.
"Google's next step is to build high-performance silicon," said Mark Stahlman, an independent technology analyst.
"Consumers will trade a certain amount of quality for convenience and cost," said Michael Gartenberg, an independent technology analyst.
One of Britain's largest independent technology firms is to announce a multibillion-pound deal to buy part of Hewlett Packard's software business.
"This appears to be a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend," said Rob Enderle, an independent technology analyst.
He recommended I talk to his friend Larry Wagner, an independent technology consultant who has become a self-styled sherpa in hard-drive erasure.
"I don't expect that nanotubes will make it as an independent technology," he said, "however, in principle we now have the potential for forming an integrated electronics".
"If Office and Windows were separate companies, it's not obvious that there would be huge efficiency losses," said Scott Winkler, an independent technology consultant in Fairfield, Conn.
