Apple is in a hell of a fight — some say for its very life — against Google.

Google’s market share in smart phones is growing by leaps and bounds. And unlike Apple’s iPhones, many manufacturers can make Android phones.

Google’s new version of Android, 2.2, will handle Flash Web sites will ease. It will also tether your computer to get you wireless access. The iPhone does not and will not, respectively.

Google is said to be working on a tablet PC with Verizon Wireless. In a short time, Google tablets will be made by many manufacturers. Unlike the iPad.

Google just announced Google TV — linking apps, and content from Netflix, Amazon and many others to your television. Apple TV does not. Again, many companies will soon make set-top boxes that integrate Google software. I expect various Bluray players to be loaded with Google software before long.

These are many and significant advantages over Apple.

Even though Apple has fought giants before, mainly Microsoft, it was the up-and-comer. It was always David, fighting Goliath.

Well, Apple isn’t David anymore. It’s pretty much Goliath. And Google is injecting the “Wow Factor” into the market now. As most people know, Wow Factor has long been inextricably linked to Apple.

Apple is unfamiliar territory here.

It’s being outmuscled and out-Wowed, and quite possibly out-marketed.

Apple’s reaction in the next six month will tell us everything about what kind of company Apple has become, and what kind of company it wants to be.