Apple makes their money from hardware sales, so their services will be locked or closely tied to their devices. While Gruber may be right with Apple bringing a web interface to some of iCloud, it won't be their focus. And that makes perfect business sense.

Google, on the other hand, just wants to serve you ads. That could be on HP, Dell, Apple, or Samsung hardware (although, I'm sure they'd prefer you bought Android or Chrome devices).

Personally, I prefer to buy Apple devices and use Google services. Apple makes the best hardware, but I don't want to be forced into buying them forever. With Google I can be assured access to my data from just about any future hardware vendor.